Thoughts on the OLAM

Volume 19, Issue 4

This semester, the Admin Law team – not content with their subject’s already horrific reputation – decided to teach the first part of the course partly online through the online learning and assessment module (the OLAM). In this brave new world of dual-delivery learning, we’ve all had to get a bit creative. But some ideas are definitely better than others.

This monstrosity has 9 quizzes spread over 5 weeks and objectively way more content than a 10% weighted assessment should ever legally be allowed to have. Many a second-year student this semester has lapsed into a false sense of security thinking they’ve caught up for the week, only to realise, “Oh shit! The OLAM!” 

This would all be fine if it wasn’t also fraught with more technical difficulties than Julian Webb’s D&E zoom seminars. From the practice quizzes where the answers were all blank, to the one that gave us all 10/20 for a quiz most of us scored 100% on, to the Groundhog Day-esque weekly email proclaiming the teaching team’s “sincere apologies” about yet another malfunction, it truly has been a ride. 

A subject co-ordinator unilaterally extending assessment deadlines is the stuff of law school legend, that is, until the OLAM became so unwieldy all the deadlines had to be extended by a full 24 hours. But we’re not complaining - three quizzes in 24 hours might have killed us. 

A collective groan could be heard on the evening of 19 March, when the week 3 roundup popped up in inboxes. “How are we only a quarter of the way through the semester?!” we asked, incredulous as we were assured that we had made it through “a quarter of Administrative Law classes.” 

Questions still abound. What were they thinking? When are the assessments due? Is it examinable? What is jurisdictional error? Why is part 2.4 so interminable? You tell us.
We’re still not entirely convinced that this wasn’t just some ploy to actually get people to fill out the SES. 

If there’s one thing for sure, we’ll probably all think twice about going into admin law.

With the end (finally) in sight, the second-year cohort has some things to say – not all of them fit for print. 

“-100/10. Would not recommend.”

“Has anyone done this week’s OLAM?” - Everyone, at some point

“My fear of the OLAM is making me procrastinate”

“I have a growing aversion to OLAM.”
    
“I almost feel like giving [subject co-ordinator] a hard time for making us do the OLAM.”

“Wait, who do I email about technical difficulties again.” – also all of us, at some point

“We are all Sisyphus. The boulder is the OLAM.”

“OLAM stand for Oh, Lord Al-Mighty.”

“I swear half of pt I of the OLAM is just telling them what we’re gonna learn in pt II.”    

The end of the OLAM has left most of us cautiously optimistic that it surely can’t get worse, and the more litigious among us wondering “Can I seek review of the decision to make us do the OLAM?”

This article was penned by a collection of frustrated Admin Law students. 

The views in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of De Minimis or its Editors.