Note Taking Enhancements in a Information Systems Courses

1
Note Taking Enhancements in a Information Systems
Courses

• James J. Pomykalski
• Susquehanna University
• ISECON 2007
• Pittsburgh, PA
• November 2, 2007

2
Overview

• Course and Audience
• Motivation
• Guided Notes
• Guided Notes and Scavenger Hunts
• Development of Guided Notes (over three years)
• Outcomes
• Conclusions

3
Course and Audience

• Introductory IS course
• IS2002.P1 in Model Curriculum
• General Business Majors
• At Susquehanna, Database Systems Analysis and
  Design course

4
Motivation

• Students generally do not see value in course
• Students are not actively engaged and taking
  notes
• Effective note taking difficult (Carrier,
  Williams, et al., 1998)
• Good note taking linked to higher performance
  (Baker and Lombardi, 1985 Einstein, Morris, et
  al., 1985)
• Students have a difficult time understanding
  textbook material
• Being able to sift out important content

5
Guided Notes

• Developed by Heward (1992)
• Initial audience was learning disabled students
• Instructor prepared handouts for students to
  record important facts
• Students are provided standard cues
• Attempt to get students more actively engaged

6
Two Versions

• Guided Notes (Textbook reading)
• Guided Notes (Lecture material)
• Known as Scavenger Hunts
• Separate due to ordering of material

7
Development History I

• Introduced in Fall 2004
• Textbook and lecture material was included in one
  single file
• Order of notes aligned to lecture material
• Students confused could not find textbook
  material
• As semester went on usage dwindled
• lt20 by end of semester

8
Development History II

• Redesigned for Fall 2005
• Textbook and lecture material were in separate
  file
• Textbook GNs aligned with text Scavenger hunts
  ordered of notes aligned to lecture material
• More usage of scavenger hunts
• Students still confused could not find textbook
  material
• Asked for page numbers

9
Development History III

• Redesigned for Fall 2006
• Largely unchanged, except for page number
  addition.
• Added incentive to get students to use (complete)
  
• Could use guided notes for quizzes

10
Conclusions

• Guided notes/Scavenger hunts work in progress
• So fareffective???
• Still need to be tied together
• Need to add more open ended questions