Typed Versus Handwritten Lecture Notes and Undergraduate Achievement: A Meta-Analysis

• In Event: Content and Skill-Specific Pedagogy

Abstract

Many college students prefer to type their lecture notes rather than write them by hand. As a result, the number of experimental and quasi-experimental studies comparing these two note-taking mediums has flourished over the past decade. The present meta-analytic research sought to uncover trends in the existing studies comparing note-taking and achievement outcomes for undergraduates. Results from 24 separate studies across 21 articles revealed that although typing notes benefits note-taking volume, taking and reviewing handwritten notes leads to higher achievement among college students. Furthermore, our binomial effect size display shows the extent to which taking handwritten lecture notes leads to better course grades among undergraduates than typing notes. Our findings indicate that handwritten notes serve a superior external storage function than typed notes, ultimately contributing to better achievement outcomes for undergraduates.

Authors

• Abraham E. Flanigan, Georgia Southern University

• Kenneth A. Kiewra, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Tiphaine Colliot, Poitiers University

• Junrong Lu, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Jordan Wheeler, University of Nebraska-Lincoln