How To
How to Use Evernote to Improve Your Grades
Update: In November 2018, Full Sail’s Internet Marketing programs were updated and are now Digital Marketing Bachelor’s, Digital Marketing Master’s, and Digital Marketing Certificate.
This is a guest post written Dr. Brad Semp, Internet Marketing Course Director. Dr. Semp teaches the final project classes for both the Internet Marketing Bachelor's Program and the Master’s Program. He is also known as 'The Busyness Doctor' and manages his own blog to help people to reduce the “busyness” in life.
Evernote is one of the fastest-growing applications today with over 34 million reported users. Its rise in popularity and adoption indicates that people are finding valuable ways to make it work. Task planning and tracking, blog post and book writing, photo storage, contact management, and paperless living are just a few of the ways to use the application. I’m always excited to discover new and innovative ways to use Evernote to save time, reduce clutter, and ultimately to achieve more of the results that I seek. However, through the many years it took to obtain my doctoral degree and now as an Internet Marketing Course Director at Full Sail University, I certainly wish that Evernote had been available to me as a student.
Here are seven ways that students can (and should) use Evernote to earn higher grades:
Storing Handwritten Notes
An alternative to keeping and carrying handwritten notes, notepads and 3-ring binders is to store your notes in Evernote. I still like to take handwritten notes, but the first thing that I do with them is to scan them into my Evernote system. The notes are automatically converted to searchable text, making it easy for me search for and retrieve information that I wrote down years ago. If you prefer taking digital notes, simply type directly into Evernote as you sit in class.
Collecting & Organizing Project Information
Identifying and storing information for a class assignment or project can be difficult. Doing so for a final project is even trickier because you need to store information until the course nears its end. You can make this easy by setting up a notebook within Evernote for each course (or for each project). As you uncover project information or ideas, simply save and tag project information as a note within the system.
Access Anywhere
There is no longer a need to carry a memory stick or any device to swap files or access your school information. Gone are the days of waiting until you return home to hop onto a computer. Evernote makes it easy for you to access your school information from anywhere, at any time. Use your computer, smartphone, or iPad to retrieve course information, notes, and important portions of textbooks that you scan into Evernote.
Studying (Peek)
Evernote Peek makes it easy to convert your notes into materials that you can study using an iPad. You no longer need to use index cards or to stare at your notes in order to test yourself or to memorize important information. With Peek, you can display portions of your notes, problems, and quiz or test questions and then lift up your iPad cover or a virtual cover to reveal the answers.
Group Collaboration
Many courses today require group collaboration on homework or other project assignments. Years ago the only option was to meet in-person. The phone, Internet and virtual meetings are now prevalent. Regardless of how you communicate, there is a need to collaborate and share information between group members. Set up a shared notebook in Evernote so that everyone in the group can easily access and collaborate on the same information.
Storing References / Sources
Sometimes coming up with enough source material for a research paper is difficult. Have you ever found the perfect source only to be unable to find it when you went back to find it? This has happened to me far too many times to count. However, it’s easy to dump reference materials into your Evernote system. And it’s just as easy to search and find them whenever you need to reference something.
A Paperless Student Life
Evernote is the ultimate tool for paperless living and studying. As a student, it can be overwhelming and tiring to carry around a syllabus, handouts, books, notebooks and other course information. Time is often wasted in searching through piles of paper to find that one important piece of information that your instructor said would be on the next test. Save your time and energy by converting all of the class-related papers into easy to organize, searchable notes within Evernote.
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