Annual report 2023

1. Results compared to the application and centre plan

1.1 How does the vision of the centre, the work packages/ focus areas and activities fit together?

The Centre on Experiential Legal Learning (CELL), Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, aims to extend practice-oriented legal education in a digital age throughout Norway.[1] Through the CELL model of experiential learning and deep student participation, we seek as a SFU to: (1) enhance the quality of learning processes; (2) provide relevant skills to future lawyers; (3) facilitate student research and societal contributions; and (4) improve the student learning environment by moving from a performance to learning culture. The latter includes reducing grade pressure/stress, a competitive student culture, exam retakes and dropout rates, and distance between different study programmes.[2] In so doing, CELL aims to create the Future Lawyer: Graduates ready to manage and work together on new technological, ethical, and social challenges.

Table 1. SFU Work packages and projects

As a Centre for Excellence in Education (SFU), CELL seeks to realise these goals through four core work packages: (1) implementing a skills ladder plan over the 5-year Master in Law through integration of experiential learning, especially in assessment; (2) developing online education and legal innovation; (3) strengthening students’ skills and practice opportunities through specific initiatives; and (4) developing legal pedagogy. While dissemination is built into the design of many of these activities, a fifth work package includes establishment of CELL Norway with the law faculties in Bergen and Tromsø, and pedagogical development at the faculty’s criminology/sociology of law and international programmes. CELL strives to be a European hub for experiential legal education and creating a ‘living model’ of an integrated experiential curriculum.

The relevant projects for each work package are set out in Table 1. The relationship between the work packages and goals is detailed at the bottom of the table. Each project is relatively independent in its goals and organisation but there are significant synergies between them. Institutionally, the projects can be also classified as following: systemic development in cooperation with the faculty (WPs 1, 4), experimental development with labs and specific initiatives (WPs 2–3); and research and dissemination (WPs 4.1/4.2, 5).

The structure and activities of CELL are designed to support the implementation of these work packages. It is based on a staff-student partnership and a vision of students as coproducers of their education and future. In 2023, a total of 54 individuals work at CELL (employed or bought out), although most in a part-time capacity. See the 2022 Annual Report for a detailed description of the organisational form and practice.

In 2020/ 2021, three important changes occurred in CELL’s working model, which are described in earlier reports. It includes the quadripartite model of academic teachers, students, administrative staff and pedagogical staff working together on an equal basis in each project. Also the organisation moved formally from an organisation based on the seminal pillars to SFU projects (see Table 1/Figure. 1), participated in several successful funding applications, as both partner and leader, introduced annual prioritisation of projects. In 2023, the skills ladder, writing lab, moot court, and research were given highest priority.

1.2 Describe, assess, and analyse the most important accomplishments and activities of each work package/ focus area the actual year.

- What are the expected results and impact of the activities?

- How does the activities contribute to the goals of the centre?

The level of activity at CELL has been relatively high with several key accomplishments. While the pandemic led to the postponement of several important activities, the key challenge has been ensuring that the organization has the capacity to match all its goals and support intensive transformational work. 
 

The activities and impact for each WP is listed and discussed in separate sub-sections below with a focus on 2023; and the timetable and concrete progress for implementation is set out in Espresso. Some of the highlights of CELL’s first 3.5 years as an SFU include:

• Online education: Embedding our local and national work on online education in the centre and faculty. As an SFU, this has included hosting 9 webinars, presenting at 25 conferences/workshops, co-facilitating a faculty strategy on online education, initiating frontrunner groups on home exams and flipped classroom, and engaging in regular media communication to influence sectoral policy.
• Skills ladder: Developing, piloting, evaluating, and refining concrete plans with course coordinators for six new compulsory experiential modules and many elective subjects; facilitating a process for reforming learning outcomes (2022/2023) and systemic implementation of the skills ladder (2024); and supporting the programmes in criminology and human rights with development of their own skills ladder.
• Students as researchers: Making significant advances in the student as researchers project with a highly developed skills ladder plan, piloting student research projects and reformed course design, and facilitating nation-wide student communication (including a documentary with NRK). A project design course for master thesis research was piloted form Autumn 2022 to Autumn 2024. The emulation report (presented to the faculty in February 2024) recommends the creation of a 10 credit points course on legal research and development of a skills ladder of research skills through the Master of Laws.
• Evaluation and research: Releasing 10 evaluation reports (with over 4000 student responses), piloting a new central evaluation system, publishing our first academic article, conducting a survey review of experiential legal education literature, employing two Ph.D. fellows.
• Digitalisation and innovation: Establishing an innovation lab for student legal design, a developing protype for the digital courtroom, expanding the LovLab legislation clinic, and supporting law students secure and use innovation funding. CELL has also become an important actor in learning analytics, with participation in the national expert group (with an NOU report in June 2023), leadership of a UiO working group, piloting of three new tools in learning analytics (automatic feedback on legal writing, group learning analytics, human rights analytics), and several academic papers.
• Scaling up practice: Launching several practice initiatives, including facilitating practice course for criminology students and obtaining funding from the Research Council of Norway for a new student clinic on ID rights.
• Competence building and learning assistants: Developing a regular course for new and permanent staff on pedagogical competence in law; providing online pedagogical resources for student writing assistants, coordinating selection of over 200 writing/teaching assistants, improving the quality of 1st semester student colloquia, and expanding colloquia support to other semesters.
• CELL Norway: Establishing CELL Norway and developing joint proposal on elective subject coordination, holding two joint courses with University of Bergen, and assisting UiB with its successful application for HK-dir funding. In 2023, the focus has shifted to the creation a Nordic network with a legal education journal. The firs conference is planned for September 2024.
• Student partnership: Facilitating an active student team which has piloted of a new model of co-leadership, developed the organisation, planned/implemented projects, and engaged in broad outreach. CELL students are called upon regularly to present externally.

We have also developed CELL as an organization, with a focus on internal policies, management and recruiting. Furthermore, we have also developed an internal and faculty culture for pedagogical innovation and student participation. This has been challenging work, as we tried to find the right fora for collaboration with the faculty and the student law society, develop internal routines and working cultures, manage budgets, and secure physical space. In Autumn 2023, we devoted time to the political and policy defence of the SFU programme, including organising parliamentary submissions and opinion editorials in the media on behalf of all SFUs. See below

A key plank in CELL’s philosophy and practice is the inclusion of students in educational reform leadership. They co-lead projects, participate in strategic/organisational development, and disseminate findings. Student project leaders have led parallel sessions at the annual University of Oslo Education conference and planned the student driven track at the same conference. Student leaders have analysed the CELL model, and regularly asked to present on pedagogical development more generally. The positives include early inclusion in CELL’s founding, paid positions, a positive culture towards student participation/leadership, and trust in students’ ability to lead, represent and undertake important tasks. Challenges include underlying power asymmetry, greater time commitments of staff, non-election by their student peers, and regular changes in student positions.

Moreover, the model of change envisaged by CELL is complex, but potentially transformatory. It envisages both direct change (planned impact) and indirect change (inspiration, cultural change). This multivalent approach is reflected in mechanisms for change, which include incentives (resources, reputation), discourse and dialogue (reshaping the consensus on what is good legal education), and legitimation (involving staff, students, and partners). This provides energy, originality, and acceptance and has a ripple effect as those involved become new ambassadors and agents of change. Finally, with a new fifth goal, the organisation has also begun to reflect on CELL’s endgame – the ultimate development of a community of practice in legal education. If academic teachers become more agentic, dialogue-seeking, and oriented towards pedagogical research, then pedagogical centres such as CELL can become less change-driven and more facilitationfocused. CELL’s competence building project became thus increasingly central during 2023. The following provides an overview of activities and accomplishments with a focus in the narrative text on 2023.

Work package 1 – Skills Ladder

The cornerstone in the SFU plan is the development of a ‘skills ladder’ through the 5-year Master of Laws. Progress is shown in Table 1. The original 2019 design for the skills ladder is shown in figure plan, with compulsory experiential module in each semester to develop four relevant skills and improve learning outcomes and environment. This plan has been updated, with “Advocacy and Negotiation” divided into “Oral and Mooting” and “Dispute Resolution” and the addition of two new ladders on “academic skills” and “cooperation and collaboration skills” (see projects 1.3/4.2).

In April 2022, Project 1.1 Planning and evaluation of the skills ladder, was advanced with the publication of the final draft of the proposal and process reports. In 2023, the project group for the skills ladder held talks with all course coordinators in obligatory subjects about the revision of learning objectives, with a particular focus on strengthening skills and competence goals and crafting progression of them through the entire 5-year Master of Laws programme. This resulted in a revision of the overall learning objectives for the overall Master of Law in Spring 2023 and each course in Autumn 2023. As part of this process, CELL carried out a mapping exercise amongst academic teachers to uncover various skillbased elements in the course teaching, with the goal of seeing how the teaching methods are connected with the overall learning objectives and uncovering innovative practice. In 2024, a new process will commence with focus on design of new teaching and assessment forms that constructively align with these revised learning objectives. In addition, CELL played a major role in supporting the elective course reform, which prioritised pedagogical criteria and the skills ladder in the selection of 50 elective courses for 2023-2027.

Project 1.2 Implementation of the skills ladder continues in parallel with the broader process in project 1.1. In 2022, CELL evaluated and reformed the compulsory contract negotiation in 3rd year and programming for lawyers course; helped course coordinators for Legal History in 3rd year evaluate and reform the permanent group oral presentation; and supported a reform process for the compulsory legal philosophy course. In 2023, the mooting project (see project 3.3) successfully obtained approval for the civil procedure course to be a separate course with experiential assessment based on a court trial (students must write a written memorial and judgment, and present orally, and answer questions)

Click here to watch the CELL Video on the Skills Ladder

Project 1.3 Student as Researcher continues to move steadily forward with its focus on the development of academic skills. In 2022, a comprehensive plan for integrating academic skills throughout the entire curriculum, based on Bloom’s taxonomy, was finalised and a pilot student-driven research project gained extensive national media coverage. In 2023, the project group arranged two pilot courses for students writing their master's thesis, with the topic being how to design a master’s thesis and choose appropriate method. The students' feedback on the courses was very positive, and their evaluations will form the basis for proposals to the faculty on how research skills can be implemented in the study, including with a new permanent course on legal research skills. The project leader Marte Kjørven was recognised in 2023 as merittert (Excellence in Teahcing) by the Unviersity of Oslo for her work on this initiative.

In Project 1.4 Student as communicator, we investigated the opportunity of having a podcast project with students based on the 2021 pilot. This culminated in a report, and the project was put on hold due to lack of academic staff, to function as monitor for the podcast project. The project focus on how we can teach our students stronger media-related skills in law. In this context the academic leader, was asked by SNL (Store Norske Leksikon) to contribute on transforming the Encyclopaedia articles regarding law. We were in conversations on how law students could contribute on this, Unfortunately, the project was set on hold, due to lack of capacity.. 

Work package 2 – Digital Learning

In 2022, the project online education project (2.1) in CELL’s digital learning work focused primarily on sustaining the infrastructure and framework that had given good results during the pandemic. This included good hybrid teaching and use of digital techniques to physical teaching and universal design. In 2023, the project has been occupied with universal design, how to make digital teaching content more universal available. This included the project “Administrative Law in sign language”, started, where the aim is to make information about Administrative Law available to as many people as possible, in an understandable way. See picture below. Work also began on establishing a new project group that could develop a new strategy for online education at the faculty, focusing on competence development among the teaching staff, pedagogic use of online tools, and the critical and creative use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), including generative AI and an AI-skills ladder in the Master of Laws.

In 2023, the Digital Courtroom Project 2.2 has been expanded to bring together a myriad of projects on Learning Analytics. The initial project was to develop a Digital courtroom for mooting and other activities was put on hold as software firms began to develop products in this area after the pandemic and the CELL developer responsible for the project left for postgraduate data science studies abroad. Moreover, CELL has emerged as a important competence centre for the legal, technical, and educational aspects of learning analytics.

In 2022, CELL led the data privacy and learning analytics working group at the University of Oslo and delivered a report on the way forward. The result was that the University has decided to pilot a new learning analytics project (Bra Start) for all of its first-year students to predict drop-out and respond with interventions. CELLs director sat in the National Expert Group on Learning Analytics, which was led by CELL Education Fellow, Marte Blikstad- Ballas. The group delivered its first report in 2002 and its final report, an NOU, in June 2023 to positive reception from stakeholders. CELL has also been represented in the leadership group for the University’s Hub for Learning Analytics (HuLAR) (2020-2023) and has provided technical services to learning analytics projects at the University. In 2023, three concrete projects on learning analytics emerged at CELL. The first is a protype that aims to provide students with automatic feedback on legal texts through artificial intelligence is under development. The second is a prottype of a group learning anaytics tool, piloted and test in the course Legal Technology with the Faculty of education through the joint Research Council project TeamLearn. The third is a prototype for navigating human rights law, developed by a CELL studentteam that won the Council of Europe Hackathon in November 2023 with the proposal (see picture below).

Project 2.3 Legal Innovation Lab in Oslo (LILO) began planning the Oslo Legal Hackathon, that will take place in March of 2024. has held a series of public meetings and student consultations. LILO has created a mentoring support structure for student legal tech project, took over responsibility for the boot camp on legal technology and the Legal Tech Meetups. The “LILO” project also further developed dialogue with the student organisation CF Futurum. For all activities, see table above.

In Project 2.4 Lovlab Legislation Clinic, is a course where students write comprehensive law reform reports on the basis of mandates provided by governmental bodies and private actors were developed. In 2022 it was a distinct CELL project with broader ambitions. Marketing and evaluation were prioritised. Interdisciplinarity has also been a strong agenda. Students from the criminology programme and UiB have been included in the course, guidelines were developed for lawmakers, and Lovlab has made significant impact on real policy development through the student reports, which have gained considerable publicity. Due to lack of students the course did not run in 2023, but it is planned for 2024 with increased academic staff capacity.

Work package 3 – Practice and Skills

In Project 3.1 Writing Lab, we aim to increase awareness regarding clear, precise and understandable language. In 2023, the writing lab was officially opened, and writing workshops for 1st and 2nd year students were attended by almost 200 students. The feedback was very positive and the students found it useful to discuss their texts with peers. Drop-in workshop for 1st and 2nd year students were attended by 440 students in the Autumn 2023. Students are given formative and real-time feedback on actual assignments in many compulsory and elective subjects. New research from CELL those that students who participate more often in the writing lab experience a better learning environment.

In Project 3.2 Practice Initiatives, CELL and the Law Faculty has supported Insj's initiative to provide legal information services by students on entrepreneurship law to student entrepreneurs. Extensice student research and dissemination on ID-theft has also occured through the ID-lawyer student clinic launched and coordinated by CELL with Street Lawyer, Jussbuss and JURK. 

In Project 3.3 Mooting, work has followed two paths. One includes work on increasing the oral elements in the compulsory courses of the law program. The other includes working on increasing the oral elements in the optional courses in the study, in particular the course JUS5040 Moot Court. See detailed description in the Table and pictures below.

Project 3.4 Negotiation Forum, held three courses/seminars for students at the faculty with an interest in the field. It was also selected as the pilot for CELLS new Documentation Bank and Teaching Bank given the many initiatives over the period 2020- 2023 which have now come to fruition.

Work package 4 – Legal Pedagogy

In Project 4.1 Evaluation and Learning Analytics, CELL contributes to the faculty subject evaluation. The workgroup is led by an academic leader in CELL, assisted by a student project leader, our PHD-candidate, and a member from the administration. In 2022, the group worked on the questionnaire that was to be distributed to all students. The group invited students to a focus group to make sure they were part of the survey. CELL is now focused on integrating routine evaluations in quality assurance systems at the Faculty. Numerous evaluations were conducted of CELL projects, especially the new writing lab (see above).

Project 4.2 on pedagogical research has expanded rapidly in 2022 and 2023, with over twenty academic papers now underway, with one published in Computers and Human Behaviour and many others nearing completion. Themes include new experiential learning courses, learning analytics, student leadership, digitalisation, learning environment and sense of belonging. CELL also launched its own Documentation Bank, seeking to gather the experiences and lessons learned from project activities for dissemination, and from 2024 this project is called Research and Documentation

CELL’s Project 4.3 Competence Building developed and carried out a 30-hour course in university pedagogy for temporary employees, approved by LINK. Work also began on developing a more comprehensive pedagogical course targeting the permanent employees at the faculty Planning work also began on launching a digital learning platform for employees at the faculty, aiming to build competence on innovative teaching programs.

Project 4.4 Learning Assistants continues its solid work, facilitating the employment of and support of 90-100 learning assistants (LA) each semester. The aim is to support the learning process for students and improve the learning environment. The LA are used as colloquium supervisors, assignment correctors and writing tutors at the writing workshops. Together this impacts approximately 800 students each year. We also have LA for 6 elective courses. In addition, colloquium mentors were employed on funds from Ministry of Knowledge in autumn 2022. CELL hosts the start-up seminar for all LA and maintain the online resources for training on CELL's website.

Project 4.5 Learning Environment aims to meet the students' needs for a better and active learning environment. In 2023, students from CELL held different lectures, an introductory lecture about “Life as a law student” for 1st-year students, approximately 220 students each semester. The project worked with the SFU Bioseed Centre director on the survey ‘Sense of belonging’, to get a clearer picture of what students at the faculty feel about their learning environment and their sense of belonging. The results from the survey will be presented in March 2024. CELL has also facilitated the development of a learning environment working group, which has carried out some initiative and will be led by the Education Dean from 2024 with CELL’s student leader.

Work package 5 Management and Communication

In Project 5.1 CELL Norway, a meeting in April CELL Norway established the project group as a forum for the exchange of experience and planning between the faculties. During the spring a model for joint elective subject collaboration was developed, with an initial focus on the Oslo and Bergen law faculties. In 2022, the three institutions together held a webinar on ‘How to improve the study quality through student participation’. The CELL Norway leadership structure was also reformed with the education dean from each faculty being replaced by two experientially-focused educators, who have also been contracted as adjunct professors. CELL formalized positions for both Kristine Korsnes (University of Tromsø) and Jan-Ove Færstad (University of Bergen). However, discussions have led to a greater focus on a Nordic Network, especially after the decision to remove the SFU programme nationally.

Project 5.2 Criminology and sociology of law programme – pedagogical development The project group started their work on a skill ladder suited for IKRS, after earlier developing a practice course with CELL. During 2023 they also set up their own writing labs, suited for their students..

Project 5.3 International programmes – pedagogical development continued the work focused on improving the practice and methodological elements of the human rights master's program and learning from the Skill ladder developed in CELLs project 1.1.

Project 5.4 Communication The communication project worked systematically through 2023 on digital communication, including improving the website and obtaining an Instagram profile, to better reach out to the students. The work to ensure good communication with the faculty administration, the study dean and the teachers continues. See further section 1.3 below

1.3. Dissemination of knowledge and practices.

- How is the work of the centre beneficial and accessible to other academic communities.

- How has the centre contributed to change in higher education at a local and national level

How has the centre worked with dissemination of knowledge and practices both within and outside of the institution? What is the expected impact of the dissemination activities?

CELL still seeks to establish itself as a pedagogical hub for legal education in Norway and Europe. As reported last year, dissemination is integrated in almost every work package, and is embedded in project plans and organizational structure. In addition, we have a communication project that seeks to assist these effects.

CELL continues to engage with a range of other academic communities. During the end of 2023, we initiated the process of founding a Nordic research journal for legal pedagogy. In 2022, the Faculty of Humanities at UiO started a development project on a skills ladder modeled after CELL's skills ladder. CELL has developed closer integration with the faculties of education and natural sciences with joint appointment of staff to work on collaborative research and development projects, and has continued to give presentation in numerous higher education arenas in Norway and beyond.

We have sought to continue to contribute to national and local debates on higher education (see media overview) and have submitted several submissions to the Norwegian parliament and Department of Education. In 2022, this included ‘Høringssvar til representantforslag om å styrke undervisningskvaliteten for studenter under pandemien og følge opp studenters studieprogresjon og undervisningstilbud; and Høringssvar – endringer i UH-loven, utsatt ikrafttredelse av krav om to sensorer. During Autumn 2023, the main focus was on the closure of the SFU programme, with dissemination focused on communicating its benefits of the programme to the media, parliament (including a written and oral submission), government, and sector. See introduction above.

The 2019 dissemination plan is set out below, and we report on results. It has been updated for new avenues for dissemination (those with a star *

Dissemination plan and Implementation

2. Further progress: What are the expectations for the coming year?

Considering the activities of 2023, is there a need for adjustments of the centre plan, the budget and/ or the dissemination strategy?
Upon receiving the negative news of a defunded second five-year term, we were presented with challenges regarding how to make the most of the first 5-year period plan and ensure a good transfer of the Centre’s work into the standard operation of UiO’s Faculty of Law and broader legal education community. There is now a more urgent need to focus on how to utilize the knowledge, networks and insights we have gained as a Centre for Excellence, which has consequences for our work in the coming year. We will continue according to original plan, but emphasise more strongly the implementation and integration of ongoing projects in the Faculty’s different study programmes, preparing the academic teachers for this implementation, and increase the documentation and research capacity within the Centre to ensure that the different projects will live on after the financing from the SFU-program ends. We will also seek to raise funding for a more scaled-down version of CELL to support ongoing pedagogical development. The CELL Norway project which was planned to be developed in 2024 for implementation in the second five-year period will not be pursued. Instead, the centre will make a new strategy for further cooperation with other law faculties (see above on a Nordic Network), as well as other pedagogical centres at the University of Oslo and beyond (including SFU-centres being phased out) and the new pedagogical academies at each university (see above on a national academy). As there are some unused funds in the project, and a substantial need to have more time to achieve a sensible integration of projects within the faculty, as well as to ensure the continued work on experiential legal learning, CELL will apply for an extension of the first 5-year plan into the end of 2026. This has budgetary implications also for 2024, as stated in the application (see application sent HK-Dir 1st March 2024) Apart from the developments of cutting the funding of the SFU-program and its implications for the Centre plan and budget, the development of artificial intelligence and its influence on knowledge production, critical thinking and science has made it clear that a project within CELL is needed to provide legal education in Norway the means to handle these challenges and make use of AI within law studies. Therefore, a project of developing an AI-ladder for the Master of Laws will be included in 2024. The project does not change the overall Centre plan as such, but fits well within the current projects of the skills ladder and digital education. In 2024, the projects that will be most prioritized are: WP1 Skills ladder, WP 2 Digital education and WP4 Legal pedagogy (including research (4.2), competence building (4.3) and learning environment (4.5)).