Cindy Bourne, Academic Resource Centre coordinator, and Jess Roebuck, Disability Resource Centre coordinator
Disability Resource Centre and Academic Resource Centre collaborate to offer skill-building workshop for students
The Disability Resource Centre (DRC) and the Academic Resource Centre are teaming up to provide note-taking workshops that build personal learning skills for UBC students.
These workshops are training students to improve their learning capacities as well as serve as professional development for peer note-takers who support students with disabilities as a classroom accommodation at UBC’s Okanagan campus.
“Peer note-takers play an important role in supporting students with disabilities in the classroom,” says DRC Coordinator Jess Roebuck. “We’re looking to provide training to help our peer note-takers on campus become even better, more efficient note takers, so we connected with the Academic Resource Centre to review a variety of note-taking methods and strategies.”
One of the note-taker skills development workshops took place in late January and the participants were exposed to effective, traditional and new methods of note-taking.
Following the session, participants had an increased understanding on how to identify important information trends quickly and learned new strategies to quickly capture appropriate details. Of the 23 who attended, the workshop attendees also included 4 students with disabilities registered with the DRC.
“Note-taking is a key skill that for the majority of students can improve with practice. For students who want to improve their note-taking capacities, or any other skill, there are regular workshops offered through the Advising and Involvement Centre, as well as collaborations between several departments,” says Cindy Bourne, Academic Resource Centre coordinator. “These serve unique student groups which can have a ripple effect, especially in the case of note-takers who are there to provide a service for fellow students.”
Good notes benefit both the note-taker and the student needing the service.
“A student may not be able to take complete or adequate notes for a number of reasons, some of which are visible (e.g., an injured or non-functioning hand) and some that are not visible (e.g., having an auditory or language processing problem or a hearing or visual disability),” adds Roebuck. “If a student has a documented disability that interferes with the ability to take class notes, then a peer note-taker may be an appropriate classroom support, approved by the DRC.”
Students or faculty members looking to find out more about note-taking assistance are encouraged to contact Jess Roebuck.
