Laptop Versus Longhand Note Taking in a Professional Doctorate Course: Student Performance, Attitudes, and Behaviors

Objective: To determine the relationship between longhand note taking versus laptop note taking on pharmacy students’ examination performance and identify differences in attitudes and behaviors as it relates to the note taking process. Methods: A small group of students consented voluntarily to take longhand notes, doing away with their laptops during portions of the course administered by study investigators. Analyses were conducted on block examination performance, with each student’s score on the first examination serving as a performance benchmark to assess change. Laptop and longhand note takers completed a survey regarding various aspects of their note taking attitudes and behaviors, and also included open text comments to capture qualitative experiential data. Results: Based upon a relatively small number of participants in the longhand cohort (n=11), the differences between the groups on subsequent examinations was approximately 3.5 percentage points in favor of the longhand note-takers. There were significant differences observed between the two groups on several survey items, with longhand note takers less likely to be distracted in class and more likely to agree that other students ask to review their notes due to the quality of those notes. Conclusions: Longhand note taking might facilitate more accurate recall or retrieval in test situations, thus producing improved test scores for certain types of students in certain types of courses; however additional research is needed. Faculty may consider whether modifying students’ classroom note taking practices may contribute to an improved learning experience

CYBERSLACKING : A LITERATURE REVIEW OF NON-ACADEMIC MEDIA MULTITASKING OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

AbstractUniversity students use internet in daily life ranging from learning, socializing and recreation purposes. Cyberslacking in the campus relates to the topic of non-academic media multitasking among university students. Media multitasking defines as connecting to more than one media simultaneously and cyberslacking is activities with media multitasking in the context of non-academic internet access during lectures. This present study will review some researches on cyberslacking and non-academic media multitasking in the context of university students. The review findings conclude that cyberslacking is also media multitasking in the context of non-academic internet access during lectures. Media multitasking could be distinguished between learning related activities and unlearning related activities and cyberslacking is regarded as unlearning related activities. Students who do cyberslacking mostly engage in social networking sites during media multitasking behaviors. Some studies discuss the impact of cyberslacking and non-media multitasking to academic performance. Other studies also mentioned about self regulation and self efficacy as important variables that relate to cyberslacking and non-academic media multitasking. Further researches on cyberslacking should be considered building theoretical model of cyberslacking in the educational setting as well as the development of measurement tools for academic cyberslacking behaviors. Keywords : cyberslacking, non-academic media multitasking, university students

Personality, Technology, and Learning

Computers continued encroachment on today’s society can be seen in a college lecture hall, where a growing number of students use laptops for their academic needs. Current academic laptop use research predominantly makes broad generalizations across users, indicating that laptop use in the classroom has negative influences on academic outcomes. However, this research neglects to take into account possible individual differences in the users. It is hypothesized that students\u27 levels of conscientiousness and impulsivity would moderate the relationship between laptop use and academic performance, while a student’s multitasking experience would mediate this same relationship, forming a moderated mediation model. Using an online sample of college aged students (N= 195), the hypothesized moderated mediation model was not supported. Students\u27 levels of conscientiousness or impulsivity do not moderate the relationship between laptop use and academic performance, and a student’s multitasking experience does not mediate this same relationship

Note-Taking Mode and Academic Performance in Two Law School Courses

The use of laptops in law school classrooms has become fairly commonplace, especially in the last decade. Yet, studies in other higher education settings have found an association between note-taking mode and academic performance; specifically, using a laptop to take notes in the classroom is associated with negative academic performance outcomes. This study endeavors to assess the relationship between note-taking mode and academic performance in the law school setting. We compare the academic performance of handwriters to laptop users in two required, doctrinal courses as well as the effect of a randomly assigned treatment, exposing roughly half of the students in our analysis to a memorandum explaining the possible pitfalls of using a laptop to take class notes. We find that handwriting class notes has a strong positive association with academic performance in these two law school courses, supporting findings of the benefits of handwriting class notes in other academic settings

Laptop Versus Longhand Note Taking in a Professional Doctorate Course: Student Performance, Attitudes, and Behaviors

  Objective: To determine the relationship between longhand note taking versus laptop note taking on pharmacy students’ examination performance and identify differences in attitudes and behaviors as it relates to the note taking process. Methods: A small group of students consented voluntarily to take longhand notes, doing away with their laptops during portions of the course administered by study investigators. Analyses were conducted on block examination performance, with each student’s score on the first examination serving as a performance benchmark to assess change. Laptop and longhand note takers completed a survey regarding various aspects of their note taking attitudes and behaviors, and also included open text comments to capture qualitative experiential data. Results: Based upon a relatively small number of participants in the longhand cohort (n=11), the differences between the groups on subsequent examinations was approximately 3.5 percentage points in favor of the longhand note-takers. There were significant differences observed between the two groups on several survey items, with longhand note takers less likely to be distracted in class and more likely to agree that other students ask to review their notes due to the quality of those notes. Conclusions: Longhand note taking might facilitate more accurate recall or retrieval in test situations, thus producing improved test scores for certain types of students in certain types of courses; however additional research is needed. Faculty may consider whether modifying students’ classroom note taking practices may contribute to an improved learning experience.   Article Type:  Original Researc

The Relationship Between Note-Taking Method And Grade Point Average When Controlling For Act Score And Self-Regulation Ability In Undergraduate Students

A sample of 130 students from a mid-sized research university in the southern United States were asked questions about their note-taking practices, particularly about the percentage of classes in which they had taken notes on a laptop for both the previous semester and for their entire undergraduate career. Note-taking method was then entered as an independent variable along with composite ACT score and each students\u27 score on the Self Regulation Survey (SRS) (Schwarzer, Diehl, & Schmitz, 1999) into a multiple regression analysis to determine the extent to which there is a relationship between note-taking method and grade point average. No significant relationship was found between note-taking method and grade point average for either the fall 2016 semester or for students\u27 overall grade point average. While there is a relationship between composite ACT score and grade point average, no relationship was found between students\u27 scores on the Self Regulation Survey and grade point average. Although not a focus of the study, the researcher did find a significant relationship between composite ACT score and note taking method. This relationship merits additional research