Difficulties with Legal Design and E-Modules: Teaching Emotional and Cultural Competence to Law Students

This article provides a case study of the authors' experience developing an experimental e-learning module that could be used in an emotional and cultural competency course for Juris Doctorate (“JD”) designation. The case study begins with a brief explanation of the context in which the e-module was developed and then goes on to assess the benefits and drawbacks of designing for competency skills using virtual simulation. The authors argue that designing e-learning modules for emotional and cultural competency in law school can be complicated by the limitations posed by the media itself, as design problems arose in relation to legal design, authenticity, and multicultural consciousness. The authors conclude that e-modules may help to achieve some learning outcomes in legal education but, for emotional and cultural competency, they should be used in conjunction with in-person learning.