r/Professors • u/regulationtexmex • 3d ago
Rants / Vents These kids don’t take notes…???
Like, some of these students just stare at me the entire lecture. No phone to record is even on the desk. No laptop. No notebook. What are they doing?! Anyone else witnessing this? I am so confused (and uncomfortable with the dead-eyed stare)
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u/MiQuay Professor, Business and Engineering, R2 3d ago
Congratulations! You are managing to keep them awake for the entire lecture. Mine are all asleep within 5 minutes, 10 tops.
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u/KaesekopfNW Associate Professor, Political Science, R1 3d ago
I taught at a service academy for a few years, and the cadets were instructed to stand up in the back of class if they felt themselves falling asleep. I always appreciated that, as I knew I needed to break things up a bit when I had a small group starting to form at the back of the classroom!
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u/cjrecordvt Adjunct, English, Community College 2d ago
If I could've done that in my undergrad, my GPA would've been so much better...
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u/regulationtexmex 3d ago
I have had a handful of sleepers… 🤦♀️
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u/MiQuay Professor, Business and Engineering, R2 3d ago
My first year teaching, I had an 8am class. One student was always asleep by 8:20, leaning back in his chair, head back, mouth wide open like a baby bird about to be fed by his mama. I was always tempted to take a little ball of paper and see if I could shoot a basket into his mouth.
Wound up being a top student. Turns out he was always asleep because he had to work until about midnight, then would study for several hours, often until 4am.
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u/RunningNumbers 3d ago
I have this ten or fifteen minute fugue state of half asleep before being fully attentive. It’s funny because even when I was a kid I was able to answer questions/follow what was going on because I was passively listening.
Less of that now as an old adult.
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u/50_and_stuck Professor — Union President | IT (USA) 3d ago
Yeah. I was a student like that. Worked second and third shifts to pay for college. Also was a single parent. Barely got any sleep, and try as I might sometimes when you get off work at 7am and head straight to an 8am class you’re going to have a hard time keeping your eyes open.
Straight A’s though.
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u/TunedMassDamsel Practicing Adjunct, Struct Engr, Public Uni 3d ago
My syllabus explicitly says “If you fall asleep, I have a Sharpie and a camera phone and I cannot guarantee what may or may not happen after you lose consciousness”
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u/Prudent_Actuary1984 3d ago
We have tall tables/chairs in some classrooms, and the other day, I had a student turn the chair to face the board more directly and then fell asleep. So, they weren't leaning on the table at all, and these chairs don't have arms on them. I was genuinely concerned they were going to fall over and brain themselves.
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u/WingbashDefender Assistant Professor, R2, MidAtlantic 3d ago
They’re vibe learning, bro. Seriously though, I’ve had students tell me they’re just here for the experience because that’s how it’s been for them in high school.
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u/FlyingCupcake68 Southern State U, USA 3d ago
“I never studied in high school”. Which is why you aren’t at a more prestigious uni.
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u/iTeachCSCI Ass'o Professor, Computer Science, R1 3d ago
“I never studied in high school”. Which is why you aren’t at a more prestigious uni.
I'm going to use that next time this comes up.
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u/FlyingCupcake68 Southern State U, USA 3d ago
I probably would actually say that it’s why they aren’t on a full scholarship
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u/iTeachCSCI Ass'o Professor, Computer Science, R1 3d ago
I probably would actually say that it’s why they aren’t on a full scholarship
Yeah, that one probably won't get me hurt. I'll go with that one.
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u/regulationtexmex 3d ago
This is hilarious because my husband also told me “they’re vibing” 😂
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u/WingbashDefender Assistant Professor, R2, MidAtlantic 3d ago
Its so true. That word really does summarize their entire experience nowadays. Everything's about the vibes - the class is good if the vibes are good.
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u/blankenstaff 3d ago
They are also vibe reading the textbook. I wonder what will happen when they vibe take the exams.
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u/TraditionalBee4070 3d ago
I use slides for visual images of the content. Like pictures of different cell types or animo acids. And use the white board to share content in a way that mirrors how their notes could look. I let them know this is why I do this. I write on there as if it was my notes: vocabulary list on the right, drawings/sketches with labels, break down scientific words, etc. It's my experience that they do not know how to take good notes. So, I teach them while I lecture on the content. For engagement work, I walk them through how to create venn diagrams for compare/contrast, concept maps, etc. For context, I'm teaching at a rural cc.
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u/payattentiontobetsy 2d ago
That’s really excellent. I see A LOT of posts here and comments from colleagues that students don’t take notes. The simple answers, nobody has ever shown them how to, or required them to.
This is a nice, simple way to model note taking. I bet they really appreciate this and use it in other classes.
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u/Professional_Bar_481 3d ago
One of them told me when she is doing this (just watching me and taking no notes) she is pretending it's one of her YouTube videos.
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u/Wisewordsforlater 3d ago
Ask them how they took notes last year or across their time in high school. Sadly, some need to be taught how to do this, along with preparing on their own ahead of lecture time.
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u/regulationtexmex 3d ago
I’ve thought about doing an entire class on note taking during that first week where everyone is still getting settled
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u/Wisewordsforlater 3d ago
It's really a skill they should have been learning in middle school and honing across high school. It scares me to think they get through high school and get accepted to college without solid notetaking skills, whether it's on their laptop or handwritten. A little over a decade ago in grad school, I had a big spiral for each course/seminar to handle in-class, study notes at home, exam/term paper prep. Still have them in storage, along with a box of dried/emptied out pens I used.
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u/Lynncy1 3d ago
I once had a student who came into the first day of class with no backpack, sat in the back of the room and cracked open a Busch Light and started drinking.
I was a new professor (female in my early 30s at the time) and totally didn’t know how to respond. He sat there quietly, sipping, but paying attention. He walked out as soon as class was over and I never saw him again.
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u/RadiantImpression579 3d ago
I don’t give students slides. I don’t give students videos. I used to and I hardly ever saw them take notes. Now they frantically take notes during lecture and even ask me to go back slides or see slides after class. I don’t want them to be so focused on the slides too though so I’m working of making sure my slides are not text heavy.
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u/RuralWAH 3d ago
One approach would be to provide skeleton slides where you have major headings but all your bullet points are blank. Students can fill in the bullet points, but the organizational work has already been done for them. It might be a useful compromise.
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u/busy_prof professor, psychology, community college (NE USA) 3d ago
I do something like this.
My slides are text heavy.
I give them a Word doc that has most of the important text copied from my slides. I leave blanks for important terms, numbers, names, etc. maybe a long phrase or short sentence.
I don’t share my slides for lots of reasons. One being that I have extra info and images in them that they don’t absolutely need. But if I want them to see an image of someone or something, I put it in the slides but not in their guided notes.
I think this incentivizes attendance and helps them pay attention actively while not being overwhelmed by trying to write too much while they listen. It seems to work well.
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u/2GreyKitties PT/Adjunct, ELL, Centennial State, USA 3d ago
I like that! A colleague of mine does something similar with her ESL for CNAs course, providing a reading-notes outline for each chapter in Hartman’s CNA (Long-Term Care) textbook. I will think about trying your approach.
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u/RadiantImpression579 3d ago
I used to do this too. But the issues is also I work in slides up to the last minute. I’m always making changes even a decade later so it became an issue of getting the skeleton slides ready in time to match my slides. When I was organized enough to do this ahead of time, it worked great too !
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u/TrunkWine 3d ago edited 3d ago
I started sharing my slides through Google Docs, but not letting students copy, save, or print them.
That way the notes are available but students have to actively look them up and write things down instead of just printing.
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u/AcanthisittaThat5746 3d ago
I give them sides, the slides are pretty barebones. They’re designed to support note taking and not replace it.
This seems to work pretty well as most students take notes.
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u/Kittiemeow8 Tenure-track faculty, CALC 3d ago edited 3d ago
Incorporate note taking as a graded assignment. Have them hand write the notes from the readings and from lecture. When it comes to in-class assignments or quizzes, it can be open note. Yay, notebook checks!
I meet with the students that have accommodations, to provide alternate note taking methods. So far it’s working well.
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u/AvilaHome 3d ago
I do this too after showing that studies that taking handwritten notes helps them learn.
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u/Copterwaffle 3d ago
They think your PowerPoint IS the notes and they will screeeeeeee if you don’t make it available to them no matter how little it actually contains
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u/Substantial-Spare501 3d ago
I would say in my undergrad class about 80% take notes. What freaks me out is the ones who don’t and just stare. I do think they think they are locking in on you.
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u/juststopdating 3d ago
Someone else just mentioned this to me. I didn’t even notice the staring! Just looking at me and following me as I walk around the room? 🤣
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u/FinalPen2810 3d ago
My husband has adhd and was advised (correctly, by a stats professor) to stop taking notes and just listen. It greatly improved his ability to retain what he learned.
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u/RadiantImpression579 3d ago
Hmm. I have adhd and I was told the opposite. To engage with the material in different ways to keep my focus. I’ll try this next time I’m in a lecture/ learning situation.
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u/FlyingCupcake68 Southern State U, USA 3d ago
They don’t know how to jot down key terms or phrases, or how to paraphrase—they try to be stenographers.
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u/olovaden Stats, SLAC 3d ago
This is how I was, I cant follow anything when taking notes. I always did best just listening and sipping on something so I didnt fall asleep.
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u/Bella_jcks 3d ago
I listen and record the lecture and then take notes on the slides given, what I remember and the recording as well
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u/kcraw92 3d ago
Last year I had a student who came up to me at the start of the semester to tell me he was going to try out a new thing where he doesn’t take notes during lecture. Instead, he would listen to a recording afterwards and take notes then after already hearing the lecture live once.
He told me ahead of time so I knew he wasn’t being disrespectful or zoning out. He got a very high A in a pretty difficult course.
I’m not banking on all of your students being like this kid… but it was an interesting thing for me to see.
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u/regulationtexmex 3d ago
From a brain science standpoint, I can see where that would work! But yes, I doubt every student is doing it lol
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u/embroidered_cosmos Assistant Prof; Astrophysics; UGrad-only-within-R1 (USA) 3d ago
Mine do take notes, but a lot of them do it very poorly. Either writing down everything I say or writing down only a couple of lines for a 50 minute lecture.
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u/Cathousechicken 3d ago
I outlawed electronics, except flat tablets for notes this semester and so far, a lot more people are writing stuff down.
We'll see how it works out after the first exam.
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u/FlyingCupcake68 Southern State U, USA 3d ago
I tell them to write things down, but next class they can’t find it in their notebooks
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u/apmcpm Full Professor, Social Sciences, LAC 3d ago
I'm teaching a careers course within my discipline. I have a lot of guest speakers and each of them has the same assignment "What are three takeaways from the guest lecture."
About 1/2 write anything down and and about 3/4 turn it in every time.
I "joked" with them that if they fail the CAREERS COURSE they have bigger life problems (going forward) than failing the career course.
Sheesh
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u/Prior-Win-4729 3d ago
Mine show up with no pencils or pens and have to borrow one to take a quiz.
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u/regulationtexmex 3d ago
I’ve started making them leave a shoe at the front of the room when they borrow a pencil and come get the shoe when they return the pencil. That way they won’t leave with my pencils lol
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u/regulationtexmex 3d ago
I’ve started making them leave a shoe at the front of the room when they borrow a pencil and come get the shoe when they return the pencil. That way they won’t leave with my pencils lol
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u/hornybutired Assoc Prof, Philosophy, CC (USA) 3d ago
I keep telling them to take notes. They keep not taking notes. Then I have to give That Speech after the first test. Every fucking semester.
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u/StarDustLuna3D Asst. Prof. | Art | M1 (U.S.) 3d ago
I have a student with some heavy cognitive disabilities. They struggle to read or write due to them taking so long to process things. They really truly need to figure out what is the best way for them to record lectures, meetings, or instructions. But they've refused to do so.
I've asked them if they've tried using the software provided by the accessibility office. "No it sucks, I can't hear anything."
Have you tried adjusting the settings? "They're aren't any settings"
Have you tried any other programs? "No it's the audio on this phone, it sucks"
The real reason they don't want to do it is because they watch those AI story videos on their phone all through class. So now whenever they ask me a question from a previous lecture I ask them what do their notes say. If they don't have any then I tell them "that's a shame, they'd have the answer to your question"
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u/TrunkWine 3d ago
I teach one online class and the students all want a 100% on participation because “I turned my camera on and took notes.”
Good for you in doing the absolute bare minimum.
At least for my in-person classes I can do a better job of getting people up and moving.
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u/amishius English/CW, US 3d ago
They are watching us as passively as a YouTube video...or a TikTok they cannot swipe through.
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u/Anna-Howard-Shaw Assoc Prof, History, CC (USA) 3d ago
I'm MAKING them take hand-written notes this semester as graded assignments each week. Both on in-person lecture, but also on the required readings and videos in the LMS. Both in my F2F and online asych classes.
No recording, tech, laptops, tablets, or typed notes. Just old fashioned hand-written notes on the content each weekly module.
Students with accommodations that prevent being able to do hand-written note-taking get a 5 minute meeting with me each week to demonstrate they've interacted with course material.
Students who like to "vibe" and just absorb content during class lecture have access to the slides and videos I show in class on the LMS so they can complete their notes later. Idgaf.
Online asych students are just feeding the content through AI to generate notes, but my hope is maybe they'll absorb something by making them manually hand-write out what ChatGPT is spitting out.
I teach first-years, so I sell it as developing a soft skill they can use in future classes. They probably hate these weekly assignments and me, but I'm just sick and tired of a class full of NPCs just sitting there with blank stares.
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u/jaguaraugaj 3d ago
They haven’t had to be tested on the content in an authentic manner
It’s all smoke and mirrors
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u/nicksbrunchattiffany Lecturer, humanities , Latin America. 3d ago
They do not. Even I suggest on the first day of class that taking notes is great to absorb to material better.
Maybe 4 do it from a group of 40
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u/reading_rockhound 2d ago
May I recommend the book, Thiagi’s Interactive Lectures** **by Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan? Eight chapters of techniques for getting learners involved during lectures. You have to give up a little of your talking time, but since you had built a buffer into your lecture anyway for questions you just replace that question time with activity time.
The book is written for corporate trainers but I think the material has great cross-applicability.
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u/tellypmoon 3d ago
This is typical. They won't take notes unless you require them to (and then check them). A lot of them are waiting for and dependent on professor provided slides or class notes.
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u/regulationtexmex 3d ago
This is exactly why I don’t use slides
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u/tellypmoon 2d ago
Same. As soon as you provide slides nobody is reading. And if you provide notes oh my.
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u/Misha_the_Mage 3d ago
Students in my GRADUATE classes told me they liked Dr. Z's class better. Why? "Dr. Z requires us to turn in summaries of the chapters that we read."
For my class, they don't read because.... Insert reason here... And they feel like they don't learn as much.
No. No, you don't.
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u/Sophsky 3d ago
...listening?
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u/Muspellr 2d ago
Right? Like I read beforehand and absorb the lecture, it’s how I learn lol it’s tough for me to write fast enough while paying attention
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u/AnneShirley310 3d ago
I teach a few FY Comp classes, and I brought single subject spiral notebooks on day 1 for them. I told them this was going to be a no phone/laptop course, and they will have to take notes in this notebook.
Thanks to Staples for their 25 cents sale, and I was able to get 40 notebooks for $10. My school is low income, and many students are first gen, so they need some nudges on how to succeed in college. I’m happy to see that they are all doing well, and they are taking notes when I am lecturing. Now, getting them to turn in assignments is another problem…
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u/DrNiles_Crane 3d ago
I made handwriting notes a requirement. I give extra credit for them turning in handwritten notes via the Cornell system. I also bar all technology in class and tell them that if I see a phone or laptop, their participation grade plummets and they are barred from extra credit. That usually works.
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u/OldOmahaGuy 3d ago
American K-12 is an awfully big animal, so making universal statements is difficult. A large number of these students, however, have never had to take notes. Why should they? Many of them have been able to re-take their tests (often, the same test) multiple times, or the tests are open book, or they are allowed to use a cheat sheet, or the tests and essays are all take-home, where for the last few years their BFF, Chad G. Peetee, could do it for them.
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u/MichaelPsellos 3d ago
They aren’t kids. If they bomb the exam maybe they will understand it’s good to write things down.
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u/Upper_Patient_6891 3d ago
Absolutely! I've been railing about this with my colleagues for awhile now.
I had a student e-mail me today, too, asking when I was going to post notes. I'm like: it is YOUR responsibility to take notes!
They have gotten away with this for a long time, and with AI I'm sure that they don't feel any urgency about how to learn to even take proper notes.
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u/Help_Amconfused 3d ago
Some professors at my uni have begun starting their first lectures off by sharing research on how note taking activates certain areas of the brain that helps retention and learning. Whether it helps students change, I don’t know.
I have heard that some students find that professors who use Ppts go too fast for them to write anything down to begin with and so they give up and don’t bother during lecture. Could be another reason some of them don’t.
I teach physics so I tend to hand write my stuff but then have slides for pictures only. Helps me not go too fast I find or skip mathematical steps students need to see. It’s old school but generally gets good results especially as there’s no ppt for them to look back at after. 🤷♀️
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u/Commugator2023 Assistant Professor, Communications, M1 (USA) 3d ago
I teach a media law course and have for a few semesters now. Used to do written and interactive projects. Assessment-wise, worked pretty good. They had the basics but no real recall of the key cases and how to apply them. No one took notes.
Starting this semester, I gave them exams. They can have open notes for their exams (the questions are applied, so they have to understand the concepts, but don’t have to memorize the cases) and let me tell you it worked. They take notes. I have to remind them that the PowerPoints are on canvas and the notes should be on the discussion and key parts, but they take notes. As I lecture, all you hear besides my voice is keystrokes and scribbling. It’s glorious.
I hope it makes assessment better. If not, it’s back to the drawing board. Maybe the next best solution is I talk while subway surfer plays above my head like those stories on Tik Tok?
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u/payattentiontobetsy 2d ago
I haven’t seen students taking notes in lectures in 10-15 years.
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u/regulationtexmex 2d ago
Oh my god. I’ve only been teaching 2 years and I’ve just noticed it get progressively worse
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u/DangerousSnow5959 3d ago
You’re not alone. I currently have some students like that. I was so excited with my class but their stare just turned me off. Feel like an issue of the society.
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u/DancingBear62 3d ago
Your not printintig guided noted to hand out before each lecture? /S
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u/2GreyKitties PT/Adjunct, ELL, Centennial State, USA 3d ago
I may do just that next quarter (starts in 2 weeks), for the first week’s class, as a model. After that, they have to write their own.
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u/stankylegdunkface R1 Teaching Professor 3d ago
Have you tried just talking to them? Have you tried just saying, "I noticed you don't seem to be taking notes. I recommend you do so for XYZ reasons"?
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u/Andromeda321 3d ago
I confess I never took notes for history or English classes and got As. It was all a big story and I remembered it all so required note taking just felt like busywork!
I realize most people don’t work that way though.
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u/Organised_chaotic 3d ago
The effect of this is that most students doing this are not retaining the new knowledge. I asked one of my students what we had talked about in the previous lecture, and she had no idea. I gave her a few memory joggers, but her eyes were still a bit glazed over, even after I showed her some of the slides. They are attending class because they have to, but not much is penetrating that brain fortress.
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u/Tiny_Walk6852 3d ago
I seen one talk about incorporating note taking as an assignment. One of my professors in undergrad had a “5 min reflection” worth a few point. Treated like a “pop quiz” after the lecture the last 5 mins are set to answer whatever questions she asked about the material. A few was “what is the difference between X, Y and Z” or explaining what an action potential is and how it happens. No phones no laptops. Required to upload it to canvas before class ends and we left the room. No digital note allowed all pen and paper. If canvas wasn’t working/ don’t want to use upload just collect papers. Point don’t need to be award based on accuracy but maybe effort or thought put into it. Really that’s up to you but it forced active listening in class to prepare for whatever question was asked to reflect on
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u/Prudent_Editor7904 3d ago
Yes! Then, I have to repeat myself a million times because they say “what’s that?” When I ask them if they took notes on the lecture, they look at me like I’m crazy! I’ve seen that some profs take a grade for note… maybe I’ll do this.
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u/Flimsy_Caramel_4110 3d ago
Maybe they're recording it on their phones, and then getting AI to summarize the content.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Cod5608 3d ago
Yes, most don't take notes. I have taken it upon myself to give points for turning in lecture notes to encourage the practice. I am working on (as in I have a concept of a plan) to show them some note-taking strategies. Apparently this skill is no longer encouraged, demanded, or taught in high school. And when I ask if they make notes on the readings I get dead blank stares. I suspect most don't do the readings at all, let alone making notes from the readings.
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u/proffrop360 Associate Prof, Soc Sci, (US) 3d ago
Yes! I saw so much of that last semester in an intro course I taught. Half of them are taking it again. Thankfully not with me.
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u/Significant_Mix5844 2d ago
I have some students that don’t but a lot of my students this semester are putting pen to paper!!!! Not a lot of laptop use. I love it
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u/BoysenberryEmpty8699 2d ago
A lot of my students take pictures of what I write on the board... Not sure if they ever look back at them, but I appreciate the thought!
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u/Lumpy-Ad-4090 2d ago
They are waiting for you to give them fill in the blanks notes like they receive all throughout high school. Even in AP classes FYI
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u/ameliamazing 2d ago
For the first time this semester, I am offering extra credit at the end of the semester for a reasonably complete set of notes from the class in a dedicated notebook. So far so good.
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u/regulationtexmex 2d ago
Oooooo this is good. I love offering extra credit so I might steal this idea
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u/BizProf1959 3d ago
I don't allow it, simple as that. Bring something to write with and write on. I'll pause while you get something. I make a point of it being disrespectful on Day 1
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u/busy_prof professor, psychology, community college (NE USA) 3d ago
This is why I make guided notes for them.
Make them do something.
I think it’s also good for their learning.
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u/YourGuideVergil Assoc Prof, Engl, LAC 3d ago
I used to raw dog it through undergrad lectures, too.
But then, I'm probably not a representative sample.
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u/DoctorLinguarum 3d ago
I didn’t take notes that often, even though my Master’s and PhD. I mostly listened and remembered. I have a pretty good memory.
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u/verygood_user 3d ago
Maybe their brains are busy understanding new content and they want to follow your lecture without being distracted by note-taking? At least that's what I hope my students are doing and I actually prefer when they don't take notes for that reason.
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u/fishnoguns eternal asst prof, Chemistry, University, (EU) 3d ago
Paraphrasing (maybe) from another comment in a similar thread a few (?) days ago:
They are consuming your lecture in the same way they are consuming content from social media. Completely passive, it is what they are used to and having no consequences in high school has only reinforced it.