Technology based note-taking strategies for disabled students, June 2014

Review of technology-based support to reduce the impact of note-taking difficulties on

disabled students. Abi James & EA Draffan. June 2014 Page 1

Review of technology-based

support to reduce the impact of note-taking difficulties on

disabled students Authors1: Abi James ([email protected]) and E.A. Draffan

Why does note-taking cause disabled students specific

barriers?

Studies have shown that the quality of the notes students are able to take

during teaching sessions (such as lectures) is related to their performance in

examinations and assessments. Those students who failed to capture salient

points during lectures achieved lower grades than those who were able to create

good quality notesi. Research has shown that notes taken in lectures are used

by students as resources for assignments and when revising for examinationsii.

The note-taking skills required at Higher Education are very different to those

needed in a classroom environment at school of college. Many universities

provide general introductory study skills sessions for new students to learn these

skills. However, those students with a specific learning difficulty will need

specialist teaching to develop these skills over a much longer period of time.

Note-taking is a time-sensitive activity. Disabled students who need longer to

undertake day to day learning activities, such as writing, listening to discussions,

lectures or tutorials and reading content from the screen are unable to keep up

with the content being delivered without study skill adjustments and additional

support.

Fuller et al. (2004) reported that virtually all the students with dyslexia in their

sample of students with disabilities from one British university reported

difficulties with learning in lectures. In particular issues occurred when taking

notes while listening and watching and with lecturers talking too quickly or

removing slides before they could digest the information.

1 Authors’ affiliation: WAIS, University of Southampton and British Dyslexia Association New Technologies

Committee.

mailto:[email protected]



Note-taking is a highly complex task placing more burden on memory and

processing skills than playing chess (Peverly et al, 2012iii, Pilot, Oliver & Kellogg,

2005iv). Therefore students with a disability that impacts on concentration,

attention, processing speed and memory find note-taking particularly difficult.

Boyle’s recent studyv identified that students with Learning Disabilities (LD)

(term used for Dyslexia in United States of America) often missed the important

points in multiple sections of a lecture. They tended to record fewer points,

incorrect points or recorded nothing at all. Finally, examinations of their notes

revealed that students with LD often failed to record important vocabulary terms

and subsequent definitions of these words.

Due to this complexity and time-sensitive nature of note-taking, students with a

range of disabilities can face barriers (Appendix 1 lists some of these barriers).

Note-taking is likely to be the area where disabled students most often need

support. The 2012 survey of students in receipt of the Disabled Students

Allowances (DSA) by Draffan et alvi showed that note-taking was the most

commonly identified area of concern when discussing their difficulties and the

impact of the support provided by the allowances. This is in line with earlier

studies that have highlighted that lectures are the learning environment where

students require the most support or face the most barriersvii, viii

Reasonable Adjustments for note-taking support for

disabled students

The remainder of this paper provides an overview of some of the anticipatory

note-taking reasonable adjustments that can be provided by a university to

support students who face barriers in lecture situations and how they compare

to the technology-based note-taking support currently provided through the DSA

equipment allowance.

As has been mentioned above creating personal notes is part of the learning

process for most students. Providing transcripts, videos and audio playback of

lectures are all considered to be alternative formats and therefore reasonable

adjustments in anticipation of a disabled students’ difficulties with note taking.

However, they do not constitute ‘personal’ notes that can be used as an aid by

students who struggle to create them in the first place. They may help with

some aspects of retention but in reality the student still has to spend more time

going through the text or multimedia alternatives struggling to pick out the key

facts. Specialist guidance to gain these skills is essential if the student is to

develop useful strategies in this situation.



Availability of “hand-outs” or slides prior to a lecture

The ADSHE Guidance on ‘Good Practice for Reasonable Adjustments’ix suggests

that clear, well formatted hand-outs should be provided for students with

dyslexia prior to lectures. Of the 63 UK HEI recently surveyed by the authors,

80.9% stated that this was now wide-spread in their institutions. Most offered

facilities to share slides/notes on their Virtual Learning Environments (VLE)

/student intranet for all students.

While providing slides/hand-out may be already assisting many students with

disabilities, it is important to consider that:

1. Presenters are aware that students have slides and this may affect the

pace of their delivery (as they no longer need to pause to enable students

to stop copying or change transparencies), adding additional barriers for

disabled students.

2. There is no auditing of the quality of notes provided to ensure they meet

the needs of disabled students. Teaching staff are unlikely to be aware of

the accessibility of content for students using text-to-speech or screen

reader tools. Some subject areas or faculties (in particular the

mathematical sciences) distribute notes as articles in PDF format, which

cause additional barriers to dyslexic readers due to the accessibility

limitations of the format.

3. There is a move to engage students through participation and interaction

in teaching sessions. This activity will not be captured through shared

notes or outlines.

4. Hand-outs/slides are less likely to be created for teaching sessions not

delivered in a lecture session (e.g. tutorials, lab sessions, field work and

practical sessions), despite students still needing to take notes in these

environments.

5. In order for students to have access to slides/hand-outs shared through

the university VLE during lectures they must have access to a computer or

tablet device during the lecture or print the content out before the

session.

A recent survey of disabled students using audio note-taking software

(Sonocent, 2014x), showed that only 53.3% used notes provided by their tutor

or lecturer. A similar gap between the availability of notes and their use by

dyslexic students was identified by Moritmore (2006). This indicates that either

students do not always receive notes or that they are not necessarily fit for

purpose despite university disability services reporting the wide availability.



In conclusion, although providing hand-outs/slides to students has now become

a widespread practice and could be considered a reasonable adjustment, the

evidence is that current provision and practice do not meet the needs of

students receiving the DSA.

Using audio recordings to support note-taking

The ADSHE ‘Guidance on Good Practice for Reasonable Adjustments’ suggests

that students should have access to recordings of lectures through a centralised

system (for example the library) as well as being allowed to make personal

audio recordings of lectures. The support provided to students by the availability

of centralised recording or podcasts are very different when compared to the

personalised recording made while present in a lecture.

Centralised audio recordings or podcasts of teaching sessions:

University podcasts – whether of a full lecture or summary recording – are audio

files, usually distributed in MP3 format with no indexing, text or image content.

Advantages of the provision of such podcasts for disabled students include:

- Creation and storage by the university may enhance inclusion as they are

available to all students, not just those that qualify for DSA.

- Wide availability of recordings prevents the highlighting of additional

needs and disabilities to peers.

- Generally, the quality of the recording are good.

- Confidentiality or intellectual property rights have been taken into

consideration and become the responsibility of the university to manage.

- Students are not reliant on bringing their own recording equipment to

teaching sessions.

However:

- Centralised recording may not have indexing or structure to link the audio

recording to slides or student notes.

- Audio search technology is very limited making it impossible to scan or

jump through the audio file.

Therefore it is felt that despite the positive aspects of university wide podcasts,

the limitations reduce their effectiveness for disabled students. While systems

such as Synotexi have been developed for linking and indexing centrally recorded

lectures, they have not been developed to a commercial level or widely adopted.



Furthermore, some universities still do not appear to have the facilities to

provide campus wide audio recordings. The aforementioned recent survey of 63

HEI institutions showed that only 44.5% of institutions provided this support. Of

those, only 28.6% reported that it was frequently being used to record lectures.

Issues that limit universities adopting wide-scale audio recordings include

intellectual property rights of staff, confidentially of students contributing during

teaching session and the practicalities of recording teaching sessions that are not

taught in traditional class-room or lecture theatres (e.g. lab based sessions). In

the recent survey by Sonocent (2014), only 20.1% of students reported using

recordings provided by their university or college.

Personalised audio recording strategies

Prior to the availability of digital recorders, disabled students were provided

tape-based dictaphones or mini-disk recorders which did not allow for easy

indexing or good quality recordings. Surveys of students with dyslexia in 2002

and 2007 highlighted that this technology strategy was not as effective as

students hoped due to the time it took to review and extract information from

recordingsxii, xiii.

However, since 2007 students have largely been provided with high-quality

digital recorders which allow index marks to be added during the recording and

software that enable slides and typed notes to be linked to audio recordings.

Indexing marks allow students to link their recordings to any other form of notes

that are able to capture or be provided with. Moreover, it provides a means for

the student to engage with the process with the physical act of adding an index

mark to a recording and linking it to a key fact, diagram or other artefact. This

act can assist with memorising new information. Without engaging with the

information being disseminated, students with SpLD often fail to process the

knowledge gained in that moment and recall is hampered.

The 2012 survey of students who had received the DSA since 2007 showed a

marked improvement in the effectiveness of this strategy with 65.7% reporting

that digital recorders had a positive impact on their studies. Of those students,

the cohort with specific learning difficulties reported digital recorders were

particularly useful with 80.9% saying they had a positive impact on their studies.

One issue that students highlight as a negative aspect of the use of digital

recorders is that it highlights to their peers that they have a disability. In the

past 4 years software applications, smartphones/tablet apps and smart pens

have been developed and widely adopted in the student and educational field to

support note-taking. Services, apps and devices such as EverNote, AudioNote,

OneNote, Audio Notetaker and the LiveScribe Pen can all be used to record audio



and link to hand-written, typed notes and slides. Whilst not all these

technologies are available to students through the DSA and some prove more

suitable in particular subject areas, disabled students are keen to use a variety

of recording strategies. The range of recording approaches can be seen in the

table below (Sonocent survey, 2014).

Recording device % of respondents

(students could select multiple recording methods)

With a digital recorder 84.8%

Through Audio Notetaker on my

computer

41.3%

With my mobile phone / tablet 7.0%

Download audio from another source 4.9%

Other 1.4%

Of those who reported they used a digital record, 29.2% also reported using a

computer and 5.7% reported using a mobile or tablet. This indicates that

students are using a variety of recording methods to suit their learning

requirements.

These students were also asked if they would like to use an iPhone/iPad version

of Audio Notetaker for recordings 52.7% of students reported they would like to

use an app while a further 35.0% reported they would like to use a recording

app but didn’t have a compatible device.

Where students are able to link audio recordings to slides, they are using these

personalised notes for a wide range of activities:

- Recording presentation during lectures, classes and meetings

- Reviewing and annotating notes after lectures, classes and meetings

- Writing up assignments

- Capturing ideas

- Planning and researching for projects and assignments

- Studying for examinations

- Searching for materials for assignments

- Creating and practising presentations

(activities reported by students in Sonocent’s 2013 and 2014 user survey)

In summary, while university podcasts may offer some support to disabled

students, the lack of indexing or tools for linking to notes mean that they do not

provide the support required for students with SpLD or processing difficulties.

However, disabled students that are able to make personal recordings with index

marks or time-linked typed /hand-written notes which are quicker to review and



suit their learning preferences are assisting with removing barriers to note-

taking. While digital recorders seemed to be widely used by those disabled

students who receive them, there seems to be a trend for students to use a wide

range of devices to record teaching sessions and that they feel more comfortable

using a mainstream device as it does not highlight their disability.

Using video recordings / lecture capture to support

note-taking

In the past few years, universities have started to invest in video capture

solutions as technology to capture, edit and disseminate lectures. Technology

develops mean that such recordings are have become more affordable and easy

to administer while the general student population has become used to seeing

video as part of their learning materials. Video capture systems enable audio,

slides, computer screen capture or video of speaker/whiteboard to be

simultaneously obtained and disseminated.

In the recent survey of HEI institutions, 66.7% reported that they had some

form of video capture facilities available (compare to 76.2% who reported

having audio recording capabilities). Of these 11% of respondents reported that

video capture is widely available. Five institutions also reported that they were in

the process of piloting or rolling-out video capture and that they expected

availability to be more widespread in the next academic year. However, take-up

of lecture capture will be reliant on the teaching staff developing the required

skills and the provision of the necessary equipment. Full lecture capture,

including video of the speaker and whiteboard (or equivalent), is likely to only be

available in larger lecture facilities.

As video capture systems are relatively new there is no data on how disabled

students are using the systems to support their note-taking. As with audio

recording, it can be time-consuming to watch a video and technology to search

within videos is still developing (although this is an area that is expected to

improve rapidly). Video capture does allow students to pause and rewind their

teaching session as they would not have been able to do in the live session.

However, video capture does have the potential to address more of the issues of

students studying maths, science and graphical-based content which cannot be

captured through audio recordings.

At this time there are few note-taking support tools for working with video and

students are not being trained on the study skills necessary to take notes from,

manipulate, index and reference from such sources. Creating accessible learning

resources with videos has already proved challenging to online education



provision and MOOCsxiv. Fully accessible video capture should be provided with

captions and/or time-linked transcripts and audio descriptions. Without these

additions, video capture can cause further barriers to students with visual and

hearing impairments or processing difficulties. However, when fully accessible

video capture is provided – with searchable captions or a time-linked transcript,

videos can become a much more powerful tool to assist disabled studentsxv.

Summary

Note-taking in teaching sessions is likely to be the area where most disabled

students face barriers. The quality of the notes a student produces can be

related to their assessment and examination results. Therefore for disabled

students to perform on a par with their non-disabled peers, the barriers to note-

taking must be addressed.

It has now become a widespread practice for universities to use their virtual

learning environments to provide hand-outs/slides for all students and this could

be considered a reasonable adjustment. However, the evidence is that current

provision and practice do not meet the needs of students receiving the DSA.

Disabled students, and in particular those with SpLDs, are using digital recorders

and supporting software for linking slides and audio recordings to index notes to

remove the barriers to note-taking. This support is not available through

university provided audio recordings. Students are also showing a move to using

a wide range of devices to record audio in conjunction with or instead of their

digital recorder provided through the DSA. Students should be encouraged to

develop their own coping strategies as they are likely to be more sustainable and

transferrable to roles outside education.

Audio recordings, where provided by universities, are not meeting the needs of

disabled students. The focus for universities and educators has now moved to

the use of video to support learning and there are indications that video capture

of lectures will become more prevalent in the coming year. However, assistive

tools, study strategies and pedagogical tools are still being developed to enable

students to develop the necessary coping strategies to engage and learn from

videos. It is vital that any provision through the DSA is compatible with this new

technology, while enabling students to create personalised notes that can be

searched, annotated and indexed.



Appendix1: Extract from training materials on barriers to

note-taking for disabled students.

Situations where students in education may need to take notes:

- Lectures

- Tutorials and seminars

- Reading text (note-making)

- Laboratory and fieldwork, external visits and expeditions

- Brainstorming and planning

- Revision

- Reviewing online materials, webinars

- Presentations

Barriers to note-taking may be caused by:

- Working memory difficulties

- Concentration, difficulties

- Poor or slow handwriting

- Poor spelling

- Hearing and comprehension difficulties

- Visual and perceptual difficulties

- Visual impairments

- Organisation and time management difficulties

- Unable to attend lectures

- Physical difficulties holding a pen or carrying items

- Semantic pragmatic disorders



Appendix 2: Lecture recording provision reported in

survey of HEIs.

A survey of disability practitioners took place between the 20th and 30th May

2014. It was promoted to members of NADP and other disability forums.

Responses were received from 63 HEIs that could be matched to HESA

publications on the number of disabled students in institutions.

Table 2.1: response to:. Please indicate what lecture recording provision is made

by your institution:

Widely available and used

Facility widely available but limited use

Limited availability and use

No provision

Don't know

Video Capture 7 11%

10 15.9%

25 39.7%

12 19%

9 14.3%

Audio recordings

18 28.6%

10 15.9%

20 31.7%

10 15.9%

5 7.9%

Shared notes

on VLE/intranet

51

80.9%

5

7.9%

4

6.3%

0

3

4.8%

Table 2.2: data on institutions that responded to this survey.

Country No of HEI respondents

Total number of DSA students at HEI

respondents

Percentage of DSA students in the country represented by

HEI respondents

England 53 60375 46.0%

Scotland 4 3530 34.6%

Wales 5 6170 62.9%

Northern

Ireland

1 1230 43.2%

Total 63 71395 45.4%



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