Public legal education on the small screen.

• Author: Argast, Andi
• Position: Online Law - Reprint

Canadians watch a lot of online videos. In fact, we're second only to the UK. in online videos views with the average Canadian taking in an impressive 291 videos a month. According to StatsCan nearly 80 per cent of Canadians aged 18-64 watch videos online.

Education--including public legal education--is one of the many areas benefiting from the growing popularity of online video. Through websites such as Coursera and the Khan Academy, anyone with a broadband Internet connection can access high quality education material for free. Education--including public legal education--is one of the many areas benefiting from the growing popularity of online video. (For a passionate discussion of the power of video-based education take a look at the Khan Academy TedTalk.) And although they're taking a smaller-scale approach, public legal education organizations across Canada are also making excellent use of video to deliver their services.

"When developing our family law website we decided to include a video option for several reasons. The literacy rates in New Brunswick are extremely low. Being a rural province, facilitating access to information is always a challenge," says Deborah Doherty, Executive Director of Public Legal Education and Information Service of New Brunswick (PLEIS-NB). PLEIS-NB sees videos "as one way to help address the needs of individuals who are auditory/visual learners whether because of low literacy in English or French, or by preference."

Doherty says that PLEIS-NB knows its target audience, and works with other agencies and organizations to put strategies in place to reach these audiences. For example, the videos are used to assist in a monthly workshops series for self-representing family law litigants, which are delivered pro bono by local lawyers in many (often rural) locations.

In addition to their short family law-oriented videos, PLEIS-NB has also produced a number of longer videos hosted on Vimeo, which "educate and inform various segments of the population about particular law information topics," including "youth in conflict with the law, youth victims of crime, abused women, and individuals who volunteer or sit on the board of charitable organizations."

The Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta (CPLEA) has also created videos for a range of audiences; its recent The Case of the Vacation Vegetables is aimed at kids, while other videos cover topics ranging from the Youth Criminal Justice Act to tips for landlords...