Discover

Meet and interview your client to discover a problem space. Go through the discovery phase of the design process with your client, and write an individual reflection blog post documenting the process and the critical observations, insights, and learnings.

After screening, my topic is “organising class notes” in the initial problem finding section. University students have realised the critical of taking good class notes to succeed in their studies. After interviewing four individuals on the subject, I brainstormed and summarised a list of essential points.

I separated the interviewees into two groups: liberal arts students and science students. They had both common points and differences in their views on note-taking.

The interviews

Regarding the interview, both liberal arts students and science students believe that taking notes is necessary to consolidate their knowledge after class better. They would merely write down the essential points in class, not the entire content of the session. However, sometimes there is not even enough time to write down the main points since the teacher speaks at such a fast pace that the students can not keep up with the speed of writing notes.

Video

Brainstorming based on interviews and videos.

Observation and Insights

Observation:

1. During the video, Futian took detailed notes in class, even outlining highlights in different colours.

2. Futian usually presses the pause button several times during the lesson to write notes.

3. Most students only take notes on key points of the teacher’s lecture.

4. My secondary research supports the point in my interview that both arts and science students agree that taking notes is for better revision, with 94.5% of students saying they take notes in class because it provides revision material for exams(Witherby & Tauber, 2019).

5. Most students feel that it is necessary to take notes in class. According to my research, 96.7% of students believe that taking notes is essential. (Witherby & Tauber, 2019)

6. Some students frequently add essential commons and highlights when reviewing again.

7. Marcella admitted that she is occasionally lazy and does not want to take notes.

8. Some students who don't take notes regularly find it useless to do so sometimes.

9. Students report that the most challenging part of writing notes in class is writing them while listening to the lecture and that the speed of writing and organising language cannot keep up with the teacher's lecture.

10. In Futian’s video, the position of the graph in notes is frequently changed, and wrong notes are often erased.

Insight:

1. Those students who are willing to take notes and review because they believe in taking notes. As a result of the survey, 94.5% of students said they take notes in class because it provides revision material for the exam(Amber & Sarah, 2019 ). Furthermore, they believe that it is helpful to understand the course better (Amber & Sarah, 2019 ).

2. From an educational view, it engages students while they listen, improves active learning and stimulates recall, which is why students need to take notes actively. (Joseph, 2018)

3. The thoughts of reluctant note-takers are that it is enough to remember the critical points before the exam. Some even think that they can achieve good grades without taking notes and rely on their intelligence.

4. Some students rely too heavily on the teacher's PowerPoint presentations, resulting in a reluctance to take notes in class. They simply scratch the surface of realising the knowledge instead of investigating it in-depth.

5. Some students focus too much on taking notes, leading to the inability to keep up with the teacher's pace in class.

Summary

In summary, taking notes aims to keep students from becoming distracted in class and help them integrate the knowledge after course. However, the essential thing in class is paying attention and comprehending what the teacher is saying, rather than taking mechanical notes and ignoring the lecture. I searched for some solusions that would allow students to focus on writing notes without ignoring the content of the teacher's lecture. For teachers, “One straightforward approach to quality note taking is to signal the most important content while you lecture” (Dunlosky & Peverly, 2019, p. 2). Such as by reminding students that the next point is the review's focus, listening carefully in class, and then taking notes afterwards (Dunlosky & Peverly, 2019). For students, they can use Cornell note-taking method. “During the lecture, use the note-taking column to record the lecture using the short sentence.” The most important thing is to learn to use abbreviations and symbols to reduce the time spent writing notes.

Reference List

1. Witherby, A. E., & Tauber, S. K. (2019). The Current Status of Students’ Note-Taking: Why and How Do Students Take Notes? Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 8(2), 139–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2019.04.002

2. Siegel, J. (2018). Did you take “good” notes?: On methods for evaluating student notetaking performance. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 35, 85–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2018.07.001

3. Siegel, J. (2018). Did you take “good” notes?: On methods for evaluating student notetaking performance. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 35, 85–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2018.07.001

4. John, D., & Stephen T., P. (2019). How to help students take better notes—ProQuest. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2331807139/fulltext/A8DC579D5214836PQ/1?accountid=8424&forcedol=true

5. The University of Auckland (n.d.) Cornell note-taking method. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://learningessentials.auckland.ac.nz/key-study-skills/note-taking/cornell/

Define