Is Online Legal Education Likely to Expand?

p strongOnline legal education has substantial faculty experience behind it, but support for continued expansion remains limited and uneven./strong/p p Primary Research Group surveyed 134 faculty members at more than 80 law schools in the United States and Canada. At law schools enrolling more than 800 students, nearly 78% of faculty had taught a distance-education law course. Yet only 21.64% of the full sample supported expanding online legal education, with younger faculty the most supportive./p p Political outlook also shaped evaluation. Among politically conservative faculty, 64.29% rated online legal education worse or much worse than traditional instruction. The findings suggest that experience with online teaching does not automatically produce confidence in the format's quality or suitability for every course./p p Programs should distinguish among uses: a fully online degree, a hybrid seminar, asynchronous doctrinal material, remote guest instruction and short professional courses solve different problems. Evaluation should cover engagement, writing feedback, assessment integrity, access to faculty, career networking and outcomes for students who need flexibility./p p The near-term opportunity is likely ive expansion rather than wholesale substitution. Schools that can show where online delivery improves access without weakening interaction will make a stronger case than those treating distance education mainly as a lower-cost distribution channel./p p  /p