Studying methods of note taking is important for the achievement of students. Knowing which style of note taking is most beneficial should increase over all academic achievement.
There are many different ways in which students can take notes, but the most commonly examined are handwritten and typed (Blankenship, 2016). A study conducted by Nancy M. Aguilar Roca, Adrienne Williams, and Diane K. O’Dowd analyzed the impact on academic performance of using a laptop to take notes versus paper (2012). The dissection points out that most students bring their laptops to class with the right intentions, but often end up distracted by the enticing digital universe (Aguilar-Roca, Williams, & O 'Dowd, 2012). Laptops provide the opportunity for great distraction by not only the user, but to those surrounding the user. The study was comprised of four separate sections of the class, Biology 93, at University of California, Irvine. Sections A and D were merged together as the control group. There were no restrictions on where those who were using laptops could sit. Sections B and C were merged together as the zoned group. In this group laptop users had assigned seating. …show more content…
The use of electronic devices during the class period enables students to easily use social media, send an email, and work on other homework while simultaneously taking notes. This can lead to a lack of focus on the material that is being taught and therefore a lower retention rate (Carter & Van Matre, 1975). An experimental study managed by Fang-Yi Flora Wei, Y. Ken Wang, and Warren Fass examined whether computer mediated note taking influences students cognitive learning. The participants were assigned one of three note taking methods at random; note taking, handwritten note taking, and computer mediated note taking (Wei, Wang, & Fass, 2014). Each of those groups were then assigned another condition, no chatting or online chatting. A video would be presented to each of the participants after they had taken a survey revealing demographic information and prior knowledge to the subject being reviewed in the video lecture. After the students watched the video, multiple choice questions were administered to test the ability to recall information from the lecture based on the variables they were told to execute. The most important encounter revealed was students multitasking demonstrated a lower level of cognitive learning than those who were focused on the lecture only (Wei, Wang, & Fass, 2014). Meaning that those who tried to multitask while actively