Short-Form Teaching: Best Practices for Developing and Delivering Single-Session Trainings to Students and Attorneys 

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 Presenters

Jocelyn Stilwell-Tong, Coordinator and Speaker

Jocelyn is the law library manager at California’s Sixth District Court of Appeal. As a court librarian, Jocelyn has been an invited speaker at court attorney training programs, has hosted and presented at her own court, and has run the training program for court externs.  Before joining the courts, she worked as a reference librarian and taught MCLEs in law firms.  

Julie Tedjeske Crane, Coordinator and Speaker

Julie is a Reference Librarian and Professor of Legal Research at the H. Laddie Montague, Jr. Law Library at Penn State Dickinson Law. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and went on to earn a Master of Library Science, Master of Information Science, and Juris Doctorate, all from the University of Pittsburgh. Julie worked as an attorney for over 15 years, practicing general civil litigation. She has also been an academic librarian at La Roche College and the University of Pittsburgh and an academic law librarian at Duquesne University and Chicago-Kent School of Law. 

Julie is interested in instructional design, UX design, institutional repositories, and promoting the use of OER. She has taught a variety of credit-bearing classes in J.D., paralegal, and pre-law programs. In addition to her library and law degrees, she has a Certificate in Instructional Design from Georgetown University, and she is a Certified Canvas Educator and Quality Matters Peer Reviewer.

Gerard Fowke

Gerard is the Instructional and Digital Services Librarian at the Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his JD from Georgetown University and his MLIS from the University of Washington. He is especially interested in legal research pedagogy and instructional design. Outside of librarianship, he's a big fan of shopping at thrift stores and writing music.

Mandy Lee

Mandy is the Head of Research and Instruction at Chicago-Kent. She arrived at Chicago-Kent in August 2017 from the University of Nebraska College of Law Library, where she was assistant professor and reference librarian. Mandy also served as a reference assistant at the University of Illinois College of Law Library, and as a teaching assistant for faculty in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) graduate library/information science program.

Mandy has experience as an extern at the Circuit Court of Cook County, a law clerk at the Chicago Housing Authority, and an intern at UNESCO in Bangkok. She was a volunteer in Chicago at the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic and the Illinois Human Rights Commission.

Mandy received a B.A. from UIUC, where she majored in English, minored in French, and was elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Delta Phi, the French Honor Society. Mandy received an M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University, a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law, and an M.S.L.I.S from UIUC. She is a member of the State Bar of Illinois.

Ana Toft-Nielsen

After over fifteen years in higher education services and providing legal research training and support to law schools and law firms, Ana decided to pursue a more traditional role in the law library profession. Currently, she is the Attorney Development Innovation Manager at Greenberg Traurig. In her current role, she provides training and support to all of the firm for the various innovation tools. She creates CLEs, courses and curriculums to ensure the firm's attorneys are efficient and cost effective with their research. 

Previously, Ana was a Research Attorney for Littler Mendelson in the Knowledge Management Department. In that position, she conducted research and analysis of employment laws and assisted with drafting and editing firm publications. Also, she was a contributor to some of the firm products, for which she provided analysis of recently enacted statutes and regulations and assisted with 50-state surveys covering various labor and employment law topics. In addition, she is an adjunct professor at FIU College of Law teaching Advanced Legal Research and Law Practice Technology. Her courses are Quality Matters Certified and she actively participates in the development of course materials.As for her education background, she received her J.D. from the University of Miami and practiced in the areas of commercial litigation, business immigration and intellectual property. After practicing, she worked in the legal research area and later received her Masters in Library Sciences from Florida State University.

Explore More: Suggested Resources

  Books

• The Art and Science of Training​

• The Charisma Myth​

• Evidence-Based Training​

• Make it Stick

• The Modern Practice of Adult Education

• Motivational Design for Learning and Performance: The ARCS Model Approach

• The Non-Designer’s Presentation Book​

• The One-Shot Library Instruction Survival Guide​

• Presentation Patterns​

• SlideDocs (Downloadable Free Book)​

• Teaching Law by Design​

• Telling Ain't Training​

• A Trainer's Guide to PowerPoint​

• Workshop Survival Guide

Journal​

• College and Research Library News: Issue on One-Shot Instruction​

Articles 

• Best Practices for One-Shot Guest Lectures

• Building on CREAC: Reimagining the Research Log as a Tool for Legal Analysis

• Exploring Motivation: Integrating the ARCS Model with Instruction 

• The Hearing-Impaired Law Librarian: Navigating Silent Spaces ​

• Making Your (Power)Point: An Introductory Guide to Digital Presentation Design for Lawyers

•  Ok, Zoomer: Teaching Legal Research to Gen Z

• Teaching Business Law to Non-Law Students, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (‘CaLD’) Students, and Large Classes

• Teach in Context: Responding to Diverse Student Voices Helps All Students Learn

• Teaching Law Students Through Individual Learning Styles

• Teaching Legal Research to a Diverse Student Body (via HeinOnline)

• Teaching MCLEs - An Interactive Approach

• Use of the ARCS Model in Education: A Literature Review

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Blog Posts ​

• Creating Opportunities to Do Legal Research in Other Courses

• Designing to Motivate, Part 1: Capturing Attention and Showing Relevance​

• Designing to Motivate, Part 2: Instilling Confidence and Creating Satisfaction

• Evidence-Based Training Methods

• Motivation in the Legal Research Classroom

• What it’s Like to Attend a Conference as a Hard-of-Hearing Individual

Websites 

• Transparency in Teaching and Learning

• ACRS Model (by the professor who developed the model)

Twitter Thread 

• Alyson Drake Twitter Thread