Notetaking was once a sought-after job for many Fairfield University students who enjoyed getting paid to take notes for their classes while helping out their classmates. These notes were then sent to students with the appropriate accommodations through the Office of Accessibility (OOA), ensuring the privacy of both parties.
However, this system is now a thing of the past. The university has transitioned to using artificial intelligence notetaking for classes. An article published by The Mirror in early October noted the shift to Glean, an AI platform the university is using to transcribe lectures, and showed that students’ initial reactions were overwhelmingly negative.
As mentioned in the article, one student stated: “I hate it. I would rather have a peer notetaker.”
Now, with an entire semester of AI notetaking behind us, what’s the consensus? Are AI-generated notes better than those written by fellow students?
Overall, AI notetaking has, for some students, exceeded initial expectations, though not without some drawbacks.
Interestingly, student notetakers have not been completely phased out.
According to sophomore nursing student Cailinn Kiley, who receives notes through Glean, students who are not happy with the quality of AI notes can request a student notetaker. This provides the ability to opt out of AI notes as needed.
Kiley says that she actually prefers the AI form of notes. As a nursing major, she finds the lecture transcript especially useful. This allows her to determine what information from class is important and ensures she gets all the information needed.
I was a notetaker last spring. I enjoyed taking notes and it helped me pay more attention in class. But I missed a class once and had to scramble to find someone else’s notes to submit. Life happens and students occasionally miss class. This created challenges for the notetaking system.
AI is immune to this issue. By removing possible human error, it provides consistent and reliable results. That said, it is not without flaws.
Kiley noted that if a professor does not speak loudly enough, the transcripts suffer in quality. To mitigate this, she sits at the front of her classes. Despite this drawback, she believes the benefits outweigh the inconsistencies she experienced with student notetakers.
She also shared a conflict of interest she experienced last year with student notetaking. Her friend and classmate, who knew Kiley received notes through the OOA, was assigned as her notetaker for a class that they shared.
“It was weird that we both knew we were on opposite sides of the OOA process,” Kiley admitted.
In cases where a notetaker failed to submit notes or provided poor-quality ones, recipients could request a replacement, a process meant to remain anonymous to avoid uncomfortable situations.
While Kiley noted she was fortunate that her friend was a reliable notetaker and the issue never escalated, she acknowledged that it could have created an awkward dynamic for both parties.
Former sophomore notetaker Maya Dalan shared another perspective.
While she always aimed to take thorough notes, she informed me that the notetaking policy allowed notetakers to submit their notes later in the day, even if it was for a morning class.
However, with AI, the notes are automatically sent to the student who needs them. This cuts out the time students would spend waiting for their notes to start their assignments, or to use for studying.
Dr. Weinstein, a politics professor, shared his perspective on this shift. He noted that since COVID-19, he has recorded his lectures for students who miss class and has continued this policy after seeing its benefits.
He mentioned that he and other faculty members have ongoing conversations with the OOA about how to best support students and utilize Glean effectively.
“I leave it up to the students,” he explains. “Whatever I can do to support, that’s what I do. I hope that Glean is effective, I hope it works.” Dr. Weinstien also hopes that if Glean “wasn’t supporting [students] or wasn’t conducive to their learning they get a different accommodation.”
Though not perfect, AI noteaking is proving to be an efficient alternative to the old system. As the technology continues to evolve, students seem to become more confident in its ability to meet their needs.
Furthermore, as members of Generation Z, we can appreciate the advantages that technology brings to our everyday lives, and for the university to overlook its potential to improve accessibility and efficacy would be a missed opportunity.
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