Do I need a laptop for uni?

[Whosaidthattt]

I'm starting my masters in 2 weeks, age 55! Do I need a laptop for lectures or can I turn up with an A4 pad and pens and look like a dinosaur?😄
I can write faster than I can type, so making notes with pen and paper makes more sense! But will I need a laptop for whizzy interactive stuff??
I have one at home, but share it with DH, so won't have access to it every day.
Please help! I'm clueless! 🤔

I think you definitely need one unfortunately!! You could probably get away without one when you're in lectures, but it's all of the work outside of lectures I'd say it's more vital for. Good luck!

Thank you Eryr22!
I have a laptop at home for online stuff and assignments. I just won't have it in lectures as DH will be using it. I just don't really want to fork put for a new one!

You can pen & paper in lectures. Its actually an advantage as research shows you ate more likely to remember it.
You will definitely need a laptop for essays and outside research.

ime, there will be tonnes of paper handouts to annotate.

I started a uni apprenticeship course and bought a laptop beforehand for it. Got on the course and they gave us one! I'd recommend definitely for essays and such. Note taking I definitely prefer a pen and pad as I'm also a dinosaur 😅I remember things better that way.

I use own and paper in lectures and use laptop/pc for assignments

Yes

I think it depends on the course. I use paper in lectures and sometimes the PowerPoints are printed for us to annotate.

It might be worth checking how much of your course is going to be delivered face to face, and how much is online learning, with uploaded PowerPoints to annotate, and zoom meetings.

So exciting for you! I work in a uni library and tbh I see lots of students still using pen and paper to make notes! Most have laptops as well though. Almost all uni libraries have loanable laptops or chromebooks, so you could borrow one for a couple of lectures to see how you get on.

I'm doing a masters. I use my iPad at uni and annotate the handouts on that. They do give paper copies of handouts etc but I feel more organised on my iPad.

I do have a laptop but prefer to use my desktop with two screens for writing at home.

I wouldn't buy another one just to take to lectures, just see how it goes for now.

A lot of submissions and resources will be online.

I always printed the PowerPoints beforehand and write on them. Never did take laptop to university.

I also chased lecturers regularly to remind them to upload slides by say midnight the night before -so the mature commuting student is not disadvantaged. (And obviously fine if a few slides updated last minute)

I have experience of this from the other side of the lectern. You don’t see many students with a laptops in lectures. Because of that, a lecturer would be unlikely to use interactive content that needed one. Phones and tablets, yes. Laptops, no.

Pens and paper are still very popular and you won’t look like a dinosaur.

I was a "mature" student (was in my mid 20's) and I hated typing notes on my laptop, firstly I hated the tapping sound of everyone around me taking notes and secondly I just prefer good old pen and paper. I was in the minority though.

You will need a laptop though for doing uni work during breaks or at home!

No you don’t need one in lectures, and if you’re used to pen and paper that’s what will be best for you. You have one at home and that’s all you need. You’ll also have access to PCs when you’re on campus, and your uni login gives you access to your email, filespace and all the apps you need. So you definitely don’t need to take a laptop in. A decent smartphone is good to have - as @etulosba mentioned, there might be interactive content and this will be optimised for smartphone/ tablet use.
I work in a uni too and I very strongly advise you to watch your mobile devices like a hawk and never leave them unattended. Thefts of laptops, smartphones and tablets is rife (mostly Apple stuff) and often it happens when the owner has only left the room very briefly.
Good luck!

Thefts of laptops, smartphones and tablets is rife (mostly Apple stuff) and often it happens when the owner has only left the room very briefly.

That’s interesting because I have always been impressed with how things don’t get pinched. I am a bit forgetful and get easily distracted at the end of lectures in particular. As a result, over the years, I have left my phone and/or iPad behind in rooms on countless occasions. Often overnight and once for a whole weekend. Every single time it has still been there when I went back to collect it.

I'm a real technophile but in many years I've never found anything as good as pen and peper for real time notes, together with a camera for capturing noteboards. But afterwards I'd say a laptop was essential.

I did my first yet with no laptop at all. I made notes on my phone and pasted the notes into a word document on the university computers. It's possible.

Typed up notes are good because you have a folder of everything you'll need. You can search by word, rather than reading through paragraphs. Easy to read, highlight, edit.

If your DH uses your laptop so frequently, maybe just by your own personal one, a small chrome book just for word documents and simple stuff.

Oh dear, embarrassing typos 🙈

Thank you all for your responses! Much appreciated! I think I will stick to my trusty pen and paper for lectures! 😁

I use pen and paper. Often the slides are made available online so I like to print them off in the 3 to a page format and then annotate.

I sometimes train med students and I'm sure they perform witchcraft with their tablets and touch screen laptops, scribbling notes, circling them, picking up and moving them around the screen. I don't have a clue!

I do use a laptop of course for assignments. Usually a cromebook as I can log in to my uni emails then access office 365 through that. Autosave is marvelous, no more crying when the computer crashes at having forgotten to save periodically. This is shared with kids though, multiple children who all had virtual school in lockdowns means we have a plethora of laptops and tablets.

Adding my congratulations on starting your course.

What are you studying?

As others have said you won’t need a laptop in lectures - though a large proportion of students make handwritten notes on iPads.

But I’d strongly advise you to get your own laptop. (Particularly if the course is full time.) You need the freedom to pick it up at any time for browsing or proper research, as well as adding a line to your dissertation at a random moment. (And towards the end of the academic year you’ll be glued to it.) I can’t imagine my stress levels if I’d had to share a laptop during my MA.

Another from the other side of the lectern here. I would say you need one for general use, but not for lectures. Most lectures are posted on a central repository (Canvas/Blackboard or other virtual learning environment) and you'll be able to download them from that. Many others will probably be taking manual notes, and as others have said this can aid understanding and memory of the notes later.

As an aside, I resist pestering from those who want them ahead of time, as their perceived disadvantage in not having them on demand can result in a limited experience for others if the lectures are interactive in the sense of Q&A in real time and that sort of thing. Posting up slides with answers in advance of the sessions can ruin the impact of the sort of lecture that allows the lecturer to see who is actually understanding the course, and result in staff using only information-based lectures as opposed to varying the content and format. If I can see who looks puzzled, I can rephrase things, or go over points that I had assumed were simple, and give people a chance to ask more questions until they properly understand. Sometimes people think they 'get it', but if there is a question they get wrong (despite being confident that they knew the answer) it can make them realise that they didn't fully understand it after all - or that there is more than one way of looking at an issue). If people have seen the slides before the session it is not the same learning experience.

Students don't always know what's best, and there is always one who takes it upon themselves to 'speak for' the rest of the class (whether or not they have their actual backing).