National Institute for Trial Advocacy

Mediasite for me means innovation. It gives us the freedom to try new things and reach more attorneys nationwide.
Wendy Velez, Associate Executive Director of Operations

Challenge

For more than 40 years, the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) has provided in-person legal advocacy skills training for lawyers. NITA holds about 300 one-day or multi-day courses annually for continuing legal education credits and accreditation. Intersecting demands on time, travel constraints and budget concerns led the non-profit organization to explore ways to provide an online programming component to complement its courses.

Searching for ways to recharge its educational programs, NITA crafted a video strategy based on Mediasite that would strengthen the workforce, connect learners with other legal professionals and give them access to a brand new catalog of courses without leaving their desks.

Solution

Through an online program, “Deposition Skills: Online,” instructors record lectures with Mediasite in NITA’s Studio71, and remote participants access classes through a catalog of on-demand lectures and participate in live classes with webcams.

In addition to these courses, NITA uses Mediasite in its series of private classes for individual firms. Using flipped instruction, when faculty pre-record lectures for attorneys to watch before class, they spend class time with hands-on learning, workshops and dynamic discussions and interactions about what they learned before the class.

Results

NITA’s online learning program has racked up accolades since the beginning. The Association for Continuing Legal Education named the “Deposition Skills Online” program best in the programming category. Plus, in its first year, the on-demand Mediasite content received more than 6,000 views

“Mediasite for me means innovation. It gives us the freedom to try new things and reach more attorneys nationwide,” said Wendy Velez, NITA’s associate executive director of operations. “Mediasite is easy to use and anyone can do this. You don’t have to be a film school graduate to be able to operate the platform. We can track analytics and see who watched what, which is important for the state accreditation boards.”

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