What do students do in this clinic?
Affordable housing issues are proliferating across the nation. Yet lawyers who help moderate and low-income tenants are few and far between. Chatbots–simple question-answer flowcharts–are emerging as a way of delivering essential legal information. In this course, students will identify and research a pressing housing issue facing a community—if possible, their local community—and will find and collaborate with an organization that is trying to address that issue. Then each student will construct a chatbot that addresses the issue. To build this tool, students will need to learn the law governing their rental housing issue, e.g., remedies for needed repairs, laws governing tenant application fees, return of security deposit, expungement of eviction court records, and the like. Students also will research resources—including, especially, human helpers—for tenants experiencing that housing challenge in the chosen locale.
Students will begin by creating a flowchart reflecting the logic of the law governing the matter before using the software application FlowXO to develop a chatbot that addresses the housing law concern they have chosen. The final phase of the course will be to vet the chatbot each student has developed with the coaching of faculty. We anticipate that each student will post a chatbot on Canvas, which will allow it to be seen, used as an example, and tested by students, faculty and staff. Some may be deployed on the website of the organization with which they have partnered in identifying the housing topic for the chatbot. The ethics, limits, and possibilities of legal information chatbots will be included in the course readings and discussions.
Housing Justice Chatbot-Building Application – Chatbot Application Spring 2020
FAQ
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What happens in the classroom component?
This is a fully online course, so there is no “classroom component.” -
What do students learn in this clinic?
They learn how to connect with a housing justice organization in their home community, how to frame a question that is amenable to being answered with a small piece of artificial intelligence – a chatbot – and then how to answer that question with accurate legal information. They then build a chatbot for that purpose. The ethical and justice dimensions of artificial intelligence are also considered in the course of this work. -
When is this clinic offered?
Spring only -
How many credits?
3 -
Are students permitted or encouraged to take this clinic for additional credits?
No -
Are there any required or recommended pre-requisites?
Property (required first year) -
Can students with full-time jobs take this clinic?
Yes -
Can students who live outside the Twin Cities take this clinic?
It is fully on-line so most students will not live in Minnesota. -
Who should take this clinic?
Students interested in access to justice and in the equitable housing crisis who also want to develop their skills with technology tools should take this course.
Faculty and Staff
