Designing future-focused law education online
Curio partnered with a leading Australasian university to co-design and deliver a new Graduate Certificate in Law and Technology—an ambitious program designed to meet the evolving needs of the legal profession. With demand growing for legal professionals skilled in emerging technologies, data privacy, and policy-making for a digital future, this project aimed to create an academically rigorous, industry-aligned, and engaging online experience.
Meeting the challenges of modern legal education
The university faced several challenges common in the transition from traditional to online legal education. Law subjects are often discussion-heavy and text-based, relying heavily on classroom dialogue and Socratic-style teaching. The challenge was to transform this pedagogical style into asynchronous, online formats that still encouraged deep thinking, active engagement, and practical application.
Compounding this was a tight delivery timeline, limited internal resourcing for instructional design, and the need to meet accreditation requirements—all while ensuring content was aligned with industry trends and the expectations of modern learners.
That’s where Curio came in.
Curio’s end-to-end approach
Curio brought together a multidisciplinary team of learning designers, legal experts, market analysts, and facilitators to deliver an integrated solution. The approach was comprehensive:
1. Market and Skills Analysis
We began with a rigorous analysis of market needs, focusing on skills required in legal innovation, data and privacy law, and emerging tech governance. This research informed course design, ensuring it addressed the future-facing competencies expected of legal professionals in an increasingly tech-driven world.
2. Human-Centred Course Design
Using our learner-centred design methodology, Curio transformed three law courses into activity-rich, online learning experiences. These were designed to take students on a journey from knowledge acquisition through to higher-order thinking and real-world application.
We applied learning design models that blended assimilative, social, productive, and experiential learning, providing a variety of engagement points. Each module was crafted with a clear pedagogical intention, embedding interactivity, reflection, and relevance throughout.
3. Collaboration with Legal Experts
To ensure academic integrity and practical relevance, Curio partnered with subject matter experts from both academia and the legal industry. These experts worked closely with our designers to create assessments and learning activities that mirrored real-world legal challenges, ensuring students were equipped with skills they could apply immediately.
4. Online Facilitation and Teaching Support
Curio also provided experienced online facilitators with legal backgrounds to support the courses. These facilitators were trained in best practices for online teaching and engaged in continuous professional development throughout the project. Their role was crucial in ensuring that students received personalised support and remained engaged across the term.
A measurable impact
The project achieved strong outcomes across multiple fronts:
-
Successful delivery under tight timelines: All three courses were developed and launched on time and within budget, aligning with the university’s internal scheduling and accreditation milestones.
-
High student satisfaction: The courses consistently received student satisfaction scores in the 80–90% range, indicating the success of the learning design and delivery.
-
Embedding best practices: The success of the program helped establish a new benchmark for online legal education within the university, with best practices from the project now informing future course development.
-
Real-world alignment: Graduates emerged with not only theoretical knowledge but practical skills that reflected the realities of contemporary legal practice—especially in navigating areas like data governance, privacy, AI, and legal innovation.
Setting the standard for online legal learning
This partnership demonstrated what’s possible when universities work with a specialist learning and technology partner like Curio. By combining deep learning design expertise with industry insight, we created a suite of online courses that are both academically rigorous and genuinely career-relevant.
This project is a blueprint for how higher education institutions can evolve their offerings to meet the challenges of an increasingly digital and skills-oriented world.