The first answer to that question is that there is a much bigger world out there as a marketplace  for your ADR skills and services  than those who can attend a mediation or other ADR session in person. Moreover ODR tools and skills also add value  to, and improve, in-person  mediation. Additionally, applying the fast developing online technologies to resolving disputes is taking an increasingly significant role in justice systems worldwide. So the question is better framed as ‘Why not train in ODR?”

The European Union has now passed a Regulation on ODR under which there is now an EU run website  to direct the parties in disputes related to consumer transactions to various approved ADR services operating online.

Moreover, as from the 15th February 2016  it became a legal duty on all in the EU who sell products or services online to carry a link on their websites to the EU ODR platform. This will have the effect of promoting a large increase in the use of ODR in such disputes (continue below)

As there is no value limit in the definition of ‘consumer’, this duty, to effectively help develop market awareness of ODR through the link, will apply to those selling ocean going yachts as much as to phone accessories.

In the UK in 2016, Lord Justice Briggs published his Final Report into the structure of the UK court system, which supports the proposals in the Report of the Civil Justice Council’s ODR Advisory Group (of which your lead tutor, Graham Ross, is a member and co-author of the Report) recommending the setting up of ‘HM Online Court’. The Court and Tribunals Service is already working on development of this online justice addition to the court system with the first online court pilot now in operation. Not only will such an online court make use of online technology but it will include within the court system all forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution (mediation, arbitration, adjudication etc) so that the word ‘Alternative’ then becomes redundant or, more accurately, replaced by ‘Appropriate’.

ODR is often used as a term to refer to simply using online technology as a medium for communication. As this course will highlight, ODR is far more than that (as the image below makes clear).

However, even when focusing just on online communication, mediating online is not just about using the technology but, more importantly, understanding the dynamics of online discourse and how mediators can best adapt their skills, such as by generating and maintaining trust whilst not meeting the parties, as well as by controlling the pace and atmosphere of the discussions.

Mediators who can better make use of online technology will have a marketing advantage in that they will be able to offer their services to parties in dispute who simply cannot, at proportionate cost and time, resolve their disputes in person. More than that, ODR skills add value to in-person mediations by enabling much preparatory work to be undertaken online (clarifying and narrowing the issues, beginning to brainstorm alternate solutions, ensuring the parties fully understand, and buy into, the process etc, ensuring that the mediator can ‘hit the ground running’ at the beginning of the in-person meeting so that more time can be spent productively moving forward.

“I am pleased to endorse this  extensive and thorough  course of training not only on  knowledge  of ODR , its history, its developments around the world , legislation and issues of justice affected by ODR but at a practical level the course teaches practitioners into adapting their existing skills to the online environment. Whilst there are not as yet any  standards created for training in ODR,  this course , in turning  trainees into ODR experts,  satisfies Continuing Professional Development requirements  for ADR practitioners”.

Professor Ethan Katsh, Director of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution, University of Massachusetts

This course, awarding 20 hours of CPD, will equip ADR professionals to market their services to industries and organisations handling large volumes of disputes in way that will enable them to provide ADR services in a far more efficient, economic and profitable way than through traditional norms of ADR.

This course is delivered partly online and partly in person.

During your ODR Mediation course, you will cover the following topics:-

* ODR related legislation
* ODR in the court system
* Demonstrations of available ODR services
* The pros and cons of offering ADR online
* Developing trust online
* Appropriate procedures and techniques for communication
* Avoiding the pitfalls when communicating online
* Time management in asynchronous online conversations
* Adapting discourse for the online environment
* Promoting your ODR skills
* Marketing opportunities specific to your practice
* Making online mediation cost effective and profitable
* Exploiting the opportunities for online mediation within lawyer free courts and tribunals

The elements of the course include:-

1. Reading material covering the above topics.
2. Access to a series of 7 video/slide presentations intotal covering each of the above topics to view in your own time with no date limit.
3. Quizzes and assessment.
4. A minimum of four live, one hour,  webinars with experts and leaders in the field.
5. A 1 hour session of personal 1:1 training (or, at an additional quoted fee,  group training for a firm) with the emphasis on assistance with marketing in selected categories of disputes. One will be at the outset (to enable marketing advice to be personalised) and one at the end of the core program. These sessions will be by web conferencing although in-person meetings can be arranged for an additional fee.
6. At least 2 live roleplays, one using web conferencing and one using asynchronous discussion.
7. Membership of our panel of ODR Professionals with access to the Association’s private LinkedIn group where, as well as being updated on ODR developments, members will be able to network with fellow ODR professionals and develop ideas, projects etc.This is a small group focused on practical aspects  to help exploit the opportunities ODR  opens up for practitioners.
8. A continually growing online library resource of references to books and papers on the subject with full access to certain of them.