The start of the term was pretty overwhelming for me.
After holding 2 consecutive co-op placements for 8 months, it’s fair to say that I’m out of my academic zone. Like most people, I’m currently in online classes, and it’s pretty hard to motivate myself to do lectures. First of all, it’s tedious — you have to listen to 20 minutes to an hour’s worth of audio. Plus, recording notes is hard, especially if your professor uses Powerpoint. Typically, I like writing my notes in the “notes” section of said powerpoint; however, if I click outside the audio box then the audio plays from the beginning, not from where I left off. For a while, I was behind on school, which took time away from my hobbies and spending time with friends. I was constantly frustrated and busy as ever — until I realized I could use Otter AI.
I first used Otter AI when I had to conduct interviews for my co-op. It’s essentially a transcribing software; it picks up the audio and converts it into text.
All I had to do was:
- Go to https://otter.ai/home.
- Open the lecture Powerpoint in a separate window.
- Click the blue “Record” button on the right (it should have a mic logo inside).
- Click on the lecture audio “Play” button.
- Voila! It’ll pick up the audio and convert it into text.
Beware: the time limit per “conversation” is 40 minutes, and you have a maximum of 600 minutes of recording time for each month. Luckily, there’s a pause button, which saves time, especially when you have to flip through slides. You can even pause and come back after a couple of days.
This tool has saved me so much time and will benefit me throughout my senior year! I guarantee it’ll help you out for those upcoming midterms, so be sure to give it a try.