As the saying goes, “the palest ink is better than the best memory”. Taking good notes is an effective way of improving the learning efficiency. It not only helps students outline the knowledge they have just learned and make up for the deficiency, but also strengthens their scientific logical thinking and expression skill. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the students were taught Organic Chemistry via online courses. In order to supervise students studying from home and ensure the desired teaching result, the College organized the “Best Notes” selection for the first time, which were taken specifically for “Organic Chemistry” that was taught in English. With all 198 students in the class of 2019 involved, the selection activity aimed at building a positive, rigorous, truth-seeking and creative learning atmosphere and developing students’ self-learning ability and habits, so as to improve the quality of talent cultivation and promote the development of top innovative students.

Conducted in two rounds, the activity invited student representatives and course lecturers as the judging panel that was responsible for evaluating the electronic notes taken by students before and after the mid-term exam in terms of their accuracy, logic, specialty, methodology and neatness. After the advance publicity, preliminary selection and final selection that lasted over two months, the list of “Best notes” takers came out, including 10 first prize winners, 20 second prize winners and 32 third prize winners.

The “Best Notes” activity is regarded as one of the stages in improving the teaching quality. In the judging panel, there were more than 20 student representatives recommended by classes who got the chance of learning from others’ s strong points to offset their own weaknesses when evaluating and comparing different notes. In this way, students can adjust their learning state and increase their learning capability which promotes the quality of online teaching in return. During the epidemic, the selection of “Best Notes” on Organic Chemistry carried out by the College is an innovative teaching activity that benefits the online learning results and healthy academic environment. Also, students’ positive feedback strongly proved the achievement of teaching objectives. Later, an exhibition of award-winning notes will be held in order to improve students’ learning initiative and lay a solid foundation for cultivating top innovative talents.

Initiated by Organic Chemistry teachers of NWAFU, the activity was designed on the basis of the blended online teaching model of “filmed lesson preview with slides + online lesson + discussion”. In this model, the sections such as the filmed lesson preview, pre-test and group discussion fulfill the course design ideas; and the online surveys help optimize the teaching process and inspire students’ self-learning initiative by keeping monitoring students’ learning state. All of these further promote the teaching quality and talent cultivation.