You want students to train their skills in a practical setting and see different ways to apply their knowledge and to connect the dots between different areas of law.

Virtual law cases (VLCs) are a way for law students to transfer theoretical knowledge into practical legal reasoning and decision-making. VLCs are digitalised, didactic material, which allow students to practise critical and analytical reasoning and legal method through case-based, digital material. They are originally based on virtual patients (VP) which have long been used within medical education.

VLCs are often based on a real-case scenario, e.g. a lawyer meets a client and has to help her deal with a legal issue. The student takes the role of the lawyer and has to go through several steps and solve challenges and answer questions on the way

**Table of Content**

# 🥕 Ingredients

### 🥣  Tools

- [ ]  brainstorm power
- [ ]  an understanding of typical challenges for students to meet intended learning outcomes of your course
- [ ]  large paper with post-it notes, or whiteboard/blackboard, or flowcharting software
- [ ]  publishing platform or service to host your virtual law cases

### ⏲️  **Time to prepare**

Depending on how comprehensive you want the case to be, preparation can take from a few hours, a few days to a few weeks of work. The part that takes most time is the thinking and preparing of content (questions, digital artefacts, feedback) for your case. Depending on the platform you use to publish the case, the time to publish will also vary greatly.

It is recommended to set aside a few days where you exclusively work with the structure and content.

# 🧑‍🍳 Preparation      [🔝](<https://recipes4teaching.notion.site/Virtual-law-cases-77bf806c864b4947a3bbe2e822e33214>)

### Design your virtual law case

**Prepare the case structure**

The structure combines the events within the case with the different types of issues that are covered. 

1. Start with the intended learning outcomes of your course and consider which are the most challenging for students. 
2. Choose a scenario, i.e. a fictional case, that students can follow through the different steps.
3. Consider potential legal challenges you want to cover in the case. As the virtual law case provides an additional opportunity for students to analyse legal issues, consider focusing on more difficult topics within your course.