Stimulating student note-taking and review: the effect of active learning with rapid feedback

As part of a study skills workshop, first year undergraduate students participated in an active learning exercise on remembering; this involved watching a video and later being tested on how much they could recall. The students watching the video were divided into three groups with different approaches to note-taking and subsequent review; afterwards the test results were fed back to the class. Subsequently, a survey was carried out of the students’ approach to note-taking and review, both before and after the workshop. The results during the classes clearly demonstrated to the students the learning benefits both of taking notes and of subsequently reviewing them and the questionnaire results confirm that students’ behaviours in this area were positively impacted by the workshop. Additionally, a number of barriers to effective note taking were identified which can be addressed in the future