On-line Law Degree at Australian National University

The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra has announced it will offer a Juris Doctor (online) from mid 2016. This is a legal degree for people who already have a degree in another discipline.

The new program uses "Problem-Based Learning" (PBL) and has the option of a "capstone experience" designed for online students. The program also uses  what is termed "clustering", to overcome the usual narrow course boundaries.

The program has compulsory subjects and the student can then "select from over 80 elective courses". The large number of on-line courses now being offered by ANU came as a surprise to me. Six years ago, when I was designing the course "ICT Sustainability" (COMP7310) for ANU computing students, there were only a handful of other on-line courses. There were many "blended" courses, which have an on-line component, but few which did not require at least some on-campus attendance. But a quick search shows there are 125 Online ANU Courses for 2016, including, 19 undergraduate, 106 graduate and 22 from the ANU College of Law courses. I have the occasional law student in my course (along with many business students) and will be interesting to see how many from the new program take it up.

A curious aspect is that the announcement says "As an online program, the ANU JD (online) is only available to domestic students.". But one benefit from an on-line course is that students can be anywhere. This is especially curious as the Juris Doctor (on campus), which is equivalent to the online course, points out that students can "... gain real-world experience by ... spending a semester overseas...". If overseas experience is beneficial, why can't overseas students be admitted?

There are Australian visa restrictions on the proportion of on-line courses an international student can undertake:

"Students can study up to 25 per cent of their course by online and/or distance learning, but in each compulsory study period each student must be studying at least one unit that is not by distance or online."

From "Online and distance", National Code Part D, Standard 9 of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act), Australian Department of Education and Training.

However, as Open Universities Australia point out, these restrictions do not apply to students studying on-line from abroad. These students do not need to be in Australia and so do not need a visa. The regulations make this clear:

"Note that the terms online learning and distance learning do not apply where the student:

• does not hold a student visa
• is resident in a country other than Australia; and
• is undertaking a unit of study with a registered provider in Australia.
  Study of this sort is outside of the scope of the National Code 2007 (as the student does not hold a student visa)."

From "Online and distance", National Code Part D, Standard 9 of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act), Australian Department of Education and Training.

It happens I am an international student at a North American university at present. There was no issue of visa requirements and the only real complication was in showing my Australian qualifications met the overseas program requirements. Apart from that I just needed a credit card to pay the course fees and Internet access to undertake the courses.