Course-Level Learning Outcomes Policy
(a) In consultation with the Vice Dean, faculty who teach courses required by the Law School with multiple sections[1] shall develop a set of shared minimum learning outcomes for each such course. The Vice Dean will coordinate a review of the shared minimum learning outcomes for each such course at least every five years.
(b) Each faculty member shall develop learning outcomes for each course they teach. Any faculty member teaching a course identified in (a) above shall include the shared minimum learning outcomes within the course’s learning outcomes.
(c) Faculty shall list course-level learning outcomes in their course syllabi.
(d) All faculty, when submitting course information for the courses they are teaching in that academic semester, shall report the learning outcomes for each course required by the Law School, including the shared minimum learning outcomes for that course.
[1] This means multi-section courses that each J.D. student is required to take to graduate. Currently, these courses are: Procedural Analysis; Common Law Analysis: Torts; Common Law Analysis: Contracts; Constitutional Analysis; Statutory Analysis; Legal Profession; Legal Research Practicum; and Lawyering Skills I and II. This policy applies to these courses.
The law school also requires students to take the following courses before graduation:
- one 1L Elective course (chosen from among multiple elective course options);
- one core Clinical course (chosen from among multiple different core clinics);
- one Race and Indigeneity course (chosen from among multiple different Race and Indigeneity courses); and
- one Upper-Level Writing Requirement course or Directed Research project (chosen from among multiple different courses/DRs).
The law school typically does not offer multiple sections of these courses. For example, we currently offer only one section of Property Law as a 1L Elective each year. Similarly, there is only one section/offering of, for example, the Environmental Law Clinic in any given year. Likewise, there is typically only one section per year of each particular course that satisfies the Race and Indigeneity requirement, such as Race and the Law. This policy therefore does not apply to those sections/offerings. If the law school were to offer in any given year multiple sections/offerings of any particular course that satisfies any of the four requirements identified above, then this policy would apply to those multiple sections/offerings of that course.