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What does it take to transform a mostly brick-and-mortar law school into an online operation in less than two weeks?

IU McKinney School of Law—like most across the country—had to figure that out when the COVID-19 pandemic closed the doors to in-person teaching in late March.

Fortunately, IU McKinney was already well-positioned to take emergency action, according to the law school’s Director of Online Learning, Professor Max Huffman. The law school has had an ongoing commitment to distance learning and an information and technology (IT) team that didn’t hit pause in its quick work to help faculty and students get online.

"We had already made some important investments in online teaching and learning, and Dean [Andrew R.] Klein has been behind it," Professor Huffman said. "The response of our staff and faculty was extraordinary, as was our IT department. We couldn’t run the law school without the IT team, even before this crisis."

That team, led by Assistant Dean of Technology Services Terri Cuellar and including Andrew Bell, Brianna Garr-Bland, Darius Price, Brian Singleton, Michelle Werner and Jason Yavor are generally always busy with faculty and staff needs, from trouble-shooting hardware and software issues to setting up for large-scale events requiring audio-visual equipment.

Within hours of the announcement that all classes would be online for the rest of the spring semester, the IT team began collaborating with Professor Huffman on the practical steps needed to go forward. They quickly organized a series of faculty training sessions to help IU McKinney professors get up to speed on online instructional technology and pedagogy and called on the expertise of the IUPUI Center for Teaching and Learning for support in helping the law school quickly re-design law courses, assessments and exams.

Students were on an extended spring break, but when they returned and classes resumed online, they expressed few concerns about coping with the technology aspect, according to Cueller. "It’s just a sign of the times," she said. "Our students are very comfortable with technology."

For the majority of IU McKinney faculty, this was all new. Florence W. Roisman, William J. Harvey Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Professor, says she had never really considered teaching classes online.

Like the rest of her colleagues, she’s adapted, however. She would rather be teaching in person, but everyone is demonstrating their resilience in the face of the crisis, she said. "I am grateful for the comradeship and assistance of colleagues from the faculty, IT and other staff, and the flexibility of students," Professor Roisman said.

Students are also experiencing, in real time, the importance of adapting, Professor Huffman said. "This is a real lawyering skill, to handle this kind of disruption," Huffman said. "Lawyers around the world have had to adjust to this new normal."

From their remote offices, IT staff continue answering staff and faculty questions and solving problems with their own unique situations working from home. Technology Support Specialist Darius Price is working and also caring for his one-year-old daughter. Systems Administrator Brian Singleton and his wife, a teacher, have five-year-old twins to wrangle. Web Application Developer Andrew Bell adopted two cats. Michelle Werner, Senior Web and Database Developer, has a devoted following for her online yoga classes.

"I have the best team, no doubt," Cueller said. "They respond to every request with respect. We get the job done."

In April, the entire IT staff was recognized with the Outstanding Administrative Staff Award. Traditionally, the award recognizes a member of the school’s administrative staff whose support and dedication to excellence has furthered our mission, but in announcing the award, the IU McKinney Faculty Executive Committee noted that, “It is hard to imagine how we could have made it through this year without the truly remarkable efforts of this extraordinary group.”

The IT staff is pictured above: (top row) Yavor, Price, Werner; (second row) Cueller, Bell, Garr-Bland; and (bottom) Singleton.

"Under the leadership of Professor Max Huffman, IU McKinney has been an innovator in online legal education for a number of years," said Vice Dean Karen Bravo. For incoming first-year students in Fall 2020, at least half of their courses will be taught in person with half online.

Professor Huffman is the recipient a 2020 Faculty Leadership Award for his work on many fronts, but the committee especially commended his leadership in the transition to online learning during the pandemic, noting that "In his capacity of the Director of Online Learning, Max has helped us, as a faculty, know what to wear and how to elevate our screens for online teaching, how to take baby steps and to be brave, and, most important, how to be comfortable, prepared, and connected as we approached the online learning environment for spring of 2020 and beyond."