Survey: Electronic Notes for Medical Schools

[smashweights]

How would you feel if a medical school told you that ALL course notepacks and materials would be ONLY in electronic format on a tablet (iPad, Android, etc) and you would not receive any printed materials? Points to consider: tablet cost is included in tuition, note packs are generally 500-1800 pages in length and would otherwise be printed out and provided to you (powerpoints, lecture notes/outlines, etc).

Feel free to add comments! This is to help some of our school academic reps consider potential changes for the school. Thanks for helping!

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[willen101383]

How would you feel if a medical school told you that ALL your notes and course note packs would be ONLY in electronic format on a tablet (iPad, Android, etc) and you would not receive any printed materials?

Feel free to add comments! This is to help some of our school academic reps address potential changes for the school. Thanks for helping!

I think it sounds awesome considering ive never printed or taken a single note yet. Are the tablets free?

 

[smashweights]

I think it sounds awesome considering ive never printed or taken a single note yet. Are the tablets free?

Tablet would be "free" as in included in tuition. Course note packs would be in the range of 500-1800 pages and completely electronic.

 

[Barcu]

I guess if they gave us tablets that would be fine. However, I would probably still prefer paper. I like to write things all over it, and it's not the same on a tablet.

 

[ManBroDude]

Powerpoints. Give me all the powerpoints.

 

[jcruiser]

How would you feel if a medical school told you that ALL course notepacks and materials would be ONLY in electronic format on a tablet (iPad, Android, etc) and you would not receive any printed materials? Points to consider: tablet cost is included in tuition, note packs are generally 500-1800 pages in length.

Feel free to add comments! This is to help some of our school academic reps consider potential changes for the school. Thanks for helping!

I would be fine with this but I figure in med school we would have to do a lot of homework and it would be useful to add markup on the notes you get which are two things you can't do with electronic documents on tablets.

Since you're in med school, how do you feel about it yourself? And is there a problem you have with printed materials? Just curious.

 

[alexandertg6]

if they ONLY used electronic notes it might be a deal breaker. It would be beneficial SOMETIMES but definitely not as the only way.

 

[link2swim06]

How would you feel if a medical school told you that ALL course notepacks and materials would be ONLY in electronic format on a tablet (iPad, Android, etc) and you would not receive any printed materials? Points to consider: tablet cost is included in tuition, note packs are generally 500-1800 pages in length.

Feel free to add comments! This is to help some of our school academic reps consider potential changes for the school. Thanks for helping!

1. I dont get anything printed out for me currently, our school just adds the ppts and docs to blackboard to download.

2. Forcing someone to read off an ipad for 6+ hours a day sounds like torture, its cool to use for awhile each day, BUT have you ever seriously considered staring at that little screen for 6 or more hours a day for 2 years straight?

3. Nothing is "free"...part of the tuition just means they are forcing me to buy an ipad...which I hate the idea of...my laptop has a nice 15 inch screen, serves as a computer too, isnt a waste of $400+, and lets me type additional notes...which is HUGE (ok you can type stuff on an ipad...but again, its a pain).

Honestly if I was "given" an ipad by my school ... I would likely sell it eBay and continue to use my laptop. This is coming from an M2 btw.

 

[alexandertg6]

1. I dont get anything printed out for me currently, our school just adds the ppts and docs to blackboard to download.

2. Forcing someone to read off an ipad for 6+ hours a day sounds like torture, its cool to use for awhile each day, BUT have you ever seriously considered staring at that little screen for 6 or more hours a day for 2 years straight?

3. Nothing is "free"...part of the tuition just means they are forcing me to buy an ipad...which I hate the idea of...my laptop has a nice 15 inch screen, serves as a computer too, isnt a waste of $400+, and lets me type additional notes...which is HUGE (ok you can type stuff on an ipad...but again, its a pain).

Honestly if I was "given" an ipad by my school ... I would likely sell it eBay and continue to use my laptop. This is coming from an M2 btw.

+1 on points two and three. Dont know about point 1 yet >.<

 

[Spatula]

I got an ipad as a gift and I made a real attempt to use it as a primary note taker. It sucks, the styluses (styli?) are very broad so it's hard to write small. The screen is still smaller than a piece of paper anyways. After a month and 50 pages worth of notes I've reverted back to good old fashioned pencil and paper.

Some programs have a zoom bar so you can write using large handwriting and will shrink it back down on the screen so it becomes a little easier for handwriting but that only works for hand-notes and PDFs, still hard to annotate powerpoints.

The best use I've gotten out of it was annotating and highlighting a few research papers for a class.

Also remember that there is only one screen on an Ipad, so you can't have a textbook, powerpoint, browser and handwriting application at the same time.

 

[aSagacious]

If you choose to go with a tablet, pick an Android device over an iPad.
A) It has a USB port
B) It is Flash compatible
C) The newer ones will have an 'IR blaster' with which to sync with other devices
D) Everything else is basically identical to an iPad (as far as specs go)

... my personal favorite is the Motorola XOOM2.

That said, do not underestimate the difficulty of coercing publishers to put their textbooks on the digital market. I looked through both the Apple store and Android market for my required textbooks for the upcoming year and found only one. I'm sure they will be more prevalent in the near future but you should anticipate some resistance while making the transition.

 

[NickNaylor]

For the first few modules I printed out the lecture slides and took notes.

And then I realized how huge of a waste of time that was. Now the only time I write anything school-related is when I'm memorizing information using my white board.

 

[Morzh]

Powerpoints. Give me all the powerpoints.

+1000

The portability of a tablet would be nice, but even nicer is sitting back with my feet up scrolling through powerpoints and pdf's on my 22" monitor over and over again until I know the slides so well that I can predict and recite what's on the next slide before I turn to it.

 

[willen101383]

For the first few modules I printed out the lecture slides and took notes.

And then I realized how huge of a waste of time that was. Now the only time I write anything school-related is when I'm memorizing information using my white board.

This.

Dont know if youve noticed how horribly inefficient a lot of your classmates likely are at studying. As in sitting there rewriting all the powerpoint slides over and over, etc.

For 3 weeks of M1 I went to class, then I stopped and watched all the lectures online for the rest of the year and took notes. This year I stopped watching the lectures, just read the powerpoint and take zero notes. My grades have steadily been increasing as ive made these changes...and my actual workload has been decreasing.

Obviously people learn in different ways but some of the study tactics I see people using look downright painful and explain why some people need to study 12 hours a day.

 

[NickNaylor]

This.

Dont know if youve noticed how horribly inefficient a lot of your classmates likely are at studying. As in sitting there rewriting all the powerpoint slides over and over, etc.

For 3 weeks of M1 I went to class, then I stopped and watched all the lectures online for the rest of the year and took notes. This year I stopped watching the lectures, just read the powerpoint and take zero notes. My grades have steadily been increasing as ive made these changes...and my actual workload has been decreasing.

Obviously people learn in different ways but some of the study tactics I see people using look downright painful and explain why some people need to study 12 hours a day.

Yeah. One of the most annoying things about lecture is hearing everyone take notes thanks to the clicking of keyboards. Sometimes people take notes when nothing was really said. I don't understand how they could possibly be writing something down.

I don't listen to lectures unless the slides are so bad that they require explanation; listening to people ask questions and/or the professor simply reading the slides is a poor use of time for me.

 

[gravitywave]

How would you feel if a medical school told you that ALL course notepacks and materials would be ONLY in electronic format on a tablet (iPad, Android, etc) and you would not receive any printed materials? Points to consider: tablet cost is included in tuition, note packs are generally 500-1800 pages in length.

Feel free to add comments! This is to help some of our school academic reps consider potential changes for the school. Thanks for helping!

you've just described my school. and yes the tablet is included, and it's a real tablet (not iPad vs Android at all, it's a Dell Latitude XT2, retail ~$2,800). of course people have the option to print stuff out in the student lounge, but few do, especially once anatomy is over.

i think it's fantastic. no books/paper to lug around, just a 4lb notebook with everything you need.

 

[willen101383]

Yeah. One of the most annoying things about lecture is hearing everyone take notes thanks to the clicking of keyboards. Sometimes people take notes when nothing was really said. I don't understand how they could possibly be writing something down.

I don't listen to lectures unless the slides are so bad that they require explanation; listening to people ask questions and/or the professor simply reading the slides is a poor use of time for me.

ahhhh yeah that would annoy me too. People asking questions also kills me considering every question ive heard asked was easily googleable. The clear cut brown noser questions are hilarious though....like dude we have enough info to learn about do you really care if the placenta could reinsert back into the endometrium if by some chance you wanted to try to stuff it back in there lol.

 

[smashweights]

Bump for more polling please!

 

[link2swim06]

you've just described my school. and yes the tablet is included, and it's a real tablet (not iPad vs Android at all, it's a Dell Latitude XT2, retail ~$2,800). of course people have the option to print stuff out in the student lounge, but few do, especially once anatomy is over.

i think it's fantastic. no books/paper to lug around, just a 4lb notebook with everything you need.

This is the way to go...you need a full screen. Regardless I wouldn't be happy with $2,800 of my tuition money going to a tablet...

 

[lucitrea]

1. im a computer killer
2. i like to hilight in books/ppts/notes
3. anyone would take an ipad lying around. no one cares about stealing anatomy books (depending if I was on campus or not)/who breaks into your house and steals your books/notes?
4. yes if its free. i think some schools got free ones by apple but that may be a one time thing.
5. no if its included in tuition.
6. by the time i start, ill probably already have an ipad or android or a tablet laptop.

why cant we just have both?

on another note, this would have been great in middle and high school. i lugged home like 3 textbooks each day+notebooks+all the other **** in my bag, until i just left them at home and shared books with someone who lugged them home everyday.