North Carolina Law School Uses Video Collaboration To Deliver Virtual Courses and Legal Aid
North Carolina Central University (NCCU) School of Law in Durham, NC is using video collaboration technology to deliver virtual courses and legal assistance to students and residents throughout the state.
The university's Virtual Classrooms from NCCU program currently offers eight virtual courses for students from participating law schools and and two undergraduate courses for students who are considering law degrees. The NCCU School of Law delivers most of its virtual courses from a Polycom RealPresence Experience (RPX) room designed for fully immersive video collaboration.
According to Pam Glean, assistant dean for clinical professional skills at NCCU, "most counties in North Carolina are considered rural and research has shown that people who live in rural areas lack access to affordable legal assistance." The university's new Virtual Justice Broadband Project and Virtual Legal Assistance programs enable people to visit one of the university's rural sites to receive remote legal information and services.
The Virtual Justice Broadband Project is using Polycom RealPresence video collaboration technology to provide legal information and assistance to residents throughout the state. The program also provides virtual access to NCCU School of Law courses.
The Virtual Legal Assistance program, part of NCCU's Clinical Legal Education Program, is using Polycom video solutions at Legal Aid, Legal Services, and mediation centers around the state to provide students from participating universities and communities throughout the state to communicate with staff attorneys for legal information and advice.
NCCU and its partners across the state have installed Polycom HDX 8000 video collaboration systems at participating campuses and Legal Aid offices. Students and residents who don't have Polycom desktop software can visit those locations to access NCCU's virtual courses and legal services. The school has also installed Polycom desktop software on 500 laptops and tablets to provide remote students with high definition video communication. Polycom RealPresence Collaboration Server enables the university to scale its implementation, and Polycom Video Border Proxy E Series provides network security.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].