Review of Butterworths' Electronic Tutorials - Corporations and Associations Law

1. "Corporations and Associations Law" is a Butterworths computer disk that provides students with an interactive form of learning. The disk, which can be purchased separately at a cost of $20, is based on the Corporations and Associations Law, 3rd editi on, Workbook written by John Gooley - which is available from Butterworths at a cost of $23. The tutorials allow students to enter responses to the questions supplied. They then assess their own answers from the critical review questions in the program.

2. The software was easily installed and the screen formatted instructions were clear and straight forward. Each of the 26 tutorials identifies the topic and its objectives. The topics include: forms of business organisations; the choice-sole trader, partnership, company, joint ventures; company constitution; contractual, tortious and criminal liability; share capital; directors and officers; accounts and audits; meetings; and takeovers.

3. The format for answering tutorials was the same for each tutorial. When the student selects a tutorial the topic objectives are briefly stated. The objectives include the rudimentary knowledge that the student should have acquired before attempting the tutorial. When the student acknowledges the pre-equisites the screen format changes to reveal the number of questions for that particular topic. The number of questions for each tutorial ranges from 4 to 12, with the average being approximately 8.

4. The student should select the questions in numerical sequence as the questions for each tutorial commence with conceptual issues followed by questions involving a more complex application of those concepts. Once the student has submitted a response to a question the electronic tutorial will respond with the correct answer. At this juncture the student is requested to respond either affirmatively or negatively on whether their answer included the key issues. From these responses the program maintains a record of the student's progress in each tutorial and this information is easily accessible.

5. The answers to each question invariably include a specific reference to a chapter and paragraph number in the text book Corporations and Associations Law, 3rd edition, written by John Gooley. The text book, which can be acquired at a cost of $65 from Butterworths, includes the disk at no additional cost.

6. Law students who have had little or no exposure to commerce would find the self-paced interactive tutorials particularly helpful in acquiring a fundamental understanding in Corporations Law. Unfortunately the tutorials do not reflect the substantial changes that have resulted from implementation of the first two stages of the Corporations Law Simplification Program. In addition the duties of non-executive directors is not accurately reflected and there is no tutorial on the important topic of related parties.

7. In conclusion it is difficult to recommend purchase of the integrated text book, Workbook and disk package at a total cost of $88. However, law students without a commerce background, would find the disk alone does assist in acquiring a basic knowledge of Corporations Law.