Best iOS apps for lecturing/notetaking

August 1, 2016 7:16 PM

I just bought an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. Looking for suggestions for the best apps for (1) lecturing in the classroom and (2) serving as a research notebook.

For lecturing, I need to be able to write, change colors quickly, make new pages/space quickly when the page is full, ideally I could also type before-hand and, possibly, paste in graphics from elsewhere. Some vector graphics capabilities would be nice. I'm teaching linear algebra this fall. Exporting to some OS-agnostic format would be especially good, both for archival purposes and so I can post them after class.

For research notebook/notetaking, I need to be able to hand-write and also to draw circles, lines, points, etc. Ability to make new pages, draw in color, etc. is important.

I'm willing to pay good money for the right app, but I'd rather not have to download them all...

posted by leahwrenn to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I love Notability for exactly this kind of note-taking and annotation. Can write on top of PDF, insert typed text boxes, insert graphics. And it exports the pen strokes to vectorized PDF-- not sure what kind of vector graphics you have in mind.
posted by supercres at 8:52 PM on August 1, 2016

I really like Microsoft OneNote on windows systems. I haven't tried the iOS app, but I see that ratings are 4+. Might be worth a try.
posted by incolorinred at 7:59 AM on August 2, 2016

(Sadly, OneNote is a little awkward on iOS IMO. It's shocking that MSFT built it in the first place, and it's likely to get better, but I wouldn't really recommend its use to anyone who wasn't already married to the OneNote platform on their desktop.)
posted by uberchet at 8:28 AM on August 2, 2016

I'd like to point you to an episode of the podcast Mac Power Users, #319: Teaching Workflows with Teddy Svoronos. If I'm remembering correctly, the guest on this episode talked extensively about how he uses his iPad in academia, both for teaching and research.
posted by bluloo at 9:36 AM on August 2, 2016

Response by poster: As an update, I'm currently using Noteshelf. It's nice that I can set up notebooks to take notes in as well as annotate PDFs while projecting. What's not so nice is that the "chrome" (e.g., what pen am I using, more problematically all the iOS messages (people posting photos! my husband messaging me during class!)) is not suppressed while projecting PDFs, although it is suppressed while projecting handwriting notebooks (which was what the app originally started with, and it introduced PDF annotation later).

My husband's using Microsoft OneNote as a infinitely scrolling whiteboard.

I keep meaning to try GoodNotes again in class, but I'm hesitant to interrupt my workflow.
posted by leahwrenn at 6:48 PM on October 2, 2016