Welcome back to Ahead of the Curve. I'm Karen Sloan, legal education editor at Law.com, and I'll be your host for this weekly look at innovation and notable developments in legal education.

This week, it's all about the coronavirus and how law schools are responding. I'm talking with University of Washington law dean Mario Barnes about how the first week as an online law school went. Plus, I'm checking in on how legal educators are pulling together to help one another during this trying time.

Please share your thoughts and feedback with me at [email protected] or on Twitter: @KarenSloanNLJ

Coronavirus Fatigue, Already

When I initially began mulling over this week's Ahead of the Curve, I thought about making it about anything but the coronavirus and how law schools are responding to the pandemic. I spent the past week chasing down various COVID-19 angles (my initial story here, advice from online legal educators here, and guidance from the ABA here.) And my suggestion to start a running list of law schools moving classes online began as a manageable task but turned all-consuming as school after school announced shifts online. (You can see that list here, with info about three-quarters of law schools and counting.) The story is moving so fast that it's hard to keep up.

But when I sat down to type a "non-coranavirus" post, the approach just didn't feel right. The thing is, the suspension of in-person classes amid the coronavirus is the single biggest disruption to legal education that I've seen in the decade that I've been covering law schools. It not just that professors are now teaching from in front of their laptops while students follow along at home, though that certainly is a major shift. It's also the cancellation of events, conferences, moot court competitions, the upending of clinics, and what is looking more and more likely to be the cancellation of commencement ceremonies. There's a lot to legal education that you can't fully replicate using video conferences, as necessary as these changes may be.

Words From a Week In

On March 6, the University of Washington announced the suspension of all in-person classes and the shift to holding all classes online—making it the first among a now avalanche of campuses that have followed suit. For faculty at the law school, that meant they had all of three days to figure out how to make the move online. That also means that Mario Barnes counts as the law dean with the most experience in this rapid conversion. I caught up with Barnes on Friday—a week into the experiment—to see how the first five days went as an online law school and to find out what lessons he has picked up that will be useful for administrators at other schools. We talked about a lot, but I want to start with what Barnes told me about how this is impacting the students. Naturally, much of the early discussions I've seen and been a part of have centered on the ins-and-outs of teaching online and deploying video conferencing technology. But behind those computer screens are students who have had their educations and lives upended, which is important to keep in mind. Here's Barnes:

"The students have been incredibly understanding and flexible under what are quite difficult circumstances. But I also have concerns that this is just wearing on them. One concern is the social isolation of this. Law school is a social environment, even though it's hard work. We have moved to a space of social isolation that I think is difficult for a number of students. And it's anxiety creating. Exams in law school induce anxiety under the best of circumstance. And this remoteness and all the changes we have made to accommodate what are real public health concerns have added to the anxiety."

As for the actual work of moving classes online, the law faculty had a bit of a head start in recording lectures and creating podcasts and the like for students who were already missing class due to illness, Barnes said. Still, the last week has left the school's IT personnel scrambling to get faculty the help and training to deliver classes online quickly. But the early results are encouraging.

"The challenge has been the sort of trial and error of learning how to master various functionalities of these tools. And it's not just the classroom. We've been conducting most of the business of the law school using tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. We are, ourselves, learning how to use various tools within these online services. It just takes a little bit of time to figure it all out, but the reports we've been receiving back from the faculty is that it has been surprisingly seamless, in some ways."

Because the law school operates on the quarter system, last week was the final week of regular classes. The next challenge for the school lies in final exams, which must be delivered online. Barnes said the school plans to use a variety of online test software, including ExamSoft and Canvas. But some professors are having to modify the formats of their exams to enable them to be taken remotely.

As far as advice for other law schools just beginning to transition online, Barnes said flexibility is key.

"First and foremost, in any situation like this, the community health and well-being has to be what we focus on. That has to be the priority in our decision making. And for everything else, we'll find a way. Lead with your values. Second, try to remain flexible and responsive to a situation that is shifting not daily but hourly, in terms of changes in information and changes in protocols. I've been impressed and proud of my faculty, staff and students in the way they have stepped up and responded."

Lending a Hand

One thing that has been nice to observe over the past couple weeks is the willingness of law schools and law professors to help each other out and lend support and advice as programs transition on line. Earlier this month, back before the COVID-19 was seen as a serious threat to the U.S., I wrote a story about how faculty at Mitchell Hamline School of Law held a video conference training session for their counterparts at Peking University Transnational School of Law in Shenzhen, China, which has been closed in an effort to contain the virus. Mitchell Hamline is a pioneer in online legal education and offered some insights into shifting classes online. The folks at Mitchell Hamline were back at it on Friday, this time holding an open training for U.S. legal educators making the move. The session drew almost 200 attendees, and the school boosted its capacity to host online trainings in response. Here's what Amanda Soderlind, the school's senior instructional designer told participants at the Friday session: "Some of you have learned very recently that you'll be moving online, and we know that's stressful. We're here to share our expertise."

And it's not just formal help like that that I've noticed. Law professors are sharing their advice and tips for online teaching on Twitter, blogs and listservs. I think there is a collective sense that everyone is in this together and that people want to support each other and help in whatever ways they can. That has been heartening to see.

Update those Websites!

I mentioned earlier that I've done my best to compile a comprehensive list of law schools moving online. But that task has been made more difficult due a shocking number of schools that don't have current information about their operational state easily found on their websites.

In fairness, many schools do have big notices on their homes pages providing emergency response information specific to the law school, or directing people to university-wide emergency response pages. But a great many don't have any coronavirus information easily accessible on their home pages. And many just link to what their universities are doing, even if law school timelines or policies differ somewhat. (I've noticed, for instance, that some law schools are not moving or extending spring break in concert with undergraduate programs.)

I understand that law school administrators are dealing with a lot at the moment and that website maintenance may be deemed a low priority. And I know that schools are communicating directly with students through emails about changing policies and schedules. But they should also provide some basic information about those changes on their websites for the public as well. It would sure make it easier for those of us trying to wrap out arms around the scope of the response.

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I'll be back next week with more news and updates on the future of legal education. Until then, keep in touch at [email protected]