Guided Note-Taking and Student Achievement in a Media Law Course
Abstract
When the capability of students to take effective lecture notes varies largely, this has consequences for almost everyone in the classroom. For instance, students with skill deficiencies have a higher risk for school failure. And students with more developed learning skills may become irked by the pauses during the lectures to let their peers catch up taking notes, which may lead to lapses in concentration. For instructors there is the hard task to balance these competing interests.
One strategy to enhance the performance for all students is the adoption of lecture worksheets. On those pages, critical information is kept blank, requiring the students to fill those blanks during the lecture. This strategy has been adopted in K-12 and higher education levels in a variety of settings.
This (completed) study examines the test results of 130 college students in an introductory media law course without the help of worksheets and 100 college students with such worksheets. The results demonstrate that the guided notes, indeed, helped student performance, although for a limited amount of test questions and there was a lower performance for a few items as well. A variety of explanations are discussed to use handouts effectively in college settings.
Location
Room 1220 A
Recommended Citation
Blom, Robin, "Guided Note-Taking and Student Achievement in a Media Law Course" (2015). SoTL Commons Conference. 112.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2015/112
Guided Note-Taking and Student Achievement in a Media Law Course
Room 1220 A
When the capability of students to take effective lecture notes varies largely, this has consequences for almost everyone in the classroom. For instance, students with skill deficiencies have a higher risk for school failure. And students with more developed learning skills may become irked by the pauses during the lectures to let their peers catch up taking notes, which may lead to lapses in concentration. For instructors there is the hard task to balance these competing interests.
One strategy to enhance the performance for all students is the adoption of lecture worksheets. On those pages, critical information is kept blank, requiring the students to fill those blanks during the lecture. This strategy has been adopted in K-12 and higher education levels in a variety of settings.
This (completed) study examines the test results of 130 college students in an introductory media law course without the help of worksheets and 100 college students with such worksheets. The results demonstrate that the guided notes, indeed, helped student performance, although for a limited amount of test questions and there was a lower performance for a few items as well. A variety of explanations are discussed to use handouts effectively in college settings.
