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 <20% 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 far…effective???  Still need to be tied together  Need to add more open ended questions