Rory O'Boyle, Education Standards Manager 

How technology for learning has been leveraged in the Law Society of Ireland to increase access to solicitor training.

Rory will reflect on how technology for learning has been used on the PPC Hybrid to increase access from: 

1. a geographical perspective, increasing the pool of traineeships outside Dublin, and
2. a diversity and inclusion perspective, meaning that the training is more accessible for previously underrepresented groups, for example more mature trainees and those with family and other caring commitments.​

Claire O’Mahony, Head of Law Society Diploma Centre

Online learning, innovation and public legal education – the MOOC journey at the Law Society of Ireland.

Claire will explore the success of the Law Society of Ireland MOOCs since 2014 and in particular how technology, innovation and online learning have been used to:

• improve access to legal education,

• expand our offerings to a global audience (almost 30,000 participants from 92 countries have participated to date),

• showcase the Law Society offerings to non-legal learners, and

• build an interactive positive learning experience to engage and retain participants. 

The talk will also explore course interface design, technology used, interactive learning methods, learner feedback, and the positive impact of the MOOCs project. ​ 

Mairéad O’Sullivan, Head of Library and Information Services

Technology and the Law Society Library.

Mairéad will examine how the Law Society Library has embraced technology in order to meet the research and learning needs of its members and students. The talk will detail the upgrade of the library’s online catalogue and the development of a library APP, how the upgrade to the catalogue facilitated a large digitisation and archive project, which the library completed in recent years. The talk will also explore how the use of software such as Panopto and LibGuides enabled the library to introduce new services such as the Subject Guides, which highlight subject specific resources and relevant information for the different practice areas of law.