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Microsocft MVP: Tablet PC
Studying in the Humanities – Part 1: My Electronic Filing System
24 June 2007Posted By: RobertPosted in: GoBinder, Note-Taking, Organization, Study Aids
If you’re going to succeed at being an efficient TabletPC based student (regardless of what program of study you are taking) then it really helps to get, and stay, as organised as possible, and even more so when you’re study routine is primarily digital in nature. Thankfully you can go a long way to achieving this simply by having a good electronic filing system for your notes in place. By doing so you’re not only putting yourself into a position to deal with the torrent of information that bombards you during the course of a semester, but you’re also gifted a ‘tool’ that helps you maintain relevant study focus, while at the same time helping you to work more effectively towards meeting your submission commitments. In this, the first in the series on how I use my TabletPC to study at university, I’m going to reveal the filing system I utilise in order to help me keep on top of my workload and take me one step closer to organised ‘nirvana’.
Before I begin there are a couple of points to note. Firstly it may seem, due to the commentary and screenshots I provide, that my note filing system requires the specific use of GoBinder. However I hope it will become quickly apparent that my system isn’t dependent on any particular piece of software and can be easily incorporated into any note-taking application of choice. Secondly, in order to provide the best illustration of my general filing system, I’m backtracking to a series of archived notes from a previous year’s study (imported into GoBinder 2006). Although I’m still as obsessed with keeping my electronic notes as organised as I’ve always been, the structure of my course has changed substantially with a lot less lectures and a lot more independent study to schedule. As a result I now arrange my electronic filing a lot bespoke to the more general method I’m going to be discussing. Oh and I should perhaps apologise beforehand about the long-windedness of my explanation. Although I’ve tried to keep things as concise as I can it does ramble on a bit but hopefully by using subtitles and bulleting I’ve made things a little more readable for you. Ok on with the show after the jump and please try to stay awake :o)
Naming Convention Ok so the foundation of my filing system is based on the file naming convention that I apply to it. Teaching at my university, as I’m sure is the case at most learning institutions, is modular based and all of the learning modules within the courses carry unique code numbers. As explaining how my university applies their module codes is a bit superfluous to this article (not to mention boring :o)) I’ll just crack on using ‘real world’ examples. For the year I’m basing this article on, the main module of focus is ME1002 - East and West in the Age of Crusades but I was also enrolled in two other modules for the semester: CL1002 - Epic, Tragedy and Myth and AN1002 - Roman History from Foundation to Empire. It is the pre-fixed codes for these modules, in this case ME1002, CL1002 and AN1002, that I take and use to form the basic identification for my filing system for the semester.
Folder Setup
Using the module prefix code for the naming convention I’ve adopted, I create a ‘new course’ folder for each of the aforementioned modules in GoBinder. The screenshot shows the individual folder tabs created for the modules ME1002, AN1002 and CL1002 at the top and because I like my tabs to be small and fully readable, i.e. not appended with “….” when the maximum number of characters for a tab is exceeded, I only use the module code and not the module title. Yeah I know I could have perhaps arranged things more dynamically using GoBinder’s ‘course’ feature but I prefer keeping it simple by just creating basic folders. I also deal with the scheduling and contact details etc. outside of GoBinder so I really don’t need the ‘extras’ that are made available through using GoBinder’s ‘course set-up.’
The screenshot above shows the expanded view of the ME1002 module so for simplicities sake (because the others are mirrored identically) I will, as mentioned before, concentrate primarily on this module from now on to illustrate the filing system. As you can see there are four sub-folders contained within the parent module folder entitled ‘lectures,’ ‘tutorials,’ ‘essays’ and ‘support material.’ You may also notice an exclamation mark at the start of the ‘lectures’ and ‘tutorials’ folders. As I access these most frequently I’ve got a thing for having them shown at the top of the sub-folder listing and this is how I assure this (anally retentive or what? :o)).
Tour of the Folders
Lecture Folder
The ‘lectures’ folder contains further sub-folders for each of the scheduled lectures. To further apply a unique identification I add L01, L02, L03 etc. to each lecture in order (the ‘L’ obviously denotes a lecture) and I append the lecture title according to the teaching schedule in the module’s handbook. The asterix you can see at the start of each folder title gets added once the lecture has taken place just so that I can quickly identify the next scheduled lecture at a glance (not wholly necessary. Just something I tend to do).
Within each individual lecture sub-folder you will notice that the contained files all carry the same code relating to the lecture folder itself. I will be talking more fully about the contents of these lecture sub-folders in the next part of this series on lecture note-taking but to quickly explain – the first file shown in the list are the notes I ink during the lecture, the second is a ‘print to GoBinder’ copy of a summary mindmap that I create following each lecture. I also store an electronic copy of the professor’s handout in this folder together with an imported audio recording of the lecture.
Tutorial Folder
This folder, as with the lecture’s one, also contains sub-folders - one for each of the tutorials scheduled in the semester (typically one per week). Again I append a sequential number to each scheduled tutorial but this time I pre-fix with the letter ‘T’ to denote it as a tutorial. As I do with lectures I also add an asterix once the tutorial has taken place. Inside each tutorial folder, but not shown in the screenshot, are two further sub-folders - a ‘prep’ sub-folder, where I file any work I’ve prepared and am preparing for the tutorial, i.e. notes on subscribed book chapters, annotated chapters and journal articles, related snippets of info from the web, quotes etc. and a ‘notes’ sub-folder where I store notes/material that I’ve gleaned during the tutorial itself for future reference.
Essay Folder – I have an obligation to complete two essays per semester so I set up a folder for each essay to store any research notes, bibliographic information, brainstorms etc. relevant to the essays. I’ve got to admit though after discovering Evernote and Scribe at the start of that semester I never really used these folders much.
Support Material Folder
This is just a folder where I store assorted material relevant to the module and supporting it in some general way. So in here is kept general module related information such as period maps, journal articles, timelines, glossaries etc.
Ok so concludes the whistle-stop tour of my filing set-up and there isn’t really too much more I can say about it. However I thought I’d finish up just by running through a few pf the pros and cons I’ve experienced through using this system:
Pros
How do you organise yourself electronically?
So now you have an idea of how I organise myself electronically for university I’m intrigued to find out how you organise your electronic notes and how my system measures up against your own one. Are there close similarities in the way you organise your notes to mine? Or perhaps you have a radically different and more efficient way of organising your notes? Whatever you want to share I’d love to hear from you as I’m sure our readers would as well.
Coming in Part 2 of the series – Note-taking for lectures (before, during and after)
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June 24th, 2007 at 10:55 am
I first wish to say thank you for writing this article. I wish this would have been available my first semester using a tablet. While this method appears to be very organized, I think it might be a bit too much for my needs.
Currently, I use ON, Outlook and Explorer to organize my course material. In ON, I have a notebook for each semester. In each semester notebook, I have a tab for each course I am taking. I label the tabs according to the course name and not the course number. The reason I do this is because I do not believe that in 2 or 3 years I will remember what the course numbers were for my classes; however, I will almost certainly remember the course name. For each lecture, In Outlook, I set a recurring appointment for each of my classes. This serves to remind me when and where my classes are as well as a way to organize my lecture notes by date.
For each lecture, I use Outlook’s meeting notes option and then move the page to the appropriate course tab. Sometimes I take too many notes for ON to handle on one page; when that happens I simply create a subpage and continue inking.
Because ON does not allow you to print page lines, I use Journal to do my homework. To organize my homework, I have a ‘Homework’ folder in My Documents. In the homework folder, I have a folder for each class, again labeled by course name. I name my homework ‘HW #’ and have an Outlook task at the beginning of each lecture page for each homework assignment. I also put a hyperlink to the Journal file in each homework task.
June 26th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Robert - This is a great post. I am a PhD student going pretty much paperless, which tends to put me in very little company. I like using folders to organize my work. There is nothing too unique about my naming convention except on journal articles that I save and catalog using Endnote.
The path for folders on my PC is kept very simple. For example, the top-level folder is ACADEMIC, followed by ADMIN, COURSEWORK, RESEARCH, and TEACHING. I like the folders because it is very easy to keep projects together and completed projects can easily be copied to a CD or other external device for future reference. I can move it away from my current projects so that it is not distracting.
I also like using Windows Journal for modeling and sketching out ideas. As the idea becomes a project, I just save it to the project folder. When I am teaching, I use Journal as a whiteboard and save the notes I make on it during class to the folder that also contains the presentation slides and make the file available for students to download.
I have not yet found a way to effectively use OneNote. The features are distracting and I don’t like the set-up. I still experiment with it and maybe when I upgrade to the 2007 version, I will find a valuable use for it.
I know that my method is very simplistic, but you asked us how we do it, so I thought I would share. I look forward to your future entries.
June 26th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
This is a very nice article. I use an very similar organizational structure, and it’s nice when some one else has come up with something so close independently. That means it must be a good method right….
June 27th, 2007 at 6:03 am
Thanks for replying Damon. I should thank you for having the courage and fortitude to read my post. It’s duller than dishwater but there are a few gems to be plucked out of it I think.
Thanks also for taking the time to describe your system. Looks like you got a fine-tuned system going on there yourself. What’s most interesting to see is that you’re using the more common mainstream tools to organise yourself and that’s got to be good for ‘future-proofing’ your material.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Robert - Thanks for the great post. Since you asked for input from others regarding file organization, I thought I would add my 1.5 cents.
I am a PhD student and instructor operating nearly paperless, which is great. I love not having paper and being able to work anywhere, carrying only my laptop in its sleeve. My organization is extremely simple. I primarily use folders for everything. This allows me to keep all info for each project or class in a specific path of folders making them easy to locate.
For example, I have an ACADEMIC folder with sub folders for RESEARCH, TEACHING, COURSEWORK, and ADMIN. When I am working on a research project, I will save all spreadsheets, Word documents, presentations, and Windows Journal diagrams, etc. to a folder in the Research folder and when I am done, it is easy to copy the folder to a CD or other external storage drive for future reference.
I use Windows Journal for sketching out rough research ideas and models that I then save to the project folder. I also use Journal as a whiteboard when I’m teaching. I can save the document to the class folder for students to download after class. When students submit papers, I save them to the class folder (seperate sub-folders for each student) and “insert comments” for grading and I return them to the students via email.
I use Outlook to keep my calendar, tasks, and communication organized. If I am working on a joint project, I will use Outlook to assign a task to a colleague and track due dates and progress. I make short notes to myself using the ink desktop, so that they are always looking at me when I open up the tablet.
I have not yet fallen in love with OneNote, as many others around me have. There are some cool things that you can do in OneNote, but they just don’t fit with my current system. I play with it now and then, so maybe I will eventually “get it” and incorporate it into my existing system.
I know that this all sounds very simple and boring, but I am a very simple person. I hate clutter. I have a large desk with only my tablet, external monitor, family photo, and baseball resting on it. The rest of my desk is empty. I archive using an external hard drive and CDs, which are kept in a single binder in a locked drawer.
As info, I do all of this with a Gateway 210x convertible.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:45 am
I’m curious as to which mic you use to record your lectures, and also, what software you use to turn it into an mp3 for linking. I’m not sure how to link an mp3 player to onenote, but if you or anyone else can give advice, I’m listening!
Thank you for your detailed outline
June 30th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
I’ve linked to this at http://arthistoriansatwork.blogspot.com/2007/06/for-students-organizing-notes-on.html. Hope it helps a few more people get organized!
June 30th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Thanks for the write up! I’m curious as to what microphone you use to record your lectures, and what program you use to turn them into mp3’s? Any help is appreciated
July 1st, 2007 at 7:07 am
Thanks for the great post. Since you asked for input from others regarding file organization, I thought I would add my 1.5 cents.
I am a PhD student and instructor operating nearly paperless, which is great. I love not having paper and being able to work anywhere, carrying only my laptop in its sleeve. My organization is extremely simple. I primarily use folders for everything. This allows me to keep all info for each project or class in a specific path of folders making them easy to locate.
For example, I have an ACADEMIC folder with sub folders for RESEARCH, TEACHING, COURSEWORK, and ADMIN. When I am working on a research project, I will save all spreadsheets, Word documents, presentations, and Windows Journal diagrams, etc. to a folder in the Research folder and when I am done, it is easy to copy the folder to a CD or other external storage drive for future reference.
I use Windows Journal for sketching out rough research ideas and models that I then save to the project folder. I also use Journal as a whiteboard when I’m teaching. I can save the document to the class folder for students to download after class. When students submit papers, I save them to the class folder (seperate sub-folders for each student) and “insert comments” for grading and I return them to the students via email.
I use Outlook to keep my calendar, tasks, and communication organized. If I am working on a joint project, I will use Outlook to assign a task to a colleague and track due dates and progress. I make short notes to myself using the ink desktop, so that they are always looking at me when I open up the tablet.
I have not yet fallen in love with OneNote, as many others around me have. There are some cool things that you can do in OneNote, but they just don’t fit with my current system. I play with it now and then, so maybe I will eventually “get it” and incorporate it into my existing system.
I know that this all sounds very simple and boring, but I am a very simple person. I hate clutter. I have a large desk with only my tablet, external monitor, family photo, and baseball resting on it. The rest of my desk is empty. I archive using an external hard drive and CDs, which are kept in a single binder in a locked drawer.
As info, I do all of this with a Gateway 210x convertible.
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:10 am
Many thanks for that Karla. Fingers crossed something in there helps someone
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:47 am
Robert, Just wondering what microphone you use? as well as what software you use to record lectures in .mp3 format? Thanks!!
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:42 am
Hi Chris. Thank you for your questions. As far as the microphone goes I don’t use one. I’ve never found one that actually lived up to the job and produced a good recording (Anyone?). Instead I use a digital voice recorder - the Olympus VN-2400PC which has never let me down once (I think its latest incarnation is the VN-3100PC). I place the recorder on the lecturer’s podium (after gaining permission of course) and afterwards I run the recording through Adobe Audition to tidy it up and convert to an MP3 (nothing special just cutting the recording down to just the lecture and applying a noise reduction filter). Hope that answers the question. If not then ask away
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
CyInSoonerland - Many thanks for taking the time to leave details on your electronic filing system. I can tell your a busy man so I appreciate you taking the time to get so comprehensive as I think many of us can take something away from each other’s organizing systems.
Firstly I’m glad your so ‘pumped’ about operating paperlessly. It’s something I constantly strive for so it’s heartening to hear someone getting the same level of pleasure and it seems doing a better job than me at it.
You seem to be beating yourself up a bit about the ’simplicity’ of your system but I think that’s a major strength of your operation. I love how you get straight to the job and utilize Journal as a whiteboard for presenting to your students - brilliantly simple but highly effective no doubt. I’m cursed with ‘bells and whistles’ syndrome and can’t stop myself from spending countless hours custom creating graphics for Powerpoint slides when I’m scheduled to give presentations - Yeah ok my presentations are visually good but is it worth all that investment in time and effort? Well being bias I’d have to say yes but everyone else would definitely disagree
Anyway thanks again for your time. You’ve given me an idea seed for another post.
July 5th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
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