Note-taking Across Modalities: Improving Learning in Science Lectures

When students take notes during undergraduate lectures today, they are often typing on their computers or drawing in their notebooks. Effective notetaking requires active organization of the presented information, as opposed to non-generative processes such as copying or simply reading material. However, these effects remain unclear in disciplines that depend on visual models and thus rely on verbatim copying of visuals. To investigate this, we conducted a study into the effects of integrated note-taking on learning during a video lecture. Participants were prompted to take verbatim (copying visuals) or generative (pre-emptive manipulation or transformation of visuals) notes using a tablet at intervals during an organic chemistry lecture, while their behavioral (duration), ocular (eye-tracking) and neural activity (EEG) was measured. We found that participants in the generate condition took longer reading instructions, were faster to complete tasks, and had lower Shannon entropy in pupil diameter during tasks. During the lecture videos, participants in the generate condition had a higher relative increase in alpha (8-13Hz) band power during the latter part of the lecture, and greater increases in scale-free neural activity throughout the lectures. Together, these findings suggest greater learning and performance in the generate compared to the copy condition. Overall, pausing and prompting generative notetaking is recommended to sustain learners’ engagement with the lecture content.