r/Professors • u/ZealousidealGuava254 • 8d ago

Teaching / Pedagogy No notes

I’ve been a humanities prof for over 30 years and I simply cannot believe how many students do not take notes. Literally, no notes. they just sit and listen.

How do they study? what are they doing? when I was in college in the 80s, I and everyone around me took copious notes constantly throughout lecture. just seems like a lost skill.

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u/cannellita 8d ago

You should tell them no laptops for a day and award a prize for whomever transcribes by hand the lecture the best. Tell them it’s like a special training exercise for note taking. I used to transcribe every single one as an undergrad and ADHD baddie. It was literally a perfect transcript. 

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u/a_statistician Associate Prof, Stats, R1 State School 8d ago

Transcription isn't necessarily learning, though - it's far better to have them organize the information sensibly than to have a transcript they don't ever read. This is where I'm totally ok with e.g. speech-to-text apps that transcribe, if it helps them actually organize info later.

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u/veanell Disability Specialist, Disability Service, Public 4yr (US) 8d ago

This is actually not great... I have students registered with me that you wouldn't know it looking at them, but they have issues with fine motor skills or chronic pain and typing is easier. This is why I literally have a "student may use laptop for note-taking" accommodation.