Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

70 Studying online 
Figure 4.5 
A concept map 
Recite, Review. You can download an SQ3R notes template from 
the website I have created to accompany this book, https://study 
ingonline.tips. Tis form of notetaking is best reserved for mak-
ing notes from written material rather than lectures. However, you 
could use the technique if your lectures are recorded and you are 
watching videos. Te frst step is to conduct a “survey” in which 
you skim through the material to identify the structure and im-
portant elements, such as fgures and tables. Ten you write down 
some questions about the material based on the headings and sub-
headings. After that, you read the material, all the while looking for 
answers to your questions. When you get an answer, you “recite” 
it by writing that down. After that, you write a summary of the in-
formation you have gained in the review section of your notes. Tis 
method of notetaking has been shown to help students gain higher 
marks in exams (Carlston, 2011). So it is worthwhile considering. 
Outlining 
Tis is probably the most common form of taking notes. You write 
a heading for the section of the lecture or the textbook, then you 

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Online notetaking 71 
write a number of bullet points under that main item. You repeat 
this for each of the topics covered in the lecture. If you were to 
look at a fellow student’s notebook, this is the most likely form of 
notes you would see. For students studying online, word proces-
sors, such as Microsoft Word, have outlining features built-in. So 
it is easy to create digital outlines of lectures and textbook chap-
ters. However, there is an issue with outline notes or linear notes 
as they are sometimes called. It is challenging to fnd material in 
them. If you need to locate something specifc within your notes, 
a stream of bullet points makes it more cumbersome to see what 
you want. As a result, when revising for exams or fnding infor-
mation for assignments, going back over outline notes can take 
additional time. 
Matrix notes 
Matrix notetaking is where you divide a topic into sections, and 
each one of those has a box on a page. Tis is particularly useful 
Notetaking systems 
Paper notetaking 
Digital notetaking 
Trial and error 
Cornell 
Guided 
Mind maps 
Concept maps 
SQ3R 
Outlines 
Matrix notes 
Better than digital 
More cognitive 
processes 
Diffcult to integrate 
online 
Digital paper 
Livescribe
TM 
Word processors 
Notetaking apps 
Note ecosystems 
Mind maps 
Audio notes 
Screenshots 
Annotations 
Referencing 
Annotated 
screenshots 
Mindstone 
Scrible 
Annotate 
Hypothesis 
Zotero 
Mendeley 
Cite them right