Corporations Law: A case study in learning design transforming the classroom into a boardroom

Author and presenter

• Rachel Baird, School of Law, CALE

Abstract

It is not enough to provide access to tertiary education; the experience must make a difference to the students who enter our classrooms. As educators we must provide an immersive and authentic environment for them to experiment with new discipline-specific knowledge. The teaching of law is heavily tied to the Priestley 11: mandated core subjects required for an accredited law degree. Further, like many tertiary disciplines, law academics are subject matter experts first and educators second (Keyes & Johnstone, 2004). Blending commercial legal experience and educational instructional principles prompted an innovation to legal education. This presentation explains my approach to teaching Corporations Law based around a fictional company with a working board of hypothetical directors. A board as a teaching tool was just the start of the learning design process. Careful planning and testing were required to ensure the collective board and individual director decision making within a context of increasingly complex issues complemented students’ growing theoretical knowledge. Students practiced applying the law to these complex issues via a range of roles – board director, legal advisor and regulator - enabling them to ‘feel the law in practice’. The 2023 cohort feedback indicates students engaged positively with the board as a teaching tool. 2024 engagement is encouraging, and joint teacher/student experience has revealed further innovation in the way students interact with the board would enhance learning outcomes. This teaching approach would translate very well to TSBE business law subjects to explain commercial legal concepts to undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Reference

Keyes, M., & Johnstone, R. (2004). Changing legal education: Rhetoric, reality and prospects for the future. Sydney Law Review 26(4), 537.