Bachelor degree in Law

The Bachelor Degree in Law follows a methodology based on teaching-learning, centered on the student, which promotes active participation and promotes the development of general and specific skills that demonstrate knowledge, skills and attitudes applicable in a future professional practice. The teaching methodology is based on the use of ICT as a support to collaborative work (forums, chats, meeting by videoconference), the teacher's orientations (agenda, bulletin board, document folder, links) and the submission of assignments (task mailbox and work tools). The Blackboard Virtual Campus will be used for this purpose.

All these techniques mean that the student assumes an active role in his/her academic training. In addition, the work of the professor acquires a guiding dimension of support and guidance, which must be consistent with a transparent and formative evaluation system that faithfully reflects the knowledge and skills acquired.

The training activities are carried out through different teaching strategies: online theoretical classes, online practical cases, online tutorials, and academic activities among which are the reading and analysis of jurisprudence, assignments through virtual resources, search and selection of jurisprudence and legislation; exams and activities for evaluation, individual or small group work.

The educational actions of this Bachelor Degree in their distance learning option are specified in the following:

AF1. Online theoretical classes

The students have online work sessions, which share some aspects of the in-person lectures and in others they are differentiated by their own character.

The subjects in which studying has more importance in the Virtual Campus have a prepared EDUCATIONAL ITINERARY, in which the units of the curriculum are described. The structure of the Itinerary is hypertextual, since it has content Blocks, divided into Units. In each of these units, a complete lesson is provided; other related topics are referenced, hyperlinks are used to explain or present; complementary information on concepts, definitions, bibliography is added through sales and connections with the Documentation Center of the subject. The professor can also teach a lecture using the VIDEOCONFERENCE system.

The biggest difference between the in-person lectures and the realization of the platform's content units, in addition to being present or not, is the chronological sequence, since the student can connect to the platform for as long as he/she wishes, at the time he/she wishes. They can interrupt their work whenever they want, they can interact with the platform itself, using all forms of hypertextuality and connections to Internet sources through the documentation center. They can also interact with their classmates and with professors through the FORUMS, to ask questions or comment on some content; or in a more conventional type of learning, they can print all the lecture material of the unit and read it wherever they want.

The virtual Campus of each subject also allows the professor to display all kinds of documents, labeled, in the DOCUMENTS folder, with contents of the subject, in Word, Power Point, videos and audio formats, which explain the contents of the subject in question, they exemplify it, they expand on it.

The academic Forum of each subject allows to build theoretical and practical knowledge through the interaction of students with different groupings. There is the General Forum, in which all the students and the professor participate, and the Group Forum, in which the students work in small groups, always organized by the professor and supervised by his/her, in which they can share documents of all types with just the members of the group.

AF2. Online practical cases

The practical cases in the distance learning modality will be carried out using the Virtual Campus. The professor will upload the case that students must make in the DOCUMENTS folder, and they will submit it via the task mailbox for correction by the professor. There is a specific Forum for the discussion of the relevant issues of the case by all the students and the professor, and Debates will be held through the forum.

AF3. Reading and analysis of jurisprudence and legal texts

The professor, as in the previous case, will post the required reading texts in the Documents folder, and the students will have to analyze them according to the same methodology as in the work described below.

AF4. Distance tutoring sessions

The personalized nature of teaching at Nebrija University is based on the deep belief that teaching is not reduced to mere instruction. In this sense, the professor is not only a transmitter of knowledge but a trainer who guides and assists students in their needs, which are not limited to the acquisition of concepts, but also to the development of procedures and attitudes. The tutoring sessions are responsibility of the professors of the subjects.

Teachers are responsible for guiding and assisting students with organizational and didactic difficulties, paying special attention to personalized advice on the skills and competences they must exercise to carry out academic work outside of class sessions. They try to create a space designed to listen and advise students about topics that are of concern, a quiet environment, free from interruptions, that favors dialogue.

In its distance learning modality, within the Virtual Campus, there will be a tutoring site, through which the students can bring up their questions with the professor of the subject, who will respond through the same channel.

In the same way, five mechanisms of assistance are implemented for the student in the tutoring sessions.

• The academic forums of each subject, moderated by the professor, with the participation of all the students, where they can consult and share the questions raised by the students and professor's answers.
• Individual email between student and professor, for individual clarification.
• Telephone tutoring at a pre-scheduled time for each subject.
• Telepresential tutoring using tools such as Skype, that allow direct visualization between teacher and student or the visualization of documents.
• Obviously, students who wish to and can travel can arrange a personal face-to-face tutoring session with the professor at the Campus of Nebrija University.

AF5. Assignments through virtual resources

Precisely in the educational activities related to the assignments through virtual resources and the search for information, legislation and jurisprudence, is where the group work of the students is implemented, since both can be carried out by these groups, as is established in the wording of the report itself, whose modification is requested, and to which we add a new paragraph in the activity of search for information and jurisprudence.

The discussion of the specific aspects of these assignments is carried out in the "Forums" section, in which the students debate about these cases, as well as the related topics that the professor thinks is appropriate to bring up.

The presentation, individual or in groups, is made by the students through the Task Mailbox and/or by videoconference. Each subject has its own space in the Virtual Campus, which allows the sharing of documentation and images, and the holding of debates by real-time videoconference.

At the same time, in the ASSIGNMENTS tool, the professor and the students can share the work that everyone does, once they have been commented and evaluated by the teacher, so cooperative learning is clearly facilitated: everything done by each student can be available to the class group, if the teacher deems it convenient.

As indicated, the assignments through virtual resources can be organized individually or in groups, which will be established by the professor, or be formed in a random or voluntary way by the students, but always in a virtual way, creating micro-communities, micro-blogs, forums and specific chats for each of these groups, whose contact and sharing of work will always be through virtual tools.

These means enable and even facilitate their discussions and sharing of work, comments or improvements, and the task mailboxes that hold the work organized there make possible its knowledge to all the members of the working group and the professor, who has access to correct them or modify them remotely.

On the other hand, the assignments through virtual resources, in addition, can be obtained or proposed through so-called synchronous telepresence systems such as videoconferences (Skype, Elluninate, etc.).

The use of these virtual resources achieves the immediacy of the relations between the teacher-student and of students among themselves; substituting "presence" with "telepresence", for all the necessary effects in the acquisition of certain competences (e.g. communication skills, oral presentation, etc.).

Search, selection, organization and hierarchization of information, legislation and jurisprudence in different sources, through computer tools:

The student must be able to locate, classify and analyze the different legal sources found in the network. To this end, the professor will insert search exercises on legislation and jurisprudence on specific issues in the corresponding activities through the different existing databases and web pages that collect them. Activities that can also be scheduled individually or in virtual work groups, with subsequent sharing through forums, videoconferences, or in the task mailbox.

AF6. Trabajo individual del alumno

This educational activity is exactly the same as in the classroom attendance modality, and consists of the student having to do the reading and study of manuals, articles, notes, legal texts, as well as the cases and individual assignments given to him/her. This individual work or study is reflected in the evaluation system in terms of ECTS credits.

AF7. Search, selection, organization and hierarchization of information, legislation and jurisprudence in different sources, through computer tools

The student must be able to locate, classify and analyze the different legal sources found in the network. To this end, the professor will insert search exercises on legislation and jurisprudence on specific issues in the corresponding activities through the different existing databases and web pages that collect them. Activities that can also be scheduled individually or in virtual work groups, with subsequent sharing through forums, videoconferences, or in the task mailbox.

In the subject sheets enclosed in this document are the new educational activities that are established in each subject with the corresponding ECTS credits that are awarded, without describing each one again, as we refer to what was just described.

As a general rule, in the distance learning modality, the individual work of the student and the cases and distance assignments will have a greater weight than the distance theoretical classes, unlike in the classroom attendance modality, where the lectures have a greater relevance.

AF11. Grading Activities

The grading system of the distance learning modality does not change significantly with respect to that of the classroom attendance modality, in the sense that the same formative activities are evaluated, although, in its distance education option.

In this way, the evaluation procedures for the distance learning modality are:

• The final exam of each subject, which will always be taken in person. In this final test, a public oral presentation may be included. This evaluation method will typically have a weighting of 50-65% of the final grade.
• Preparation of gradable assignments that the student must submit:
  • Preparation of individual and group work
  • Evaluation of complementary readings
  • Resolution of practical cases.
• It will typically have a weighting of 25-35% of the final grade.

• Participation in distance forums, chats, blogs and other collaborative media, and remote participation in the sessions.It will have a weighting between 5% and 10%.

The final tests or exercises of each subject will always be taken in person.

In the final grade of the subject, the grade of said final test is weighted with the rest of the assessment elements, with variable percentages of weighting of the different concepts, depending on the specific contents of the subject. The specific percentages of weighting in each subject appear in the documentation delivered to the student at the beginning of the course.

All grades will be accessible through the Internet, in the student's private area.

Grading examples:

Subject : Labor and social security law
Grading system: Participation in remote forums, chats, blogs and other collaborative media, and remote participation in the sessions: 10%; Preparation of individual and group assignments: 20%; Resolution of practical cases: and test of knowledge: final exercise: 15%; and knowledge test: final exercise: 55%

Subject: Financial and tax law
Grading system: Participation in remote forums, chats, blogs and other collaborative media, and remote participation in the sessions: 10%; Preparation of individual and group assignments: 10%; Evaluation of complementary readings: 10%; Resolution of practical cases: 15%; Knowledge test: final exercise (which will be taken in person): 55%

Grading system of the Final Research Project

The evaluation system of the Final Research Project Module will be based on the following grading activities:

• Evaluation of the Director: 10%
• Presentation and oral defense before Tribunal: 90%

The "Presentation and oral defense before Tribunal" corresponds to the grade of the evaluation of the entire final research project that the student has done throughout the course, and not only to the act of its oral defense; hence, it is given such a large weighting in the final grade because it is considered that the grade awarded by the Tribunal, which is unconnected to the directing of the project, is more objective than that of the director of the project. In order to grade the project carried out and its oral defense, the following criteria will be considered with the following weighting, within the total 90% that is assigned to section "b) Presentation and oral defense before Tribunal":

• Search and consultation of bibliographical and jurisprudential sources. (10%)
• Methodology followed in the research and analysis. (10%)
• Formal aspects of the project. (10%)
• Clarity in written expression. (10%)
• Examination and complete analysis of the relevant doctrine and jurisprudence on the subject. (10%)
• Ability for argumentation and maintenance of thesis or hypothesis. (10%)
• Originality of the work presented and original contributions in the conclusions. (10%)
• Oral expression: speaking ability. (10%)
• Summary in the presentation of ideas. (10%)
• Conviction capacity in the presentation. (10%)

The Tribunal will be composed of three members: the Director or Head of Studies of the Department responsible for the Degree, a Doctor Professor of the Department and a doctor expert in the subject researched, professor of a university other than Nebrija University.