Florida Bar Continuing Legal Education Telephone
By Andromeda Monroe
Note: Where applicable, for purposes of this article, "reading" includes listening to recorded versions of books, and "books" include audio books.
"The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." – "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut" by Dr. Seuss
"Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but the lifelong attempt to acquire it." – Albert Einstein
Educational sources in the legal profession primarily encompass statutes, regulations, case law, administrative decisions, policy statements, government issued formal and informal letters, government agency/department opinions, pleadings, and the occasional digest, legal encyclopedia or treatise, and CLE courses. In CLE courses, attorneys primarily receive as handouts PowerPoint presentations or an analysis of various cases and statutes.
For attorneys winding down their legal professional life, consideration should be given to filling that need for analysis and continual instruction with reading and learning. Studies have shown that reading keeps the mind active and engaged. At least one study has shown that individuals over age 65 who read books have a survival advantage significantly stronger than those who read periodicals and a greater survival advantage over those who watch television.
Reading without learning, however, has no purpose, and it is with reading that learning begins. Two U.S. Presidents, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, respectively, have expressed a correlation between reading and learning by stating, "Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible," and "Reading is the basics for all learning," respectively. These individuals, however, probably said it best:
Henry Ford: "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young."
Oprah Winfrey: "Books were my path to personal freedom…I learned to read at age 3 and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi."
There are various sources for reading and learning available online and in the physical classroom and they range from free to costly. This author went in search of some of them, based upon her initial interest in the Greek classics and the search later morphed into a more extensive review of other in-classroom and online offerings.
On a space available basis, residents of Florida who are 60 and over can enroll in certain state colleges and universities on an application/tuition/related fee-free basis if they audit a course and space is available, but no record of the course is required to be maintained. Florida Statutes, Section 1009.26 (4), states as follows:
A state university may waive any or all application, tuition, and related fees for persons 60 years of age or older who are residents of this state and who attend classes for credit. No academic credit shall be awarded for attendance in classes for which fees are waived under this subsection. This privilege may be granted only on a space-available basis if such classes are not filled as of the close of registration. A university may limit or deny the privilege for courses which are in programs for which the Board of Governors has established selective admissions criteria. Persons paying full fees and state employees taking courses on a space-available basis shall have priority over those persons whose fees are waived in all cases where classroom spaces are limited.
Section 1000.21 (6), Florida Statutes, defines a "state university" as follows:
"State university," except as otherwise specifically provided, includes the following institutions and any branch campuses, centers, or other affiliates of the institution:
(a) The University of Florida.
(b) The Florida State University.
(c) The Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
(d) The University of South Florida.
(e) The Florida Atlantic University.
(f) The University of West Florida.
(g) The University of Central Florida.
(h) The University of North Florida.
(i) The Florida International University.
(j) The Florida Gulf Coast University.
(k) New College of Florida.
(l) The Florida Polytechnic University.
All Florida state universities have exercised the Section 1009.26 (4) fee waiver. Not all fees, however, are waived and not all courses are subject to audit. In some instances, laboratory fees, photo ID fees and certain other fees are not waived.
Colleges that comprise the Florida College System may also waive fees for any fee-nonexempt student under Section 1009.26, Florida Statutes. Not all members of the Florida College System have instituted a fee waiver. Each Florida college should be contacted to determine if they have a fee waiver for seniors and the conditions that are applicable.
Florida Bar residents outside of Florida should check to see what is available in their state at state colleges and universities. For example, member universities of the California State University System can participate in an over-60, fee-waiver program available to qualified California residents at the president of the university's discretion. This link may be helpful for out-of-state residents to determine their options. The inclusion of this link does not state or imply any sponsorship of this article by AARP and there is no sponsorship.
Finding "free" or "reduced" courses in a particular subject matter can be difficult, particularly if a person does not want to drive to a university or college, the particular course is not offered online, or space is not available to audit the course. In those circumstances, other options exist.
Some university and colleges offer direct online and in-class courses, sometimes for the cost of a regular course credit hours and sometimes at a reduced fee or free if the course is audited. Some limit the courses to nondegree students who are alumni, employees, and "qualified" residents within the community. The University of Florida's Flexible Learning provides online courses open to anyone. There is both a tuition ($212.71 per credit hour) and a distance learning fee. Florida Atlantic University has the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, with cost determined by membership levels of Gold, Silver and regular membership with varying degrees of benefits, with discounted rates on fee-based courses. Courses can run much higher. For example, a 4-hour course credit of a nondegree undergraduate online course at Duke University can run you $6,983 or if auditing, an audit fee of $535 per one course credit.
Coursera, Coursera Plus, The Great Courses, the Great Courses plus, edX and MITOPENCOURSEWARE (a self-study guide) are some of the alternatives if you cannot find the course you want in-person at a local university or online. Courses are available in religion, science, economics, history, technology, art and culture, literature, music, engineering, humanities, language, photography, travel and tours, and other areas. The courses normally require readings or have an optional reading or supplemental reading list. These providers indicate that they have accessibility features for both the hearing and the vision impaired; however, DVDs are not necessarily closed captioned for the hearing impaired and CDs may not come with a script. The online lectures are usually both in text form and audio. Those with a hearing or vision impairment should check with the providers before ordering a course.
Coursera collaborates with over 200 plus leading universities and companies. Courses are available for a set fee and, in most instances, can be audited for free or a certificate of completion can be received for a modest fee. These courses usually involve supplemental readings and the ability to read the professor's lecture word for word. A certificate of completion for a course requires a passing score on certain tests and/or one or more peer review graded written papers.
Coursera Plus is by subscription, with an initial free trial period and provides access to thousands of streaming videos via Apple TV, the Apple Store, Google Play, Roku, Kindle Fire, Chromecast, and Amazon Fire TV.
The Great Courses and The Great Courses plus have over 700 professors. The Great Courses has a set fee per course and the courses vary in price. Great Courses plus has a free trial with monthly, quarterly and annual subscriptions available.
edX has more than 160 member universities. According to edX, it "regularly partners with many different types of organizations from all around the world — academic institutions (from large research universities to polytechnics and liberal arts colleges), non-profit institutions, national governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations in connection with its MicroMasters™ program and other educational programs and related services." Course costs range from free for an audited course, a fee for a certificate of completion, or a set fee for certain courses leading to a certification in a particular area. A certificate of completion usually requires a passing score on certain tests and/or one or more peer reviewed graded written papers.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ("MIT") offers, for free, a course program through MITOPENCOURSEWARE. This format offers course topics, course syllabi, course lecture notes, course study materials and course readings, all in a downloadable version, so you can have the benefit of the course, via self-teaching, without actually attending or paying the cost of a lecture. No audio recordings or online lectures are available.
If your interest is still in the law, non-CLE based courses are available through various services and the ability to audit a law school class exists at some law schools.
Coursera, The Great Courses/The Great Courses plus, edX and MITOPENCOURSEWARE have courses in the legal arena at no or low cost. CLE credit, however, is not available for auditing of the course, based upon a conversation with a Florida Bar CLE representative, but is available if you obtain a certificate in the course, since a transcript is not issued.
Coursera has an extensive list of legal related courses, including but not limited to, Magna Carta and its Legacies: Freedom and Protest, Introduction to Environmental Law and Policies, American Contract Law, American Contract Law II, International Water Law, Business Forms, Financing & Government Regulation, America's Written Constitution, America's Unwritten Constitution, Intellectual Property Law, Copyright Law, International Women's Health and Human Rights, Introduction to International Criminal Law, European Business Law, Introduction to Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases, Corporate & Commercial Law I, Corporate & Commercial Law II, and Contracts & Employment Law, among others.
The Great Courses and/or The Great Courses plus offers, among other courses, Privacy, Property and Free Speech: Law and the Constitution, Investigating American Presidents, Law School for Everyone: Constitutional Law, Law School for Everyone: Legislation and Regulation, White Collar Criminal Law Explained, The Great Trials of World History and the Lessons They Teach Us, Liberty on Trial in America: Cases That Defined Freedom, Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights, and Business Law: Negligence and Torts, ranging in cost from as low as $12.95 to less than $250.00. These courses include a course guidebook consisting of hundreds of pages.
edX offers International Law, Navigating Legal & Commercial Aspects of Sports, Intellectual Property Law and Policy: Part I, Foundations of Central Bank Law, M & A, Structuring the Deal, Media Law, and Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law.
MITOpenCourseware's legal offerings are quite old (ranging from courses in 2003 – 2014) and are a viable option for reading and learning for mere enjoyment or for general knowledge. Courses include Trials in History (Fall 2000), Prohibition and Permission (Spring 2007), Patents, Copyrights, and the Law of Intellectual Property (Spring 2013), and Race, Crime and Citizenship in American Law (Fall 2014).
The above course offerings do not represent all of the course offerings available, but are the ones explored by this author.
Sources
About the Author
Andromeda Monroe, currently, is a semi-retired attorney, representing only former clients on an occasional basis, and a few pro bono clients through legal aid service programs and hopes to spend a lifetime learning like Number 5 that was always looking for input in the movie "Short Circuit."
Source: https://www.floridabar.org/experience-matters/beyond-continuing-legal-education/
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