notetaker

Thank you for sharing notes for a student registered with the Office of Disability Services. You are performing a very important service to the University and a noble act to assist a fellow student. Some disabilities hinder the ability to take one's own notes, often because of hearing, processing speed, writing fluency, or a variety of other reasons. Your assistance will make a tremendous contribution toward making sure that your fellow student can fully participate in the course.

Disability & Testing Services is offering compensation to students submitting notes. The note taker can choose between receiving $50 per credit hour for undergraduate courses, $75 per credit hour for graduate and professional school courses, OR a volunteer certificate. Note takers need to inform our office when signing up. To receive the compensation, note takers must complete the training and provide notes throughout the semester.

REQUIREMENTS FOR NOTETAKERS SEEKING COMPENSATION

• You must upload copies of notes within 24-48 hours of each class session. Preferably after each class session.
• Note takers must complete the Note taker Training and complete the training quiz.
• If the student receiving notes has been disclosed to you, you are not to share any information about this student
• with anyone outside of the Office of Disability Services.
• The notes must be legible and organized.
• The course, date, and instructor must be noted on the first sheet of notes from each class.
• There must be a page number for each page of notes
• Note takers must complete any paperwork required by Disability Services to get setup for compensation on Finals Week of the Semester you are submitting notes.
• If you are also a student registered with Disability & Testing Services, you must check with your Disability Specialist to get qualified in the Disability Services Online System to share notes.
• Student Employees of Disability Services must contact odsnotes@csuohio.edu to get setup as a note taker

CONFIDENTIALITY

Students have the right to keep their identities anonymous in this process. This includes the ODS student you are sharing your notes with and yourself, if you do not wish to be identified to the ODS student. The Family Educational Right to Privacy Act guarantees this. If signing up as a note taker please e-mail odsnotes@csuohio.edu if you want your profile marked off as confidential. If either the ODS student or the note taker chooses to stay anonymous, that is a personal decision which ODS will respect. If you learn of the identity of the student you are sharing notes with, please do not disclose them as a student registered with the Office of Disability Services. Some students do not wish to disclose this for fear of discrimination.

STEPS IN SHARING NOTES

1. Fill out online application
2. Sign up for Classes
3. Disability Services approves matches
4. Complete Training and Quiz
5. Upload your notes
6. Compensation

Step 1: Fill out online application

Use the Notetaker Application to sign up to submit your notes. We need students to use their CSU e-mail for their e-mail address. If you do not know this, you can look it up in CampusNet. The system will not allow you to use anything except e-mails on the CSU domain like @vikes.csuohio.edu address. We also will need an active phone number we can reach you at in case we have questions about the notes for the class. Please fill out your application completely.

If you are a student registered with or an existing student employee for the Office of Disability & Testing Services, contact Disability services to be manually setup in the system because you cannot use the application. After the application is complete, please follow the directions below to request classes. You are not signed up as a note taker until the class has been requested. If you have any questions please contact us at odsnotes@csuohio.edu or (216) 687-2272.

Step 2: Sign up for Classes

For classes you wish to be a note taker you will need to submit the classes in the Disability Services Online System that you wish to share notes for. To add a course, you can type in the Course Registration Number or search for the course to add the class. You can find the Course registration number or the other identifying information for your course on your schedule through CampusNet. After signing up as a notetake the system will sync your courses from CampusNet in our nightly sync to make selection faster.

1. Please Visit the Disability Services Online System
2. Click on the Notetaker Link toward the top of the page
3. Under Step one, choose the current semester from the dropdown list (i.e. 2020 Fall)
4. Enter your Course Registration Numbers for all courses you want to be a Notetaker (the system says 5 digit, but CSU courses are 4 digit numbers)
5. Click the Continue to Verify Your Courses button
6. Read the Notetaker Contract
7. Type your name in the signature field as it appears below the edit field.
8. Click the Submit Your Notetaker Contract button
9. Under Step 3: Verify your Classes, check the checkbox next to the courses that you are registering to take notes for
10. Click the Submit Your Class Schedule button

If you are already a notetaker in our system, you can login to the Disability Services Online System and it will show the courses you are registered for in CampusNet. If you make a change in your schedule today the updated course list will appear tomorrow, because our system syncs with CampusNet each night.

Step 3: Disability Services approves matches

Before you are finally assigned to a course a staff member from Disability Services will need to approve your submission. This should not take any more than a few days. If you are not matched within 2 days please contact us at odsnotes@csuohio.edu or (216) 687-2272, to check on the status.

Step 4: Verification and Training

For students seeking compensation we are requiring that they complete our notetaker training. Note takers can complete the training by reading the Notetaker Training Guide. After reading the training guide, we need note takers to complete the Notetaker Training Quiz.

Step 5: Upload your notes

The options for submitting your notes depends on whether you or the student receiving notes wishes to be anonymous and if you wish to receive compensation. We require note takers receiving compensation to upload their notes through the Disability Services Online System. This helps us to see what is happening and allows us to assist in making any necessary adjustments.

1. Login with your CSUID and password to the Disability Services Online System
2. Click the Note taker link toward the top of the page
3. Select the class from the dropdown list
4. Select the week of the semester which you are submitting notes for
5. Check the checkbox next to the day or days of the week the notes are for
6. Click Browse to choose the file you wish to upload
7. Click Upload Notes

Step 6: Compensation

The Office of Disability Services offers note takers a choice:

• $50 per credit hour for undergraduate courses,
• $75 per credit hour for graduate and professional school courses, OR
• a volunteer certificate upon completion of their assignments.

Note takers must submit notes for the entire semester. This means, if you are sharing notes for a 3-credit hour class, you will receive $150 for sharing your notes for that class.

For note takers that wish to receive this compensation, we need them to complete the note taker training. During the semester you must submit quality notes within 24 hours of each class session. For compensation, notes need to be submitted through the Disability Services Online System.

Please Note:

• Note takers will need to submit necessary paperwork during Finals Week.
• All payments will be rendered between 4 to 6 weeks after the end of the semester.
• All note takers are paid as a contractor, unless the student is an existing student employee or international student.
• Student employees and international students will receive a credit to their account in CampusNet for compensation.
• The student being paid needs to submit a W9 to get setup and then would receive a check in 4 to 6 weeks after submitting their paperwork.
• If a note taker does not finish the assignment or does not comply with any of the requirements above, The Office of Disability Services reserves the right to deny compensation.
• If the notetaking assignment is cancelled because the student needing notes drops the class or decides to not use the accommodation, the Office of Disability Services may provide a prorated compensation provided the following is true.
  • The Notetaking Training Quiz must be completed.
  • The Note taker has submitted notes that comply with our requirements for at least 8 weeks of the semester
• Based on the work completed, the Office of Disability Services will determine any prorated compensation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SHARING YOUR NOTES:

• Digitizing or Copying your Notes
• Tips for Taking Good Notes