Internet Newsletter for Lawyers |
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This is the parent company in what has now become the SPR Group. The other companies in the group are Rollingball Web Design Ltd, Rollingball Digital Television Ltd, Perscitus LMS Ltd and Consilio Ltd. The companies work together to produce some of the most advanced multimedia legal education solutions available today.
SPR takes a multi-media approach to legal education and their academic programmes offer both extensive resources and interaction. All SPR students are provided with online text-based course and revision materials, audio and video files of lectures and interviews with leading members of the judiciary and practitioners, virtual tutorials and discussion forums, interactive testing and personal assessment, and last but by no means least, access to an online Law Library which rivals in its quality and extent the libraries of most leading law firms.
Much of the content on Consilio is free, including articles, law reports, netradio and television interviews and selected SPR course materials. The site also features a members area (which is also free, but requires registration) offering further course materials and a weekly newswire.
In addition, and in return for an annual payment of £75, the site offers membership of The Consilio Club which includes access to SPR course manuals and case books, a full series of netradio lectures in the eight core subjects, and extensive revision notes and updaters.
The Legal Practitioner umbrella service also offers a complete portfolio of innovative training products including an ambitious programme of video based CD ROM courses.
In addition, the site is a valuable legal resource in its own right offering legal news and current awareness information to supplement and enhance the training programmes offered. Like its sister site, Consilio, much of the content on here is free, including articles, law reports, a daily news and current awareness service, netradio and television interviews and selected CPD course materials. The site also features a members area (which again is free, but does require registration) offering access to selected online CPD courses, a weekly newswire and special offers.
The site also offers The Legal Practitioner Premier CPD Club which is designed to reduce CPD training costs for individuals or groups of practitioners at competitive rates.
The system handles e-sales, administration, accounting and delivery of online courses over the internet or through a training intranet. The backbone of the SPR online law school, Perscitus is capable of supporting many thousands of simultaneous users and seamlessly integrating video, sound, interactive text, online TV and radio broadcasting, bulletin boards, e-books, examination and testing systems and online tracking. It provides an extensive range of tools for the user, including a personal calendar, word processor, email client, messaging system, personal web page and an email address directory. Users can be provided with their own private online chatrooms and may even incorporate Microsoft Net Meeting for use with a web cam for online video conferencing.
Lawyers are still a cautious breed however, and many early attempts at providing e-learning to the legal profession have failed to live up to their potential – often with the providers falling by the wayside. It is possible that these early failures have caused training partners to view this type of product with some degree of scepticism. However, SPR are sure that their latest offerings will go a long way towards convincing the sceptics of the true value of the medium.
All in all, the SPR Group is currently looking forward to an interesting and successful future.
John Pitman is Publishing Director of Semple Piggott Rochez, email johnp@spr-law.com.
On Wednesday 13 July 2003, the Broadband Britain Challenge judges named Semple Piggot Rochez (Legal Education) Ltd as their London Regional Final Champion in the ‘Education’ category of the prestigious awards. The award was in recognition of the company’s pioneering work in the provision of online legal education to both students and practitioners.
The prize was awarded to John Pitman, Semple Piggot Rochez’ Publishing Director at a ceremony at The Music Room in Mayfair hosted by TV personality Paul Ross, and Semple Piggot Rochez will now go forward to the national finals of the competition which will be held in London on 12th September.
Next time, in the Publishers, Movers and Shakers Online series, I hope to have articles from Jordans and ICLR.
And in the Irish Extra, there will be a review of Justis from Context, with particular emphasis on the Irish Reports and Digests. The review will be by Nuala Byrne, Law Librarian of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Dublin.
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