It never hurts to remind faculty of everything CALI has to offer! We’re continuing adding new services and products which they might not be aware of. Below is a sample letter to send them, based upon one librarian Andrew Evans sent out regularly. Feel free to copy it and adapt to your needs. Here’s even a MS Word version: FacultyLetter
Copy and paste the text below. Don’t forget to add in authorization codes where needed:
Our school is a member of Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI). CALI is a non-profit consortium of law schools that provides free and open educational tools and materials for its members.
If you have not reviewed CALI materials in a while (or ever), you should take a look! CALI has over 900 interactive tutorials for students, covering 35 different legal subject areas. All CALI lessons are written and reviewed by law professors. Please consider incorporating CALI lessons into your curriculum or, at least, letting students know that these lessons are available.
Today’s law students find the interactive nature of CALI lessons to be extremely helpful as a supplement to class readings. Assigning or suggesting CALI lessons is a fantastic way for students to learn concepts outside of class. Additionally, the lessons provide immediate feedback and assessment to the students, which they crave.
Students especially appreciate the cost of CALI lessons – absolutely FREE! They’re free for you to use and adapt too!
Here are a few more thoughts straight from students around the country regarding CALI:
- I find the lessons to be extremely helpful in clarifying the rules of law. It is definitely a great way to help build confidence in your understanding of the legal concepts! –1L
- I have found the CALI lessons to be a great tool for review. The explanations and questions reinforce the concepts and theories corresponding to my law class. I’m very grateful to have this website. It has made real impact on my understanding of the law.
–1L - The CALI lessons are a great place to solidify the concepts learned in class. After I read the material and did my outline, I went to the CALI lesson and everything just gelled. Essential tool. –1L
To create a new online account at cali.org, our school’s authorization code for faculty is YOUR FACULTY CODE HERE. This code should not be given to students. After submitting your faculty code, you will personalize your username and password for cali.org; thus, you only need the authorization code once. Faculty accounts have access to special tools like LessonLink, Faculty View and AutoPublish. While you’re on the site, check out CALI’s eLangdell Press which has open access casebooks and supplements and Classcaster, which is a blogging, podcasting and course website tool.
The authorization code for students is YOUR STUDENT CODE HERE. Please share this code with students. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
YOUR NAME HERE