Recording Lectures?

Nursing Students General Students

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Hi Everyone,

I'm starting my nursing program this month- can't believe it's finally here! A former student at my school (graduated) advised me to ask permission to record the teachers giving lectures. I'm a very visual learner- reading and drawing are my things (for example, drawing a heart with all its internal workings of the best way for my to learn and remember how it works). However, I can understand how being able to replay the lectures would be helpful. The grad student also said that the teachers always mention material that will be on the tests.

Has anyone else done this and was it helpful? Is it a common thing to do? It's been a looong time since I was a student and I want to do well, but also not looking to request anything unusual that will set me apart from other students right from the start.

Any other tips for learning are welcome too ?.

Thanks and good luck to all!

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Specializes in NICU.

Recording lectures is very common. I would ask permission on the first day of class.

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Specializes in Mental Health.

Most of them will tell you their policy on the first day of class without you having to ask, it's pretty common.

Having said that, I don't find it useful at all. CHA is a 3 hour class and I can study a lot more efficiently in 3 hours on my own using other methods. Our school repeatedly tells us they don't "teach to the test" as well, so they don't necessarily cover every little detail that is on the text in class, it's more of a big picture thing and them pointing us in the right direction as to what we need to study - but the rest is up to us. (I realize not all schools are like this though)

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Hi NICU Guy and Rionoir,

Thanks for your replies! I'm glad to hear it's common- if they don't address it in class the first day, I'll ask quickly as I leave class. I'm not sure it will be helpful for me, but I guess it would be good to have a recording just in case I felt I really missed something. If I find that I'm not using the audio, I'll just stop bothering to do it. I haven't been in school for so long, hearing about how hard nursing school is makes me a bit nervous. I've always felt like I learn pretty quickly- hopefully I'm not mistaken!

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Specializes in Mental Health.

For some reason it seems like 99% of nursing students like pen and paper and physical textbooks, but if you're a tech geek you might want to look into getting ebooks and then checking this video out below. I started using Anki at level three, and honestly it turned what was a really hard semester for a lot of my fellow students into a pretty easy semester for me. I see so many people highlighting books and stuff, but active recall has been shown to be the most effective way to remember information by far. Some people just hate it, I get it, but this program really saved my butt so I share it every chance I get hoping it will help at least one person. lol Good luck!

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Specializes in Mental Health.

I should add, I recommend ebooks because you can literally just copy and paste entire sentences/paragraphs straight from the book into Anki and then use the "cloze" cards to turn it into a fill-in-the-blank type card. It typically takes me 2-3 hours to make an entire chapter into cards for myself, and then Anki takes care of the rest with intelligent spaced repetition based on how you did the previous time answering the card. When it came time for my cumulative finals, I had been studying all of the units continually throughout the semester with Anki and required zero extra studying for the cumulative stuff.

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In my day, it was very common. One simply asked the instructor if the instructor did not mention it on the first day. However, more and more, it is no longer being allowed. The local community colleges where I now live actually have a rule printed in their catalog and the printed version of the current schedule of classes that according to "...…", insert name of state statute or whatever, electronic recording is not permissible, etc. This may be circumvented by providing documentation to the school that recording is a necessary accommodation for some type of learning disability. Then, there are those students who use smart pens that record simultaneously while being used as pens. They rely on the instructor not noticing or their peers spilling the beans. I thought that recording lectures was a very useful method for study as long as I kept up with listening and updating my notes accordingly. If you are just recording to be recording and never use the material, you are just wasting your time and money, although a smart pen system is not that expensive as an initial layout.

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Specializes in Mental Health.
2 hours ago, caliotter3 said:

In my day, it was very common. One simply asked the instructor if the instructor did not mention it on the first day. However, more and more, it is no longer being allowed. The local community colleges where I now live actually have a rule printed in their catalog and the printed version of the current schedule of classes that according to "...…", insert name of state statute or whatever, electronic recording is not permissible, etc. This may be circumvented by providing documentation to the school that recording is a necessary accommodation for some type of learning disability. Then, there are those students who use smart pens that record simultaneously while being used as pens. They rely on the instructor not noticing or their peers spilling the beans. I thought that recording lectures was a very useful method for study as long as I kept up with listening and updating my notes accordingly. If you are just recording to be recording and never use the material, you are just wasting your time and money, although a smart pen system is not that expensive as an initial layout.

Some instructors will say it’s fine but please don’t post online, or ask people to stop recording if someone shares a personal story about the current topic, etc.

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Hi Rionoir and Caliotter,

Rionoir, thanks for telling me about Anki, it sounds really helpful. Definitely going to check it out. I do have some ebooks and my son, who is very technically inclined, could show me anything I don't know, which is mainly everything. Right now I'm only capable of reading my ebooks. I just got a laptop- never had one before. I love my phone though.

Caliotter, there's so much I don't know- never heard of Smartpens! I'm going to see how expensive they are because they sound really convenient. The last time I remember recording anything was on tapes ?- I'm an older student. Anyway, as long as we are allowed to record lectures, I'll see if it's useful for me. I'm going to try everything I can to help me do well.

I can certainly see why instructors (I was calling them teachers- I learn so much here) don't want personal stories recorded or things posted online. Why anyone would post anything like that is beyond me, but I'm sure it happens.

Thank you both for all your help, I really appreciate it.

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Specializes in Neuro.

I recorded lectures, with instructor permission, in the beginning & almost never would listen to them after. Others I know recorded every lecture all through school, so they were able to utilize it well. Just depends what type of learner you are & time you have. I had family obligations outside of school, hard to relisten to a full 3-4 hour lecture with small kids running around. I had to find a way to best utilize my limited study time more efficiently, but everyone is different.

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I did almost all of mine using cassette recorders and would listen to them on the bus or on my connecting car ride during my hour and a half commute. That shows you how long ago (the early 90's). Now, you can no longer find cassette recorders (Casio, mostly). Recorders are all digital. I got a digital one but could not figure it out at the time. I got a Livescribe Smart Pen for around $110 - or $175, don't clearly remember. Now their smart pens are wifi and probably cost closer to $200, but I consider it to be money well spent. The pen records audio that connects to the special notebook where you actually write your notes. When you listen to the recording, you see your notes right in front of you and you can amend your notes accordingly. You used to be able to find Livescribe smart pens at Target, that is where I got mine. Target no longer carries them, but you can find them online at livescribe dot com. Livescribe used to have a special online website where you could connect your recordings and thus access your notes on your laptop. Unfortunately, several years back Livescribe did away with that feature. Too bad, that was very, very helpful when available. There are other brands of smart pens that I can not give any firsthand info about. Most likely available at office depot, etc. type stores.

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I take back part of my previous post. Just did an internet search for Livescribe and it would appear that they have re-introduced the Livescribe Desktop, a very useful function of their system.

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