Key takeaways:
- The cost of student dropout: Student dropout costs US higher education an estimated $10.72 billion every year, with first-year students alone accounting for $4.85 billion of that total.
- The note taking gap: Students typically capture only 35% of what's said in a lecture, and lose a further 80% of that within days if notes aren't reviewed.
- A clear impact on outcomes: 82% of students feel more confident in their note taking with Genio Notes, study stress dropped by 12% across the semester, and 70.2% say Genio Notes helped them stay in school.
- Built for every learner: From students with additional needs to STEM majors, new features like Quiz Me in Collections, speaker diarization and OCR are reducing admin burden while improving student outcomes.
In our recent webinar, we unpacked the findings of the 2026 Genio Learner Impact Report alongside a look at the features shaping how students are using Genio Notes today.
When students are given the right scaffold for their learning, the results show up across confidence, stress, persistence and grades. For institutions navigating tighter budgets and growing demand, a centralized note taking accommodation like Genio Notes can take meaningful pressure off accessibility teams without compromising support.
Why does student retention matter so much right now?
The undergraduate dropout rate in the US currently sits at 40%, and the financial implications are difficult to ignore.
Student dropout costs US higher education an estimated $10.72 billion every year. First-year students account for nearly $4.85 billion of that total, making early retention one of the highest-leverage opportunities in the system. A modest 5% increase in first-year retention could save the average institution over $258,000 annually.
But behind every percentage point is a person. Each student who drops out represents real potential lost, often before they've had the chance to build the skills and confidence that would have carried them through.
To learn more about this, download our free Cost of Student Dropout Report by clicking here.
How does note taking help students retain information?
Research suggests that both note-taking ability and note-taking methods are positively linked to students’ GPA and overall academic performance. Students also believe effective note-taking improves memory retention and makes information easier to recall.
But there exists a significant gap between what's said in class and what students actually retain. In a typical lecture, students capture around 35% of the content. That means in a one hour session, only about 21 minutes of material is making it into their notes. Of that, a further 80% is lost within days if the notes aren't reviewed and refined.
The link between effective note taking and learning outcomes is undeniable. The challenge for institutions is that administering note taking accommodations is resource-intensive, both in time and budget, at a moment when accessibility teams are being asked to do more with less.
Learn more about Genio’s impact on student success and retention in higher education by clicking here.
What is Genio’s impact on learners in higher education?
Each year, Genio run our Learner Impact Survey to understand how students are using Genio Notes and to measure the effect on their learning outcomes. This year's report surveyed responses from over 1000+ North American learners, across a range of segments including student parents, working students, ESL learners, students with disabilities or mental health conditions, and at-risk students with GPAs less than 2.0.
The headline finding is consistent across every segment: Genio Notes reduces cognitive load and helps students manage information.
Instead of frantically trying to capture every word, students can listen, think and engage, because they know the recording has their back. Students describe this as eliminating the fear of missing out, a shift from a mode of capture to a mode of comprehension.
"This has saved me an immense amount of time and stress. I'm remiss that I didn't have this tool sooner in my school career, as it would have saved me so much time."- Emily, Student at Arizona State University
Here are the key findings from our Learner Impact Report:
1. Genio increases learner confidence
Today's learners are navigating far more than lectures. They're managing competing demands and real-life responsibilities, and often doing so without the support systems they need, which means confidence in their own abilities can slip.
The 2026 data shows Genio Notes is making a real difference here, with 82% of students feeling more confident when taking notes with Genio Notes.
For new users in particular, confidence builds meaningfully over the course of a semester, with a 12% improvement reported from Fall to Spring.
2. Genio supports students with disabilities and mental health conditions
For this group, the value of Genio Notes is deeply personal. The dominant themes in their responses are confidence and reduced anxiety. Students told us that simply knowing a recording exists changes how they experience a lecture.
They can focus on listening and understanding instead of panicking about missing something. Genio Notes functions less like a productivity tool and more like an accessibility aid, levelling the playing field in line with Genio's roots in accessibility.
“I have ADHD and trying to listen to lectures and take notes is impossible. Genio makes life easier because I just have to listen and take minimal notes, because I know that I have the full transcript when I need it." - TFord, Student at Arizona State University
3. Genio supports at-risk students
For students with GPAs of less than 2.0, Genio Notes is less about chasing better grades and more about making the overwhelming task of studying feel manageable.
At risk students saw a GPA improvement of +1.35, that’s a 93.5% increase.The primary value here is emotional. It's a safety net that helps them keep going at a time when, frankly, the world can feel difficult.
4. Genio reduces stress for learners
Stress shows up in grades, in persistence and in wellbeing. By the end of the semester, students using Genio Notes saw self-reported stress drop by 12% on average, with 73.1% finding studying less stressful with Genio Notes.
The most meaningful reductions belong to students carrying the heaviest loads outside of class:
- Working students saw study stress drop by 20% over the semester.
- English as a second language students saw an 18.2% reduction.
- Student parents saw a 14.3% reduction.
The overall message is one of improved wellbeing, taking the stress out of studying as much as possible, because some stress in studying is always going to be there.
How does Genio support STEM and healthcare students?
STEM and healthcare programs cover dense, fast-paced, technical material, and for students with additional needs in particular, keeping up with the volume can be a real barrier.
Here are the top features that our STEM learners have been loving:
- Quiz Me in Collections: Students can now generate one quiz that spans multiple events within a collection, pulling questions from up to 10 recordings at once. It mirrors the way exams actually work, drawing on ideas from across a course rather than a single lecture.
- Equation support in Transcripts: Learners can insert LaTeX-formatted formulas directly into transcripts and print them with the rest of their notes.
- Photo import: Diagrams, graphs, equations and formulas can be imported into Outline and Quiz Me, so students can find and test themselves on the visual material that often matters most in STEM.
- Speaker diarization: Genio Notes now automatically separates and labels speakers, making it clear which content came from the lecturer and which from peers or guests.
- Scribble and slide annotations: Students can add handwritten drawings, formulas and graphs directly to their notes, and highlight and annotate slides.
- Optical Character Recognition: Students can now take a picture of a whiteboard, textbook page or worked example and have it translated into editable text, including math formulas.
Learn more about Genio’s STEM features by clicking here.
What does this mean for institutions?
Note taking admin is time-consuming, peer note takers are difficult to manage, and time spent on note taking accommodations is time taken away from the one on one support that students often need most.
The costs add up, whether in staff hours or peer note-taker stipends. A centralized note taking platform like Genio Notes can:
- Reduce note taking admin time
- Reduce note taking admin cost
- Free up specialist time for the students who need one-to-one support most
- Support compliance with note taking provision
For institutions trying to do more with less, that combination is meaningful.
Across confidence, stress, persistence and grades, the 2026 Learner Impact Report shows what's possible when students are given the right kind of steady, structured support, and when accessibility teams are freed up to focus on the work only they can do.
The full 2026 Genio Learner Impact Report is now live. To see how Genio Notes is supporting students across higher education, read the full report here. or book a demo to talk through what it could look like at your institution.
