Transcription website nonotes.com has recently seen an increase in UNF students taking alternative routes to note-taking by sending recordings of their professors’ lectures and paying them to take their notes.

NoNotes.com is a student-founded company co-founded by Matt Whitteker. The service provides students and teachers with low-cost transcription services for their class notes, lectures, study sessions and tutoring groups. Students and professors send their recorded content from lectures or classes and upload the file. The transcription service types up the recordings and sends the notes back to the user.

Under the student edition tab, students can get transcription service, translation services, a free nonotes.com account and the transcription in PDF and Word format for $9.57 per hour. Premium services are also available at $34.99 per hour and includes all the sources in addition to transcript custom formatting, legal level accuracy, time coding, conference call attendance and guaranteed turn around time.

According to its website, nonotes.com provides translation services in over 80 different languages. The recordings are promised to be returned within one to three days.

Sarah Malcolm, a UNF advertising senior, thinks the transcription service could be a helpful tool for students, especially if a student misses anything in class. She said the service will pick up and write out what students missed.

“The price is set at the right amount and is reasonable. The service could really help people who are hard of hearing,” Malcolm said.

The transcription service also offers programs and solutions to help students with special needs in the classroom

Jennifer Dykes, a UNF accounting senior, said she is a hands-on learner and though she thinks it’s a great website, she wouldn’t use it or recommend it to anyone.

She said she would rather take notes on the lecture and study the course textbook because most textbooks have real-life examples that allow you to learn concepts in a different way. Also, transcription software such as this is best for the rare student who has extra time on their hands and doesn’t mind reading over exactly what they heard in class from their professors.

“I don’t think it’s worth the $10 per hour and definitely not the $35 per hour for premium. It’s ridiculously high,” Dykes said. “Students would get a lot more out of the subject than just reading what they previously heard. If you didn’t understand it when it was spoken, what makes you think you’re going to get it any better by reading the exact same words that were spoken?”

Marcia Ladendorff, a UNF honors program instructor, said she thinks it is important for students to listen and discern what is important. She said she believes  there is a benefit for students who physically take notes.

She said she would rather students learn the skills to multitask and take down what they think is important in the first sitting and then go over their notes. However, if a student feels they need to take extra steps to be successful, she doesn’t object to it.

Ladendorff said she personally wouldn’t use transcription services herself at any point for her lectures.

“I know how my brain works and the extra cognitive steps I take to write down what it is that I need to remember makes it stick in my brain better,” Ladendorff said.