Students Eligible for Peer Notes
Students Registered with SAS
Students eligible for the peer notes accommodation are expected to:
- Attend class (unless your accommodation states otherwise). This accommodation is designed to supplement your own notes, fill in any information that you miss during a lecture and provide you with equal access in the classroom. It is not a substitute for classroom attendance or meant to replace your own notes.
- Send your accommodation letters to your instructors at the beginning of each semester through Accommodate.
- Request notes for your synchronous, lecture-based courses by submitting semester requests through Accommodate. Notes requests may be submitted at any point during the semester, but some classes require additional recruitment. So request your notes early!
- Check that the notes you receive are legible, well-organized and uploaded consistently. We rely on you to let us know if you have any issues or concerns with the quality of your notes.
Temporary Accommodations
Students who miss class(es) due to an illness, quarantine, or who have a temporary disability that hinders their capacity to take notes, may be given temporary* access to peer notes. If you think you might qualify, then you may contact the Note Taking Program, explain your circumstances, and list the class(es) for which peer notes would be helpful.
*If your situation is expected to extend beyond one semester, then please fill out the Getting Started form. This will allow our office to verify your temporary disability as well as to determine if you are eligible for additional accommodations.
Note-Takers
General Information
Purpose
Peer note-takers are students who choose to support others by sharing the notes that they are already taking with classmates who are working with Student Accessibility Services and who have a documented disability. Peer notes are designed to supplement the requesting student's own notes, fill in any information that they miss during a lecture and provide them with equal access in the classroom.
Benefits
Becoming a peer note-taker is a simple but rewarding way to participate in the UVM community, and can be a great résumé builder: not only will you have the opportunity to support your fellow classmates, but many note takers report that volunteering enriches their own classroom experience, as they are more motivated to take thorough, quality notes when they know that someone else will be using them.
As a thank you for your efforts, active peer note-takers will receive 45 hours of community service for every course that they shared notes. If you volunteer for more than four semesters, then you will be eligible to receive the green community service cord to wear with your commencement regalia. Additional incentives may be offered throughout the semester.
Note-Taker Expectations
Attendance is required
If you are unable to attend, then please obtain a copy of the missed lecture notes from the TA, a friend, or fellow classmate to upload instead.
Uploading your notes
Upload your notes within 48-hours of each class session.
Notes should be neat, legible, and include:
Key points and concepts, written in your own words. Please include a key for any symbols and/or abbreviations used.
Diligent notation of anything the professor writes on the board.
Any other pertinent information, such as homework assignments, upcoming exam reminders, or information about review sessions.
Typed vs. hand-written notes
Typed notes are preferred, but not required (some exceptions may apply). Some course information is better suited to hand-written notes.
Hand-written notes are acceptable as long as they are neat, legible, and shared as a single .pdf.
Scanning your notes
For at-home scanning, we recommend that you use a phone scanner app, such as Genius Scan; you may also use your own system has a "Continuous Scan" feature, which allows you to scan multiple pages into a single document.
Photos of your notes, or multiple individually scanned pages for a single class lecture are NOT acceptable.
File-naming convention
For ease of use, label your PDFs with the intended course and lecture date.
If there are no class notes, submit an empty file and indicate what took place (e.g. exam, no class, etc.).
Register as a Peer Note-Taker
- Get in touch with the Office of Accessibility Services:
- Go to this page in Brightspace to register (requires login to Brightspace)
- Use the OAS online contact form, and indicate which course(s) you would like to volunteer for.
- Once activated the Note-Taker Network tab will be visible in Accommodate.
- Optional but suggested: upload sample notes.
- Assignment: you will receive a confirmation email once you are assigned as the note-taker. If you have any questions, email our office and we will assist you!
Enroll in the Peer Note-taker Brightspace course
Peer Note-takers have a Brightspace course. Enroll in the non-credit course SAS: Peer Note-Taker Hub for access to a hub of note taker resources and FAQs.
The course code is STUDENTAFFAIRS_202511041535_18787.
Information for Faculty
General Information
Accommodation Letters
Students who are registered with SAS are encouraged to send their instructor(s) a copy of their accommodation letter detailing each accommodation pertaining to that course as early as possible in the semester. We also encourage students and faculty to meet one-on-one to review the students' accommodations and discuss any questions or concerns.
If you have a question about the accommodation(s) and how they impact the integrity of your course, please contact the SAS Specialist listed in the accommodation letter as soon as possible.
Attendance
The notes accommodation is not a replacement for classroom attendance (unless specifically stated otherwise in their accommodation letter). Peer notes are designed to supplement the student's own notes, fill in any information that they miss during a lecture, and provide them with equal access in the classroom.
If you have concerns about a student’s attendance and have not been able to connect with the student directly, please contact the student’s SAS Specialist and/or the Note-Taking Program as soon as possible, and we will work with both parties to help facilitate communication.
How it works
Students send their accommodation letter(s), notifying the faculty that they are eligible for the peer notes accommodation.
Students submit semester requests, which automatically translate as peer note taker requests. Our staff will then send an email notifying instructors that a student in their class requires a note taker. Upon receipt of this email, faculty should follow the instructions to help facilitate the process of securing a peer note taker.
If a note taker has already been found, notes are not appropriate for the course format, or a legitimate exception of providing notes is in place, please email notes@uvm.edu.
Students are matched with a peer note taker who is asked to upload notes to a secure database within 48 hours of each class.
Exceptions
If your course falls into any of the exceptions below, please fill out the Peer Note-Taking Form so we can close any open requests.
Peer notes are not typically provided for labs, online, asynchronous, or discussion-based courses. Please let us know if your course falls into any of these categories, and we can close any affected open notes requests.
Professors are welcome to share their own notes as a substitute for peer notes. Please let us know if this pertains to your class, and we will notify the students accordingly.
Cross-listed courses can share peer note-takers. Please let us know if you are teaching a cross-listed course and we can ensure that everyone has access to the same course code.
Note-Taker Recruitment
On the first day of class, many professors will provide the following reminders during their classroom announcements.
For students receiving SAS services
Remind students to send their accommodation letters and encourage them to schedule a one-on-one meeting to discuss how these accommodations can be implemented in your course.
List expectations concerning SAS accommodations on the course syllabus.
For note-takers
Let the class know that they are welcome to volunteer as a peer note taker.
Peer Note-Takers: Any student in the same course who takes neat, legible notes, and attends class regularly. Either the instructor or the student can fill out the Peer Note Taking Form and refer them to this website if they have any questions.
TAs: Professors are welcome to have their TA share class notes. To set this up, please have them fill out the Peer Note Taking Form with their name(s) and course code and we can activate them manually.
Having trouble recruiting?
SAS Incentives: Once we catch up on the initial rush, we will reach out to the student to confirm if the accommodation is still necessary. At that point, we can offer additional incentives to help with recruitment.
Instructor Incentives: Some instructors may offer extra credit or points back to help recruit volunteers.