TAKING NOTES ONLINE - TIPS, TRICKS & DISCREPANCIES
UTILIZE A CLOUD-BASED, GLOBALLY ACCESSIBLE SYSTEM
This is the largest, most imperative tip I can provide. Recently, my mac crashed and the only way to fix it without dropping a grand was to wipe it entirely. If I hadn’t been using google drive for the majority of my notes over the past 4 years in IB, I would have been royally screwed. So pick an online program that works for you, learn it, and love it. Google is a personal favorite of mine.
ENSURE THE SYSTEM YOU PICK CAN DO EVERYTHING YOU NEED
Many students, especially college students, cannot survive on a word processor alone in this day and age. Whatever system you pick to do your notes on, ensure it has a powerpoint and excel equivalent, along with whatever else you may need to get along.
Don’t walk into class your first day using your new computer or tablet having never played with the word processing system you intend to use. Familiarize yourself with the system you are working with. See it’s glitches, it’s flaws, and master it. This will make class the day of painless
If you’re doing your notes online, the best way to review them is to PRINT PRINT PRINT. Once you have finished typing them, this will allow you to highlight and review effectively while utilizing your available resources to make changes and addition. This is a hands-on form of material review before the occurrence of an assessment.
ENSURE IT IS ACCESSIBLE OVER ALL DEVICES
The most functional aspect of cloud-based systems such as icloud and google is their functionality across devices. Before you select a program to use, ensure that your chosen one does have this functionality. This will allow for an expedited, more pacified form of note taking.
In lecture-based courses, it is often hard to catch the entirety of what the teacher is saying. A great aspect of cloud-based systems is their functionality for group notes. Invite a couple of your friends to work with you on a group document for that day’s lecture. If there was a critical point that you missed in your haste, chances are one of your groupie’s got your back.
Saving offline ensures that if you’re studying on a plane, in an area with no service, or if you simply run out of data, your back is c o v e r e d. This is an incredibly useful function for college students traveling from home to school.
In the moment, it may seem like an ingenious plan to simply turn on the speech to text function of whatever word processor you select, and allow it to pick up the lecture word for word. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Audio processing programs like these are often flawed. There is nothing worse than having no notes on the day’s lecture due to personal negligence
DON’T ENTIRELY ABANDON WRITTEN NOTES
Written notes are an age old platform which are versatile in encouraging memory, allowing use of fun color, and developing handwriting skills. Though notes on the computer are fun, simplified, and helpful in sharing information, they cannot be the only art form you are familiar with. After all, a certain teacher may not allow use of electronics in the classroom and then you are in a predicament. This should be remembered in situations such as online note taking.
