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New Media in University Teaching University of Münster and Open University Hagen, Germany
In October, the University of Münster and the Open University Hagen will set up a legal training-forum on the Internet. The aim of this project will be to establish the new media in university teaching. The forum is called JurLINK and will be designed as an online-journal. JurLINK will use the interactive possibilities of the Internet, thus facilitating students' preparation for the first state examination (first degree). The project is supported by the Department for Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia. With its interactive concept JurLINK is the first initiative of its kind in a German speaking area.
JurLINK attempts to bring university teaching of law into line with new media. Excellent teaching material is often not issued online, since faculties, professors and students of the departments lack technical competence in this field. JurLINK is eager to bridge the existing deficits in the supply of German universities, and orients itself towards the online-journals of US Law Schools. As regards subject matter, JurLINK concentrates on the field of public law.
The journal will contain an overall view of the subject of constitutional and administrative law, practice cases with outlines of the corresponding solutions, testing schemes as well as current jurisdiction. A database that will contain examination exercises and reports is planned. The interactive possibilities of the Internet will be used with a "file-card test", that will be able to be downloaded. JurLINK will contain a commented on and regularly revised link collection of sites with content that is relevant for the examination. Links to press offices of the highest German courts are amongst it as well as references to teaching supplies of other universities. A mailing list will offer the possibility to the subscribers of JurLINK to get in contact with each other. This list serves as forum for discussion and exchange of information among the candidates for the exam. This concept connects precision as regards content and academic standard with the swiftness of the Internet.
Six academic assistants of the universities of Münster and Hagen are realizing JurLINK. They incur responsibility for the choice and conception of the contents. Professor Bernd Holznagel from the Institute for Information, Telecommunications and Media Law (ITM), Münster as well as Professor Katharina Sobotta, chair of Legal Theory and Legal Sociology, Hagen, will supervise the project academically.
JurLINK will offer to institutes, chairs and professors the possibility to publish material nationwide that is relevant for the exam like lecture material, lecture notes and testing schemes. Get into contact with the editorial staff: jurlink@uni-muenster.de