Commercial Note-Taking Services: Effects on Attendance and Performance. AIR 1998 Annual Forum Paper.

This study investigated student use of commercial note-taking services as a predictor of class attendance and examined the effects of their use on academic performance in science courses. The study draws upon results of a survey distributed to 1,874 undergraduate students (response rate 58.2 percent) enrolled in two large-lecture chemistry courses during the fall 1995 term at a large midwestern research university, and examines the relative influence of two independent variables (student personal characteristics and student academic background) vis-a-vis commercial course note use on student academic performance. The initial section of the paper presents an extensive literature review of the social environments of learning, student academic behaviors, and commercial note-taking services. This is followed by sections discussing the conceptual framework of the study, the research questions to be answered, the methodology used, and study limitations and results. The study found little correlation between students' academic backgrounds and the likelihood of using commercial note-taking services; it also found no correlation between the use of note-taking services and poor class attendance; however, the study did show a negative effect of the use of commercial note-taking services on student academic performance. Data tables are appended. (Contains 23 references.) (CH)