Building from the Ground Up: Relating Law to Life

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Building from the Ground UpRelating Law to
Life

• Diane Rhyason and
• Kirsten Wurmann
• Legal Studies, University of Alberta
• Alberta Library Conference 2006

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Legal Studies

• A public legal education organization
• To engage people in lifelong learning about law
  and justice
• To work with other organizations on projects that
  will accomplish our goals
• Funded by grants and projects

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Legal Studies

• Everyone should have access to accurate
  law-related information that affects their daily
  lives
• the interest, knowledge, and participation of
  everyone, not just legal experts, is essential in
  determining the kind of law and justice that we
  want
• provide legal and justice-related information,
  education, training, research, and consulting
  services

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Blueprint for Todays Session

• The Need
• Pervasiveness of Law
• Law on the Internet
• Public Education Need
• Architectural Design
• Legal Studies Approach
• Educational Learning Tools
• Informational Sites
• Development and Construction

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Pervasiveness of the lawEven at home
The Need
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labels will have to list whether any of the fat
in the product is in the form of trans fats.
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The decision to reject the appeal upholds two
lower court rulings from the Quebec Superior
Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal that the
province can prevent the sale of yellow
margarine.
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Dogs may be led for walks by people on bicycles,
the rules say, but not in a way that would tire
the animal too much.
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Victims of dating violence can now apply for
protection orders under a new law that has come
into force in Manitoba.
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A Toronto cat's right to live in its long-time
home is more important than the condo board's
belated enforcement of its own rules.
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She said she is capable of shovelling her walk,
but wouldn't be bullied into doing it and would
rather go to jail than comply with what she
considers a bad bylaw.
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The Need

• Law on the Internet
• Overwhelming amount of information
• Often irrelevant and non-applicable
• Needs to be accessible, understandable and usable

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Societal need senior abuse, youth justice,
public confidenceCultural need RoseNet,
immigrants and the law General public need
landlord and tenant, wills and estates
The Need
Public Legal Education Need
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Architectural Design
Legal Studies Approach

• Gather Information
• Advisory Group
• Focus Groups
• Online Surveys
• Research
• Design
• Content Development
• Testing

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Design

• Educational or informational?
• If educational, then
• Understand how adults learn
• Need educator involvement
• Instructivism or Constructivism
• Teaching or learning

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Teaching

• Objectives are set independent of the learner
• Tends to be linear
• Looks for consistent results
• Standardized testing

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Learning

• Adult learning
• Organize and construct knowledge according to how
  it relates to our experience and environment
• Learner in control of the objectives and the
  results

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Our choice

• A combination of
• Informational approach
• Narrative approach
• Situational approach

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Design

• If informational, then
• understand how to organize information for the
  target audience
• organize information in a variety of ways
• provide multiple access points

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Design

• Technical architecture
• Content architecture
• Choosing the right tools for the job

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Content development

• Legal research and writing
• Plain language editing
• Organization of content

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Testing

• More focus groups
• Online testing with selected users and advisory
  group members
• Usability testing

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Online Usability Surveys
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Educational Learning Tools
Development and Construction

• VIOLET Law Abused Women
• RoseNet Law Abused Immigrant Women
• OAK-Net Abuse of Older Adults

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VIOLET Law Abused Women
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RoseNet Law Abused Immigrant Women
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Oak-Net Abuse of Older Adults
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Informational Websites
Development and Construction

• Laws for Tenants in Alberta
• Laws for Landlords in Alberta

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The Project

• Residential Tenancies Legal Information Project
• Funder Alberta Real Estate Foundation
• Components Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs),
  Reference Guide to Landlord and Tenant Law, Laws
  for Tenants in Alberta and Laws for Landlords in
  Alberta websites

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Focus Group Sessions
The Legal Studies Program Would like to invite
you back to our next Focus Group Session We
would like to show you the new Laws for Landlord
website We want your comments and
feedback. Wednesday, February 15, 2006 11 a.m.
to 1 p.m. at the Capital Region Housing
Corporation 6th Floor, 10242- 105
Street (Parking is available at the side of the
building at a cost of 1.50/hour or
4.50/day) Lunch will be served Hope to see you
there! Please RSVP to director_at_eaa.ab.ca
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Official Launch
The Legal Studies Program Faculty of Extension,
University of Alberta The Alberta Real Estate
Foundation In cooperation with Alberta Government
Services Invite you and a guest to the official
launch of our new website www.landlordandtenant.or
g Special Guest Speaker The Honourable Ty
Lund Minister of Government Services Wednesday,
March 1st, 2006 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Light
refreshments will be served
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Information Architecture
Over 400 pages of information
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Content Management
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Access to Justice Network www.acjnet.org
Canadas Connection to the World of Law and
Justice
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Next Steps

• Promotion
• Hands on training
• Continual Improvements
• Update

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Thank you for your participation! For further
information contact us lsp_at_ualberta.ca