An analysis of notes taken during and after a lecture presentation

This exploratory analysis examined trends in note taking based on total word counts, relevant and irrelevant word counts, and relevant to total word count ratios (relevance ratios) from a previous study which investigated how the timing of taking notes impacts the encoding and external storage functions of college students’ note taking. We performed analyses on participants’ relevance ratios using sub-classifications of participants that recorded high or low relevance ratios with participants passing or failing a retention quiz. Results indicate that taking notes during a lecture presentation allows students to record more relevant information and retain more information, therefore increasing quiz scores. Also, comparisons of note takers’ relevance ratios to the relevance ratio of the instructor’s PowerPoint revealed that overall participants noted significantly less relevant information than what was available in the PowerPoint, which again, May impact retention of information. This suggests that students May need training on recording relevant and irrelevant information during a lecture presentation in order to improve academic performance.