I teach Legal Research to Paralegal students. The last three semester
the students have had access to the "How to Shepardize(TM)" tutorial.
The tutorial is loaded (with appropriate permission) on computers in the
lab. Also, for students who have appropriate computers, I lend them a
floppy disk.
I don't know if this is because of licensing or for some computer reason,
but the software is loaded on the harddrives rather than the network
server. If your lab loaded it on the network server for use on
individual PCs that could be causing the problem.
The major problem is people not following the directions and not properly
laoding it. That is solved by those who use it in a lab. I am becoming
a pretty good telephone computer diagostician, handling phone calls from
students trying to run the software when it is not properly loaded.
The major complaint that I get is that it is slow. Which, unless run on a
fast machine with a good video driver, it is.
But as to its effectiveness as a training tool, I think it works. Since
there are graded assignments which require Shepardizing(TM) I have
worried about unfairness to students who do not have access to
appropriate computers. That concern is moderated by the availability in
the computer lab.
I'll inquire of someone who might have gotten complaints from the lab.
Billie J. Grey
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