1 What and Why

In this context, Oxford Language defines “notes” as “a brief record of facts, topics, or thoughts, written down as an aid to memory.” This definition is good, but instead of “memory”, the definition should use the word “understanding.”

Why is it insufficient just to attend a lecture, watch a video, or read a book? This is because reading or listening involves comprehension, whereas writing involves synthesis. While both are important brain processes, one does not substitute for the other.

The writing and Communication Centre of the University of Waterloo has a blog that describes what regions of the brain are active during a writing process. By comparison, reading or listening (including watching a video) activates some other portions of the brain. Unik EduSolution published a YouTube video to show brain activation for listening and reading.

Experience also confirms, but without scientific analysis, that there is a strong correlation between note-taking and performance in classes. Note how “correlation” is used instead of “causal relationship”!

2 What if a class is recorded?

It is a common belief that if class materials recorded and accessible at any time, there is no need to take notes. This would have been correct if note-taking is only an aid to memory. However, if note-taking is an important process to understand the material, then access to recorded or written material does not make note-taking unnecessary.

Many universities describe the importance and methods to take notes in online classes:

• University of British Columbia
• University of Texas
• University of North Carolina

3 What to include in notes

Many colleges and universities have guidelines of how to take notes. Some may even have a specific format such as Cornell notes.

In a class where synchronous (online or in-person) lectures are recorded, note-taking should capture the following elements:

• What is being discussed or explained?
  • A short description of just the term of the topic, such as
    • carry-ripple adder
    • how RISC compares to CISC
    • Dijkstra’s algorithm
• What is the date/time?
  • This is particularly helpful in lectures due to the duration of a single recording
  • knowing the exact time helps to find relevant segments in a long recording
  • to record only per lecture:
    • it helps to write down the start time of a lecture to help locate a specific time since the recording starts
    • a date is important as well
• References to linkable material
  • If there is any material that can be linked, create the links here
  • For example, a link to the video recording of a lecture can be the first item of this section! Note that only one link to the video recording is needed in a per-lecture note document
  • Other linkable material may include reading material, labs, and additional resources
• How does this topic relate to other topics?
  • What does this topic remind you of?
  • How does this topic connect to other topics?
    • This portion may be partially filled during lecture
    • it can be expanded and completed after lecture
• to-do items
  • What action items are associated with this lecture?
  • It helps to use a checkbox for these items
  • An action item can be a suggested activity
  • An action item can be an activity that you thought of yourself
• Further questions
  • Are there any questions related to this topic?
  • Some questions can be asked during a synchronous class
  • Other questions can be contemplated after lecture
• review expansion
  • This is an area for additional writing during a review.

3.1 Tools

There are many tools that can be used to take notes, here is a short list of examples.

1. Physical paper and writing instrument
   • advantages:
     • inexpensive
     • easy to set up
     • works even without electricity or Internet access
     • tactile
     • no need to worry about hard drive crashes
     • easy to read outdoors
     • flexible, easy to integrate diagrams, tables, and graphs
   • disadvantages:
     • not exactly searchable
     • more difficult to reorganize
   • techno spin
     • can be scanned into digital form
       • smartphones have enough resolution
       • once scanned, portions can be searchable using OCR (optical character recognition)
2. Google Doc/Sheet
   • advantages:
     • cloud based, no need to “save”
     • easy to share with others
     • easy to reorganize
     • easy to use, WYSIWYG
     • nothing other than a browser to install, works great with Chromebooks
     • easily copy-and-paste screenshots
     • free
   • disadvantages:
     • depends on Internet access
   • Un-techno spin
     • print for physical archiving
     • download to local computer to have a local copy (not all functionalities are preserved)
     • can paste hand-drawn pictures or photos into the document or spreadsheet
3. Joplin
   • advantages:
     • uses Markdown for “stay on the keyboard” formatting
     • free without cloud backup
     • can copy-and-paste screenshots
   • disadvantages:
     • requires a certain level of Markdown proficiency
       • however, there is a WYSIWYG mode to help learn Markdown
     • somewhat locked in to a framework
4. [N]Vim with Markdown plugins and pandoc
   • advantages:
     • free
     • no pre-set framework
     • easy to expand and extend using additional plug-ins and tools
     • extremely flexible
     • easy to cross-reference documents assuming a systematic method to name files
     • pandoc has its own extensions to render graphs (using Mermaid), include files just to name two
   • disadvantages:
     • no automatic back up to the cloud
     • requires proficiency of vi and Markdown
       • this can be remedied using several methods
     • not as convenient to integrate photos and handwriting notes
     • not as convenient to capture screenshots
   • un-techno spin:
     • use pandoc to convert to PDF, then print for physical archiving

3.2 Templates

A template is essentially a blank form as a reminder of what fields may or must be filled. It can be a document with blank fields to be copied-and-pasted into an actual note document, or it can also be a formatted and printed piece of paper with specific regions to capture specific components of a note.

The key is that a template should be fast to use. There is not much time during a lecture to stamp a section for a new topic.

One trick is to create a note document by cloning many copies of the topic sections. For example, let us assume that in a typical class, no more than 10 topics are introduced. This means that creating a per-lecture note document with 15 topic sections should be sufficient. The extra storage is negligible by today’s standard.

Depending on the tool, it may even be possible to use a shortcut key to create a new topic section.

4 How to take notes

4.1 Before a class

The phrase “before a class” refers to a synchronous, in-person or recorded lecture.

1. Get the material necessary for note-taking ready
2. Pre-read the material if there is any
3. Jot down questions as you pre-read the material

4.2 During a class

During an in-person or synchronous class, you have a limited amount of time to take notes. In an asynchronous class where you may be watching a recording or a lecture, you have the option to pause and resume.

There are several factors to consider. Even when you are watching a recording and using the pause-and-play strategy, there is only so much information you can absorb with a particular duration. As a result, you can consider watching a recording as if you are in a live lecture.

4.2.1 Noticing the beginning of a topic

It is essential to know when a lecture is beginning the discussion of a (new) topic. This is because a “topic” is a unit to help organize your notes.

There are a few tricks to help you notice the beginning of a topic. The first one is from pre-reading the material of a lecture. Most reading material have structured sections, and each section has a header. These are clues of topics. As you pre-read the material of a lecture, you can create the topics in the note, and fill in more details during a lecture.

The second trick is to recognize how your professor starts or transitions to a topic. This does vary from professor to professor. The following are some examples of sentences of phrases that signify a transition to a topic:

• Let’s move on to talk about…
• Next, we will be discussing…
• Now we define…
• The definition of… is…

When you notice the transition to a topic, switch to an existing topic section in the note or create a new topic. The essential components are discussed earlier.

4.2.2 Filling in sections of a topic

In a live lecture, you do not have a lot of time when filling in sections of a topic. There is no need to write/type in complete sentences, just phrases and points are sufficient.

In a recorded lecture, try not to just copy the material that is being recorded, but your thoughts of that material being presented, and also ways to find that material quickly. A time-stamp or a screenshot can be helpful.

It is particularly important to jot down questions. A question is an attempt to make connections with other topics or concepts.

Your notes are for yourself, as long as you understand, using short hands and abbreviations are fine.

The concept of using a template is useful because this way, a template instance automatically prompts you about the various fields/properties related to a topic.

4.3 After a class

It is often helpful to review notes after a class within a certain period of time. Reviewing notes can help deepen the understanding of topics for each pass. Depending on the topic and the complexity, the number of passes can differ.

Especially in the case of live lectures, the review of a note is also a good time to (re)organize the topics, as well as to expand or complete a topic. For example, during a live lecture, you may leave the following as a reminder:

TODO: link to definition A

If you are using physical paper, you can backfill with a page number. If you are using an electronic document, you can create a hyperlink to the referenced definition. While this may sound like chore, the process of doing this and briefly revisiting the reference definition helps to deepen the understanding of a topic.