In the fall of 2020, the CALT website is featuring updates from law professors about how their institutions are responding to the challenge of teaching during a pandemic.
The Faculty of Law (Robson Hall), University of Manitoba has moved to a fully online curriculum for JD, LLM and MHR (Master of Human Rights) students for the autumn 2020 term. A final decision has yet to be made as to whether the winter 2021 term will be entirely online or involve some in-person components.
Professors have been given latitude to adapt their courses for online delivery as they think best, in light of factors such as the size and level of the class, planned learning and assessment activities and so on. Faculty members have been encouraged to incorporate synchronous learning and avoid teaching the class exclusively through asynchronous methods. Most faculty members are using a combination of synchronous and asynchronous teaching. Many professors are intentional about breaking large classes into smaller groups through the use of breakout rooms or a rotating schedule of small group time. Things have been running relatively smoothly given the scale and abruptness of the switch to an entirely online curriculum. There have, inevitably, been issues and glitches here and there, but so far these have been relatively minor in nature.