Using AI Notetaking in College Counseling

Gregg Murray, Vistamar School

Samantha Schreiber, Polytechnic School

Setting the Groundwork for AI Notetaking in Your Office

While many of your meetings with students and parents take place in person, it’s relatively simple to set up a notetaking system that supports both in-person meetings and online conversations.

Select Your Notetaking Method and Tool

There are two main approaches - one is to have a tool “listening in” live and doing transcription/summaries while the meeting takes place, while the other is to record a meeting and then feed that recording into a transcription tool after the meeting Here are some popular tools to choose from:

Live Meeting Notetakers Recording Transcribers

Zoom AI Companion Fathom Notetaker Otter.ai Fireflies.ai

Rev.ai Descript Sonix Trint

Consider How to Notify Your Students/Parents

The best practice is to let both parents and students know that you’ll be utilizing a notetaking tool to help enhance your work as counselor, and providing them with the opportunity to opt out if they have concerns

Simple Setup for Recording Live Meetings

You can use a laptop or desktop, and join a solo online meeting on that device before you begin the in-person meeting with students and/or parents. Most of today’s AI notetaking tools will still be able to discern between multiple speakers even though the live online meeting will only have you as the sole participant.

Plan for Storing Meeting Transcriptions and Summaries

If you start to regularly generate transcripts and/or summaries of meetings, it’s key to consider your organization and storage system As you’ll see from the next section, there are many ways to utilize this information, but it’s key to be able to quickly identify which student(s) and parent(s) the notes refer to

WAYS TO ENHANCE COUNSELING WITH AI NOTETAKING

Improve Record-Keeping and Organization

Automatic Summarization: AI can provide concise summaries of meetings, making it easier to keep track of each student's progress and needs

Centralized Database: Store AI-generated notes in a centralized digital database (Scoir notes, Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc), categorized by student, date, and topic This ensures quick retrieval and review of past discussions If you use Google Docs or Google Sheets, you can easily sync with an AI Extension to help frame or outline recommendation letters

Enhanced Follow-Up and Action Items

Task Management: AI can highlight and track action items, deadlines, and follow-ups discussed during meetings, helping you and your students stay on top of tasks

Add tasks to Scoir Assignments or @student via Google Docs

Personalized Student Support

Individualized Plans: Use detailed notes to tailor personalized college plans for each student, reflecting their interests, strengths, and areas of improvement. Ask AI to act as an accountability partner and identify oversights in longer conversations or over time (i.e. discussing multicultural fly-in programs, scholarship opportunities, alternative majors).

Progress Tracking: Monitor each student's progress over time, providing the AI model with all student meeting notes and asking for insights to identify patterns and adjust guidance as needed

Tip:

Efficient Communication

Summary Emails: Quickly generate and send summary emails to students and parents/guardians after meetings, ensuring everyone is aligned on next steps and important points.

Meeting Preparation: Use previous AI-generated notes to prepare for upcoming meetings, allowing you to address ongoing issues and follow up on previous discussions.

Data Analysis and Insights

Trend Identification: Ask an AI model to analyze aggregated notes to identify trends in student concerns, preferences, and outcomes, helping to refine counseling strategies

Collaboration and Sharing

Counseling Team Collaboration: Share AI-generated notes with colleagues to collaborate on student cases, ensuring a cohesive approach and leveraging collective expertise

Stakeholder Updates: Provide consistent updates to stakeholders (e g , parents, teachers) using AI-generated summaries, maintaining transparency and communication

Training and Development

Staff Training: Use anonymized AI-generated notes to train new counselors, providing real-life examples and best practices. Recordings or transcriptions can be a powerful tool to help any counselor learn style, school culture/norms, and ways to navigate complicated topics of discussion

Feedback Loop: Ask AI model to analyze notes to receive feedback on your counseling methods, identifying areas for professional growth and development