Judicial Branch Education recently worked with the Information Technology Division to prepare an additional set of laptop computers to be used for court staff training. In the past, JBE had only eight laptop computers configured to use for JUSTICE Training sessions. They now have the capacity to allow up to 16 participants in each course. With the combination of new laptop computers and reconfigured classroom space, JBE is able to increase the capacity for court staff to attend courses in both Broken Bow and Lincoln. During the month of October, JBE began simultaneous teaching in order to increase their capacity to provide special courses requested by individual courts. The expansion in equipment and training staff has given JBE the resources to continue to grow the educational opportunities offered for the courts.

In addition, Judicial Branch Education has been working to update and redevelop several of the basic courses that are required for new court staff in both the district courts and county courts. In the past year, JBE trainers have updated the County Juvenile, Civil, Criminal, Probate, and Docket courses. The process has allowed JBE to incorporate additional information into the JUSTICE courses and provide a more hands-on approach to Docket training. The use of court recordings and transcripts provides a more experiential learning environment for court staff.

As JBE continues to progress in course development, court staff can look forward to additional online learning opportunities as training staff work to move some of the day-one course components for County JUSTICE courses online. Day-one of Criminal in currently available and should take approximately two-three hours to complete online versus driving to the course for a full day. Day-one of County Civil will be available before the end of the year. The development work will continue into 2019 and will include additional courses for District Court staff as well.