Making notes during a live class session
You will probably by taking part in live class sessions, either with video or audio. You may find your choice
of paper vs digital note-making is affected by the software being used and whether you can access other apps during the session.
Watch the video below for some ideas on both methods as well as advantages of using paper first and then capturing your notes digitally for storage and future reference.
Making notes during research and background reading
You may also find it useful to make notes while you are researching topics or completing background reading recommend by lecturers, other students or identified by yourself.
Why make notes during a session?
Your lecturers may well be sharing course materials with you and these may have all the information you need. However, you may still want to make your own notes. This helps with:
- Identifying the key points of the session
- Noting actions you need to take after the session
- Putting ideas down on a page in a way that suits you - you might like to use mind-mapping or other visual methods
Being an effective learner before, during and after a session
The advice here is really no different from regular classes but because you may be studying on your own, it is up to you to remember to do these things
Before the session - look at your notes from the last session. Remind yourself what was covered and check that you completed all the actions you set yourself
During the session - make the notes that will help you review the session immediately after the session and prior to the next session
After the session - go over your notes, look at the actions you set yourself and plan when to do them
- If any links were given out, visit the site, and bookmark/favourite it if you don't have time to look at it now
- Look at the actions you made for yourself. Prioritise them and put them in your calendar or a planner app
- Carry out any background reading that is needed or practice any skills that were identified during the session
Making notes during research and background reading
If you are carrying out research or undertaking background reading, you will want to be making notes to record:
- The details of the sources you are using for your bibliography (see the study guides referencing section on the LRC Moodle site for more details
- Key points from the source to help you cement your understanding
- Details of additional sources mentioned or which occur to you
- Actions for yourself as a result of your research
If you are using LRC e-books for your research then look for the notes or annotations option / icon. You can use this to add notes to the e-book. Think of it as sticking in a virtual post-it-note. You will see your notes when you come back to the e-book. Some LRC e-books will also let you highlight sections.
The importance of background reading
Background reading has always been important, but during remote learning it becomes even more important.
Whatever subject you are studying, it is challenging to cover everything in an online session, or even a series of face to face meetings.
Background reading is an essential way of finding out more about a subject. As you read more, you will understand more.
There may also be some e-books listed on your Moodle course. Most of these are available online through the LRC catalogue and have been selected by your lecturers and LRC staff as being useful to you on your course.
