Can I take a look at your notes?: A phenomenological exploration of how university students experience note-taking using paper-based and paperless resources

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the note-taking experiences of university students using paper-based (non-electronic) and paperless (electronic) resources. By means of a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, the note-taking experiences of 18 students from an international program at a university in Belgium were examined throughout a semester. In order to document these students’ practices with paper-based and paperless resources, four data collection methods were used: (a) in-depth interviews (b) observations (c) focus group discussions and (d) document analysis of students’ lecture notes. The results showed that students experience note-taking as a complex phenomenon in which lived body, lived human relations, lived space and lived time come into play, and in which they try to find a balance between multiple engagements, between autonomy and authority, between attention and distraction, and between being original and mirroring others. This struggle for balance occurs irrespective of which medium (paper-based or paperless) they choose to use. These results provide an in-depth view of the phenomenon, and also highlight the complexity of the note-taking experience.

Keywords:

• Note-taking experience
• hermeneutic phenomenology
• four existentials
• paper-based and paperless resources

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emmi Bravo Palacios

Emmi Bravo Palacios holds a Master of Science degree in Educational Studies from KU Leuven, Belgium. She has worked as an educator for more than 15 years in international contexts and is currently working as a lecturer at the Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Her research interests are the relationship between teaching and learning in higher education and how students experience university.

Maarten Simons

Maarten Simons is a professor of Educational Policy and Theory at the Laboratory for Education and Society of the University of Leuven (Belgium). Simons's principal interests are in educational policy, new mechanisms of power and new global and European regimes of governing education and life-long learning. His research focuses explicitly on the challenges posed to education with a major interest in (re-)thinking the public role of schools and universities.