Photo by Stephanie Avdeienko
By Stephanie Avdeienko and Anna Maria Gkini
If you walk into almost any university lecture and you will see the same mix: laptops open, notebooks on desks and students switching between the two. For some, typing is the easiest way to keep up with a lecture. For others, nothing beats writing things down by hand.
Technology is now a major part of university life. A 2023/24 survey by Jisc, involving 28,679 higher education students from 40 UK institutions, found that 85% rated their university’s digital learning environment as good, excellent or the “best imaginable”
But even in increasingly digital classrooms, pen and paper are still popular among students. When it comes to taking notes, students seem to have very different habits. Some want speed and convenience, while others remember information better when they physically write it down.
Finding a balance
For Lily-Anna Southcott, an Early Childhood Studies student, there is no need to choose just one method.
“Both,” she explains. “Certain things if it’s just in the slides I’ll just write it down on my laptop and more mental notes I write down in my notebook.”
She has always used a mixture of digital and handwritten notes rather than relying completely on one.
“Having them both helps when going back to the notes. I’ll have my laptop with certain things and then in my own words I write in my notebook.”
For Southcott, the two methods have different purposes. Her laptop is useful for information already on the slides, while her notebook gives her space to write things down in her own way.
The convenience of going digital
Digital Media student Annabel Garcia prefers to keep everything on her laptop.
“It’s just a lot easier, it’s a lot faster and I can keep everything compact in one place,” she says. Organisation is one of the biggest advantages of digital note-taking, she adds.
She has not always worked this way. In fact, she only started taking notes digitally this year as university work became more demanding.
“There is so much that you have to keep at once in one place for uni and a lot of projects you have to download,” she explains.
With different modules, files and projects to manage, keeping everything together digitally makes sense for her.
Instead of carrying different notebooks or searching through pages, she can keep her work in one place and access it when she needs it.
Why pen and paper are still here
Despite the convenience of laptops and tablets, handwritten notes are still the first choice for some students.
Psychology student Amelia Quartermain has always preferred writing by hand.
“It’s easier to retain information writing it down,” she says.
For Amelia, the act of physically writing information helps it stay in her mind.
Her fellow Psychology student Javiera Isabella Gutierrez feels the same. She has tried taking notes on her computer before, but found that handwriting suited her better.
“It’s the same for me and I have ADHD, so for me it’s easier to write it with my own words,” she explains.
For both students, handwriting is less about being traditional and more about how they process information.
Rather than simply copying what is on a slide or screen, writing things down gives them a chance to put information into their own words and understand it better.
So, is one method better?
Looking around a university classroom, there is no one answer.
For some, digital notes are faster, easier and more organised. Others prefer handwriting because it helps them remember and understand information. And still others sit somewhere in the middle, using both depending on what they needs.
What works best seems to depend on the individual rather than the technology itself.
University classrooms may look very different from the ones students sat in years ago, with laptops and tablets now taking up more desk space than ever.
For some students, it may no longer be the only way to take notes, but it has not been replaced completely either.
In 2026, the choice is less about pen or keyboard and more about finding the method that helps each student learn best.
Image by Brooke Cagle/Unsplash
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