Note Taking Activity and its assessment in a Blended Learning Environment

"Note-taking" is a popular skill for all types of learning activities. In recent years, the online educational environment has began spreading rapidly at institutes of higher educational, obviating the need for printed materials or written notes. This means that students’ ability to take notes may decline and this may influence the success of their learning.  In order to examine this phenomenon, students' notes were surveyed during a blended learning course in a bachelor level program at a Japanese university. The course consisted of an online test system and face-to-face lectures using ICT equipment. Participant's learning performance was measured using online tests, written essays and a final exam, in addition to the assessment of their notes.  The contributions of note-taking activities were measured using statistical tests. As individual note-taking performance may be based on student's characteristics, these contributions were also examined. In the analysis, metrics of participant's characteristics such as personality, information literacy and learning experience were surveyed. Additionally, lexical features of notes taken were extracted using a text analysis technique, and these features were compared with the grades given. Conceptual mapping of the contents of notes was conducted, and the behaviour of good note-takers is discussed using the extracted results. &nbsp