OneNote is Criminally Underutilized by Students at USD
Across USD, students are hunched over their laptops and tablets in every classroom, furiously taking notes as lecturers passionately teach their chosen discipline. Attentive students know they’ll take their midterm exams in a month. They’ll be hitting the books and attempting to review their notes in preparation for the exams.
However, a few will find they cannot read their handwriting come October. So, they may have turned to Microsoft Word or Apple Pages to take notes. The clumsy system on each platform is not set up for the dexterity required for university-level note taking. Frustrated, they may return to handwritten notes, or worse, they will take no notes!
I am no salesperson, but as a senior and experienced Microsoft OneNote user, I can confidently say you all need a better note taking system. This summer, I worked at Avera Research Institute (ARI) in Sioux Falls. While working at ARI, an intelligent, soft-spoken woman preached to me about the wonders of OneNote that even I did not know it was capable of completing.
OneNote is designed to host and connect all your notes on one platform that could solve your problem. It is accessible via tablets, cellphones, Macbooks and laptops. All students and staff at USD have access to OneNote through their university email. After downloading the software and logging in using your university ID, OneNote generates its first notebook for you. A blank white screen with a purple theme stares back at you, awaiting your commands. Using a Windows laptop, you can press control+8, which types a bullet point into OneNote. Users can quickly create stylized and easy-to-read notes with tab, enter, and backspace keys.
OneNote lets you create digital tabs and allows you to make sections for each class or personal situation. You can make subdivided sections using the “Add Page” button. You can also navigate the sections and pages with ease at any time.
If that is not enough, OneNote can help keep notes for meetings. You can connect OneNote to Microsoft Outlook, Zoom and Webex. This means no matter what you are doing, whether during a professor’s office hours, attending an SGA meeting or interviewing for a job, OneNote can create elegant notes during the meeting quickly and easily.
Moreover, OneNote will help you take notes for math and statistics. It recognizes equations, making sloppy text or handwriting into easy-to-read equations, and saves it for you! OneNote will even complete moderately complicated equations like a calculator. It syncs to all devices and you can take notes on your laptop, then review the notes on your way to USD’s Testing Center on your phone!
In summary, OneNote is the best software designed for students like us. Whether you are a Biology, English, Anthropology or Sustainability major, OneNote can and will work wonderfully for you. It is simple and easy to use.
