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A custom-made animated film is helping UWA's law students to understand a principle of law.

It is the first time any faculty has commissioned and used such a film in teaching a degree course.

The Equity and Trusts: Estoppel Tutorial is based on a script written by Law lecturer Associate Professor Natalie Skead and was created with the assistance of Jay Jay Jegathesan, founder and leader of UWA's presence in virtual worlds.

He engaged Laurina Hawks from Ulm, in Germany, winner of the 2 ^nd international UWA virtual world film challenge, who created the short film using re-creations of the Crawley campus already in Second Life.

Equity and Trusts is a compulsory second year unit for the Juris Doctor (postgraduate law degree). A/Professor Skead said presenting the facts in a movie resulted in a far more rigorous and detailed assessment of the facts and application of the law to those facts.

"What is wonderful is that in addition to listening carefully to the dialogue, students needed to use their cognitive  skills to scrutinise the non-verbal actions and responses of the characters to interpret that dialogue," she said. "By both watching and listening to the fact scenario as it unfolds rather than just reading it in a written summary, students had the opportunity to begin to develop the broader range of analytical and communication skills required for legal practice. Laurina did a brilliant job allowing for nuances in the film, even capturing things like stammering and facial expressions important in conveying the story."

Watch the short film here .

The Estoppel principle, presented in the film, is a legal claim or defence that may be used when somebody reneges on or contradicts a representation which the other person relied and acted upon to his or her detriment. The word estoppel is from the ancient French estopper, meaning to stop up or impede.

The students were unanimous in their enjoyment of the exercise and agreed they would like more such video presentations to stimulate discussion.

A/Professor Skead said the discussion that resulted was far more sophisticated and detailed than previous exercises conducted using more conventional methods.  "Second Life was a very valuable tool for connecting students to 'real life' experiences," she said.

Mr Jegathesan, who is also school manager in Physics, said he was thrilled at how successful the exercise had been.

"I hope to continue supporting more and more areas in the targeted use of Second Life where it adds value. We have had various activities and outcomes across the schools of Business, Education, and Physiology, Anatomy and Human Biology, as well as this newest venture with the Law School," he said.

"This is an exciting development, and institutions across the globe are looking to UWA's leadership in this area. The most recent was the Digital Education Show Asia in Kuala Lumpur in May where several presentations were delivered on how UWA has used virtual worlds to support teaching, research, architecture, international community development, art and film."