Online transcription service NoNotes.com is offering students nationwide an alternative to the typical pen-and-paper classroom approach, and Marquette students are taking note.

NoNotes.com is targeted toward students, teachers and businesses. Users can upload their recorded class or meetings and then receive a word-for-word transcript beginning at $9.57 per hour. They prepay for their accounts and are charged by the minute.

Co-founder Matt Whitteker said he started the Ontario, Canada-based company after discussing medical transcripts with a friend who was in that business at the time.

“I thought, ‘If doctors can do this, why can’t we? Why can’t students use these tools?’” Whitteker said.

In May 2006, Whitteker started researching the concept of an online transcription service, and he launched the site the following September. While the site was initially intended only for student use, it soon spread to numerous corporations and six Canadian universities.

While Marquette is not affiliated with NoNotes.com, some students have registered on the site individually, using their Marquette e-mail accounts, Whitteker said.

He said some students use the site if they miss a class, but have a friend bring a recorder to the classroom. However, the majority tend to be graduate students who utilize the site for strictly research-based interviews.

Marquette does not offer similar transcription services, unless a student provides documentation of a disability to Disability Services.
In this instance, students are provided with notes written by a fellow classmate. Both the note-taker and the note-receiver are anonymous. The notes are provided at no cost to the student, and the student who takes the notes is compensated by the university.

Tom Nass, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, received notes for free from Disability Services when he broke his thumb freshman year.

Nass admits to taking advantage of the notes he received by not attending class on a regular basis.

“That’s why I’m a senior theology major in Theo I right now,” Nass said. “Because I realized a little too late that even if you get notes, you still have to go to class.”

While Nass may have taken the wrong approach to receiving notes, Katie Benedetto, a junior in the College of Health Sciences, believes that being a note-taker has made her a better student.

“I know as soon as I started taking notes for someone else, I tried harder to make them clear and my note-taking style more universal instead of using my own shorthand,” Benedetto said.

However, NoNotes.com provides more than just transcription services. Users can also have custom-formatted notes, time coding and translation in 80 different languages.

The student edition of NoNotes.com does not guarantee when the transcript will be returned to the user. However, Whitteker said the organization tries to have the notes prepared in one to three business days. Student transcripts are also not proofread as thoroughly, although corporate meeting notes are looked over before being returned to the user.