Community reviews for NoodleTools

I believe that Noodle Tools is a great tool for introducing students to academic research. The note card function is handy, helps students organize their thinking, and allows students to connect their findings to a specific source. Noodle Tools also allow students to share their work with each other making group work easy and engaging. Parts that could be improved: ensuring proper format all citations (without an autocorrect feature, APA Capitalization tends to be off) . Also Noodle Tools would benefit from an auto save feature to ensure student work is always saved.

I believe this is a wonderful tool for use in all aspects of the research process. I like that the notecard feature allows you to keep your research organized and that each notecard can be attached to the source. Students are also able to share their projects with others, allowing for easy use with group projects. I would recommend teachers create their own accounts, allowing them to use the software. I use it for my research papers in my master's program. This practice makes it easier for me to help when students need assistance. Areas for improvement would be an auto-correct feature when creating citations and an automatic save, so work doesn't get lost if you don't hit save.

If you want to spend 3 hours + citing sources then sure, use this.

It was very slow, the box that comes up when you hover over notecards didn't go away, you had to wait for about 2 seconds after pretty much every action you took.

I think this tool in very beneficial when completing a research project. It helps students to stay organized and store relevant information. It also helps students cite sources in the proper format. The only disadvantage is that the website itself does not have extensive instructions on it. It can be confusing to students who are first time users.

A great overall tool that helps students arrange and store information for a research project. Collaboration happens at two levels: full and peer review. At the behest of librarians, NoodleTools has added a "Quickcite" feature which allows users to copy and paste a citation from a database article. While this definitely could be a plus, the Quickcite feature is buried behind 3 clicks, making navigation difficult and adding on another layer of instruction. This frustrates both teachers and students, and makes me reluctant to offer the app to 6th grade students. I've tried several times to get the developers to make the Quckcite feature more accessible, but so far they have refused. Another great feature that is absent is a citation tool that would collect the metadata from a web page. EasyBib does it, why can't NoodeTools?

The review process is difficult for a tool like this because students certainly don't get excited about things like this (engagement). If they understood how hard doing bibliographies USED to be, they would probably be jumping for joy. Similarly, learning is difficult to 'measure' for a tool like this. It SUPPORTS learning because it supports the organization of key information and ideas, building deeper understanding of a topic. It's a great support for learning via research for projects, essays, or debates.

I really like the way Noodletools emphasizes the need to pull direct quotations from the resource students use. This gives me the opportunity to see their progress in paraphrasing direct quotations into their own words. I can also see how often students log-in to Noodletools to work on their research projects, which is really beneficial for my students who require extra support in managing their time effectively. The first year I used Noodletools, I felt many of the features were very cumbersome. For many of my low literacy students, I only require them to use part of the features available which can become visually distracting to some. I wish that we could organize notecards in a more distinct way and/or that the outline printed in a way that was easier to read.

Noodle Tools has been a great addition to our library resources. It adapts itself well to all subjects and curriculum and can be adapted to any grade or skill level for all students. All the pertinent phases of research are covered and the teacher has access to all the student accounts. This is a very helpful tool which enables the instructor to log in and monitor the progress of each student during the project. Noodle Tools allows me the opportunity to focus on the purpose of using a bibliography in their research, rather than just teaching the mechanics of a bibliography. One area of difficulty I am finding with Noodle Tools is that some students are struggling with note taking right from the screen. The notes page can be a little complex for students, but with monitoring this difficulty can be avoided. Creating an index that includes the student's entire project with existing note cards is an invaluable tool. The student can create their project quickly and easily, and if changes need to be made they are done fast and efficiently. Noodle Tools works seamlessly with Google Docs/Drive. Since every assignment is electronic, there is no worry about lost papers, materials or things being left in their lockers. This is one tool that I would not allow the library to be without.

Noodle Tools in a wonderful teaching tool. It encourages proper citation, but offers modern methods for creating a bibliography and organizing research material. It emphasizes the importance of source information and strong note-taking, but is much less heavy-handed than some of the old-fashioned methods. Today's students would probably find it exasperating to carry around a physical stack of note cards featuring quotes and key points, but they don't hesitate to create virtual notes cards that perform the same function. It is web-based, so it requires the use of a computer, which could be limiting for students who lack access, but they have a companion app for both Apple and Android devices that increase access options. If I have a critique, it is that it is somewhat challenging to retrieve password information if the students forget their login information. My students often simply make a new account in that situation. Overall, the subscription is inexpensive, and the service provided is high. It would be the last subscription I would drop if I had to make cuts to my budget; it's that valuable to the research learning process for us.