Managing Study and Work with Digital Tools: Notion, OneNote and Evernote

 

Managing Study and Work with Digital Tools: Notion, OneNote and Evernote

Whether fully online mode or blended mode, digital tools can help teachers and students manage projects and resources across different subjects more effectively and efficiently. This article explores and compares the prominent features of three digital tools: Notion, OneNote, and Evernote. HKU teachers and students may see this article for a reference to select tools to help facilitate work and study. 

 

Access to three apps

To sign up for these apps, you can visit official websites and create an account with your HKU email. Notion now offers an educational free plan link for educators and students, and HKU teachers and students can enjoy Microsoft OneNote for free with the HKU license for Microsoft Office 365. There is no educational plan offered by Evernote but there are still some good features to help users to manage work or study.

 

How digital tools help teachers and students

For teachers, these tools may help:

  • create a 24/7 digital learning space for students to access;
  • enable student collaboration and extended learning outside the classroom;
  • track students’ learning progress;
  • design and provide summative and formative feedback to students.

For students, these tools may help:

  • organize school work and projects;
  • take notes for on-the-spot exercises;
  • visualize learning progressions.

 

Features: Similarities and differences

The table below compares features among Notion, OneNote and Evernote. You can refer to the given information to help you select the tool that suits your teaching or learning needs:

  Notion
(download)		 OneNote
(download)		 Evernote
(download)
Free templates available
  • 50+ templates are available
  • a few templates are available
  • 14 templates for school activities
Embeds
  • texts, audios, videos, images, recordings, links

 

  • codes, videos, equations, web bookmarks, etc.
  • texts, audios, videos, images, links

 

  • recordings, sketches, etc.
  • texts, audios, videos, images, links

 

  • recordings, code blocks, sketches, etc.
Features for teachers Teachers can:

  • customize syllabus, lesson plans, course schedules, and other school activities with the provided templates

 

  • and set sharing permissions to allow access, editing, commenting and teamwork

Click the video for more information.

 Teachers can:

  • create classes and groups

 

  • add and remove students and co-teachers

 

  • create a collaboration space for student cooperative learning

 

  • publish the course materials

 

  • review and give private feedback

 

  • organize and collaborate effectively across the schools and districts

Click this link to create a classroom with OneNote.

 Teachers can:
Features for teachers Students can:

  • use templates to create class notes, course schedules, study plans, reading lists, thesis planning, weekly agendas and more

 

  • set sharing permissions to allow access, editing, commenting and teamwork

Click the video for more information.

 Students can:

  • collaborate to study with other users

 

  • access the content library for handouts

 

  • take class notes, set plans or complete homework as a personal workspac
 Students can:

  • manage their priorities and schedule

 

  • establish a consistent way to organize information by creating a logical notebook structuredefining a set ofreusable tags, and establishing naming conventions
Supporting Platform (Web Browser, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows Yes Yes Yes

 

After the comparisons, it shows that Evernote helps users to organize work and study but with limited functions and features for free. Notion and OneNote may benefit teaching and learning activities more. The following highlights more functions and features that teachers and students can realize with the tool Notion or OneNote:

  For teachers who are seeking tools to realize the following goals: For students who are seeking tools to realize the following goals:
Notion
  • Build a lesson plan database with the syllabus, course materials and collaborative learning space

 

  • Create a searchable and sharable class website

 

  • Organise the teaching resources by labeling their types and enable filters functions

 

  • Create spaces to track students’ progress and require learners to visualise their learning progress

 

  • Look for low-code-no-code learning website building tool
  • Manage knowledge and study

 

  • Look for a low-code-no-code personal portfolio and website building tool

 

  • Take note of maths equations and symbols

 

  • Manage assignments and schedules with free templates

 

  • Engage and collaborate with other users online

 

  • Look for low-code-no-code learning website building tool

 
OneNote
  • Create lesson plans and classroom planner

 

  • Build a personalised class notebook

 

  • Integrated with handwriting tools that support teaching some subjects such as maths, English, arts, and design

 

  • Allow to access, collaborate, and share content

 

  • Enjoy sync-up functions with other Microsoft software (i.e., Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive)
  • Create students’ works

 

  • Take notes by typing texts, and words, and even draw with a stylus, finger, or mouse

 

  • Manage assignments and schedule

 

  • Collaborate for group work

 

  • Enjoy sync-up functions with other Microsoft software (i.e., Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive)

For teachers who are interested in using e-learning tools in the classroom but still need some help, you are welcome to book a consultation with Technology-enriched Learning Initiative (TELI) for more ideas by contacting via enquiry@teli.hku.hk.

 

Extended readings

 

Written by Mr Abdul Hasan Ai Asyari, Ms Han Xiurong

Reviewed by Ms Cindy Liang, Dr Leon Lei