Locating a Volunteer Note Taker

• Meet with each of your professors before classes begin if possible, to discuss any accommodations you may need in class, including use of a volunteer note taker.  Ask your professors if they can provide you with copies of lecture notes or overhead materials.   Ask if there is a designated note taker, such as a supplemental instructor (SI) or teaching assistant (TA), or
• Request the assistance of your professors with locating a volunteer note taker by asking them to read the Announcement for Note taker Services.  This will help maintain your confidentiality as a student with a disability, or
• Announce your need for a volunteer note taker.  Ask your professors if you could take a few minutes at the beginning or end of a class to make an announcement requesting a volunteer note taker, or
• Observe the students seated around you during the first class meeting for those who are diligent note takers.  After class, approach these students and ask if they would be willing to take notes for you.  It is very beneficial to have a back up note taker in the event your regular note taker is absent or decides to drop the class.

Other Note Taking Strategies

• Non-traditional students are often good note takers.  Students who are older, and have more experience, are generally more aware of what information is important and should be included in class notes.
• Emphasize to a potential note taker that this service will not require any additional work or effort on their part.  The carbon-less NCR paper, which ODS provides free of charge to students for distribution to their note takers, allows the note taker to take one set of notes, and give the duplicate set to you -- no need to spend time or money at the copy machine.
• If the volunteer note taker wants to keep his/her own notes in a spiral-bound notebook, two sheets of NCR paper can be inserted underneath the top page of the spiral notebook.  The duplicate will be made on the bottom sheet of NCR paper.
• Share the Tips for Volunteer Note Takers and Successful Note Taking with each of your note takers.  This will give the note taker an overview of what is expected of them and how to successfully use the NCR paper.

Benefiting from Notes

Many students don’t realize that they create problems for themselves when they procrastinate reviewing class notes.  Each time you get a copy of another student’s notes, you should do the following:

• Read through your notes each evening (or within 24 hours after class for optimum learning) to make sure they make sense and are legible.
• Re-write the notes in a format or structure that will help you remember them.  If the notes are already in a format that is clear and easy to understand, it is still a good idea to rewrite them anyway.
• Add your own notes and comments including any additional information you recall from lecture.
• Go back and re-read the text to see how the notes relate to the material you’ve already read.
• If you have questions about the notes (e.g. can’t read a word, or statements are unclear), check with the note taker as soon as possible for clarification.  Don’t wait until it is time to study for the big test.
• Thank the note taker for taking notes for you.  Remember this is a volunteer service and the note taker is doing the best job he or she can.  Give positive feedback too.

Tape Recording Lectures

In addition to taking your own notes and receiving notes from a volunteer note taker, it may also be helpful to tape record class lectures to supplement written notes.  It is important to discuss this accommodation with each of your professors in advance of tape recording class lectures.  Following are some tips for tape recording in class:

• First, purchase a small recorder with a counter (looks like a car odometer).
• At the beginning of class, set the counter to zero and begin recording the lecture.
• While taking notes, regularly check the counter and write down the number in the margin next to your last notation.
• At the conclusion of the lecture each page of notes should have a series of numbers running down the margin.
• If you rewind the tape until the counter is set at zero, you will be able to fast-forward to any point in your notes using the numbers in the margin.