Using Web Cameras, Laptop Computers, and Inexpensive Performance Analyst Software to Improve Student Negotiation Skills

Gerald R. Williams
Professor of Law
Brigham Young University

There is a world of difference between teaching negotiation theory and helping students develop fluent negotiation skills. Skills require the expert application of theory in a great variety of real-world settings. The principles of reflective practice are widely used for skills instruction. However, empirical studies of the training methods of world-class performers demonstrate adding the principles of deliberate practice to skills training leads to higher levels of skill development. The essence of deliberate practice can be summarized as follows: students must practice

(1) well-defined tasks
(2) at appropriate levels of difficulty,
(3) receive timely feedback,
(4) correct errors, and
(5) practice until the skills become automatic.

To implement deliberate practice in a large-enrollment law school negotiation course (approximately 50 students each semester), I assign students to use inexpensive web cameras (checked out from the circulation desk of the law library), which they connect to a USB port in their laptop computers. In this simple, efficient manner, they make a digital video recording of each out-of-class negotiation exercise. For each negotiation, students are assigned to focus their attention on two or three well-defined tasks. Students then review their videos on their laptop computers using Performance Analyst software which my colleague Larry Farmer and I have developed. The software permits students to rapidly find, tag, and add written comments to video segments in which they performance (or miss an opportunity to performance) the assigned tasks. Students upload their video files and accompanying Performance Analyst session file to their assigned folder on the class website. My teaching assistants and I use the same software to review the first few minutes (or more) of each video and all the video segments tagged by the student. Simply clicking on a tag takes us immediately to the associated video segment. We watch the segment, read the accompanying student comment, and add our own written feedback. In this manner, we can review and give feedback on a 45-minute negotiation in 20 minutes or so. We then upload the session file, which now includes our comments, to the student¡¯s folder on the class website to complete the feedback loop.