About making notes
Hi, my name is Bonnie-Rose and I’m currently studying an Education course.
Before starting at Deakin, I hadn’t given much thought on how I would take notes. In my first weeks I found myself taking so many paper notes which became overwhelming. I wasn’t aware of other ways I could make useful notes.
About this guide
Tech is a massive part of being a student and it connects to many aspects of being an active learner. Reading, listening or watching and making meaningful notes are all critical thinking processes essential to your study success.
This guide provides information and resources about making useful notes with the help of digital tools. It also offers advice from students just like you – so you know it’s real-world, relevant and helpful. The four main areas covered are:
Fundamentals
Audio, text and visual options
Digital tools and templates
Student tips
Active learning and making notes
Have you ever listened to a lecture, read an article, or watched a video only to get to the end and realise you don’t remember any of the content? It's probably because you engaged passively with the learning.
To build long-term understanding, you must actively engage with the information you read, hear or see. This is active learning.
An easy way to actively engage with what you’re learning is taking notes. In fact, think of it more as making notes or creating notes. Good notes emerge from your active processes of thinking, learning, and very importantly questioning. In actively making notes you build your own understanding. That won't happen if you just write down your lectures word-for-word or re-type huge chunks of text.
Find something that works for you
There are various ways to make notes and many strategies you can use. Notes can be handwritten or digital or a combination of both. You might like to use visual notes, such as digital mind maps or drawings. Another option is reading out your your notes and recording. Or maybe you work best handwriting notes to start with which you then refine and reflect on by turning them into digital notes.
As you move through this guide, reflect on what might be the best option for you and try experimenting to help with decision-making.
Your purpose for making notes helps with choosing an approach. For example, preparing for weekly multiple-choice quizzes a good option can be making digital memory cards with question answer content. Or if you’re making some notes as a first step to creating a class presentation, typing up key points and sketching core concepts would work well.
For many students, pen and paper is the best approach. The physical act of writing keeps them alert, helps them focus on capturing concepts and not make verbatim notes. For other students, digital works just as well. The best way to make notes is contextual and individual.
Key considerations
Many people feel their approach to making notes is not good enough. However, there’s no one way to take notes. The biggest take-away from this guide is that good notes are whatever works for you to best understand new knowledge.
When working through this guide, find the pieces that help you to improve your active learning.
If you need further digital or academic skills support please contact a Librarian or Language and Learning Adviser.