Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

62 Studying online 
Mohamed, M.M.K. (2018) ‘Using Audiobooks for Developing Listening 
Comprehension among Saudi EFL Preparatory Year Students’, 
Jour-
nal of Language Teaching and Research
, 9(1), pp. 64–73. 
Oliver, M.D., Levy, J.J. and Baldwin, D.R. (2021) ‘Examining the Efects of 
Musical Type and Intensity in Performing the Flanker Task: A Test of 
Attentional Control Teory Applied to Non-Emotional Distractions’, 
Psychology of Music
, 49(4), pp. 1017–1026. 
Pernice, K., Whitenton, K. and Nielsen, J. (2014) 
How People Read on 
the Web: Te Eyetracking Evidence
. Fremont, CA: Nielsen Norman 
Group. 
Slowiaczek, M.L. and Clifton, C. (1980) ‘Subvocalization and Reading 
for Meaning’, 
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior
, 19(5), 
pp. 573–582. 
Which?
Press Ofce (2020) 
‘
Inkonceivably Expensive – Printer Ink 
Pricier than 32-Year-Old Scotch Whisky’. Available at: http://press. 
which.co.uk/whichpressreleases/inkonceivably-expensive-printer-
ink-pricier-than-32-year-old-scotch-whisky (Accessed: 5 September 
2021). 
Yan, G., Meng, Z., Liu, N., He, L. and Paterson, K.B. (2018) ‘Efects of 
Irrelevant Background Speech on Eye Movements during Reading’, 
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
, 71(6), pp. 1270–1275. 

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4
 
Online 
notetaking 
Taking good notes is a fundamental part of studying. Whether 
you are in a lecture, reading a textbook, or researching online, you 
will be taking notes. Indeed, in an article about notetaking in 
Te 
Guardian
newspaper, the writer Harry Slater said that “univer-
sity is 95% notetaking”. He added, “If you can take good notes, 
you’re on track to make the academic side of things much easier 
for yourself.
1
” During your time at university, you will make lots 
of notes, and I mean lots ...! In a typical module, you will take 
notes for around 40 hours of lectures, 12 chapters of textbooks, 
and a host of other literature and websites. Over the course of 
your degree, you will cover about 18 diferent modules. Tat’s a 
great deal of material on which you will take notes. When you 
leave university, you will be able to wallpaper several rooms with 
all the notes you took. 
One of the problems for university students is that they have 
rarely been taught how to take notes. A study on notetaking in 
New Zealand found that most students learn notetaking through 
“trial and error” (van der Meer, 2012). Indeed, in my discussions 
with students, I often fnd that it is just as students are about to 
leave university that they have discovered the best way of taking 
DOI: 10.4324/9781003259695-6 

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