Did you know that taking effective notes for studying is vital to success? There are considerable benefits to learning to be a successful notetaker, including higher retention of information to complete assessments and assignments quickly. It’s also hugely beneficial t to your future career, making you more productive in meetings and boardrooms and at industry conferences!

Benefits of notes for studying online

• Organise and structure your learning: taking notes will help you more quickly understand the relationship between ideas.
• Reinforce important points: when you take notes for studying, you can better identify and learn the important points.
• Review notes for learning: when it comes time to study for an assessment or complete an assignment, you will have detailed notes to enhance your ability to complete your course successfully.
• Keeps you focused: when you take notes for studying, you stay engaged in your learning and can be an active reader.
• Improves your understanding: When you summarise and put learning concepts in your own words through notetaking, your comprehension of learning materials improves.
• Memory retention: taking notes helps reinforce memory retention so you remember what you learn long after you’ve read through your learning materials.

Five types of notetaking

There are five primary note-taking methods: sentences, outlines, mind maps, Cornell, and digital notetaking.

1. The sentence method

This method involves using sentences to summarise and organise your thoughts on study materials or at work. The most significant advantage of the sentence method is that it’s versatile and easy to use but not always the most efficient way to take notes. It can be helpful during fast-paced lectures but isn’t suited when you have more time to take structured notes, such as reading online course materials.

2. The outline method

The outline method is one of the most common methods for note-taking. It organises notes for studying and involves using indentations, bullet points or numbers to visually separate main points, sub-points, and details. This method works well by incorporating different coloured pens, capitalisation, italics, or highlighters. It’s a straightforward notetaking system that records content and relationships and reduces editing as you can turn main points into questions. However, this notetaking method may not be ideal if you’re in a fast-paced class.

3. The mind-mapping method

The mind mapping method is a graphic representation of the content of a lecture. It looks a lot like a tree with branches! It starts with one idea in the middle (the main topic) and then has branches (major points), reaching out with smaller branches (sub-points) underneath. If you’re a visual learner, you will probably love this system!

4. The Cornell method

The Cornell method is a systematic method for condensing and organising notes. There are two columns on the page and five steps: record, questions, recite, reflect, and review. It’s an excellent note-taking method that helps highlight significant concepts and ideas and efficiently. It also doubles as a very effective study system when it’s time to revise for an exam.

5. Digital notetaking

Digital notetaking has become popular as technology becomes increasingly helpful in completing tasks efficiently. It involves using note-taking apps or software to create and organise digital notes. Digital notetaking offers features like searchability, tagging, and multimedia integration but may be best used with handwritten notes to consolidate learning and retention of information. See below for digital notetaking applications to help you take effective notes to enhance your online learning journey.

Notetaking tips for online learning

When it comes to online learning, notes for studying need to be adapted to the digital world. The following tips are a few notetaking methods to help you take notes successfully in an online learning environment.

Handwrite your notes, then type them!

Typing notes is fast and efficient, but the hand-brain coordination of handwriting your notes is a powerful learning tool. So, handwrite your notes before typing them up and reviewing them to increase memory retention by a whopping 75%!

Always use your own words

Your ability to understand new information and retain knowledge improves when you use your own words to take notes.

Make use of white space

Don’t try to cram too many notes on one page. Instead, space out the main points.

Develop your own shorthand style

Take faster notes by creating your own shorthand. Try abbreviating common words and sentences in your course or workplace, such as BM, instead of ‘behaviour management.’

Maintain a glossary

It can help to maintain a glossary for words that are important but might need to be clarified to look up later.

Don’t write everything down

When studying an online course, you won’t always have access to textbooks and hardcopy books, so the tendency is to write everything down. But this can hurt your ability to study successfully as you’ll experience information overload.

Take notes while reading course materials

Online courses primarily involve reading course materials independently, so being an active reader is crucial. Being an active reader means taking notes instead of just reading or skimming materials. It’s also helpful to highlight sections that stand out, or you don’t understand so you can go back to later.

Use drawings or diagrams!

If you have difficulty finding words when notetaking, try drawing pictures or diagrams to deepen your learning. For example, if you’re learning about human anatomy, try drawing a picture of the human body and labelling body parts with brief descriptions. It’s a great way to record concepts so that you quickly grasp them when you return to your notes.

Incorporate notetaking software

There are many options for software applications that help you take, store and retrieve important notes during online learning. Here is a list of a few notetaking applications:

Evernote is one of the most popular notetaking applications, supporting images, audio and video storage. You can scan papers, email integration, webpage sharing, bookmarking and more.

OneNote is a free notetaking application that integrates with Microsoft software packages, including Word and Excel. You can take notes, draw, record audio notes and share with others.

Google Keep – Google’s notetaking application is freely available on the web. It works with Google Drive and Google Documents and allows you to scan text and images, notetaking, voice recording and store URLs.

 

Remember, the success of your notetaking depends on how actively and thoughtfully you engage with the learning materials. So, stay engaged and read actively by adapting these notetaking methods to your preferred style to maximise your online learning experience!

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