Waikato University student Dave Selby doesn't take lots of notes during lectures, preferring instead to listen and think.

A Waikato University professor has banned laptops from his lectures, saying screens are distracting students from learning.

Having students hand write lecture notes has irked some taking his class, but one education expert says it's up to lecturers to make their lessons engaging.

Waikato Management School professor Shikhar Sarin introduced the laptop and smartphone ban for his third-year paper on marketing research.

SUPPLIED Professor Alister Jones, senior deputy vice-chancellor at Waikato University (file photo).

Sarin declined to be interviewed but in a statement says the "no screen policy" only relates to the lecture part of his paper. Students are encouraged to use their devices during lab sessions, when they engage in research and statistical analysis.

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Allowances are made for students who have a valid reason to use devices.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF Dave Selby says some classmates have become reliant on using laptops and smartphones to record lecture notes.

Student Dave Selby, 37, is surprised at the strong push back from classmates - some took their complaints to the university's student magazine.

Selby, a student rep, is comfortable writing notes in lectures, but mostly prefers to listen and think.

"Professor Sarin feels strongly that laptops in lectures interferes with students' learning. The flipside is that, for many students, their best form of note-taking is using their laptop because they're much faster at typing than writing."

A study of hundreds of students from Princeton University and UCLA found students who wrote notes learnt more than students who relied on laptops to take notes.

The study, published in the journal of Psychological Science in 2014, suggests students who write notes engage in different types of cognitive processing.

Professor Alister Jones, senior deputy vice-chancellor at Waikato University, says debating whether longhand note-taking is better than typing notes needs to take into account the lecture topic, the learning outcomes, and what students are being asked to do.

Over the past 20 years, there has been a move toward making university lectures more dynamic and engaging.

Jones, a former dean of education at Waikato University, isn't surprised by some students' negative response to Sarin's request.

"There was reaction when we allowed laptops into classes and there will always be reaction when we try innovative things," Jones says.

"There's evidence to suggest that it's good for students to concentrate on what's being said and that means the onus is on lecturers to make lessons engaging and expect greater interaction in the classroom."

Student Srishtika Prakash, 21, was initially surprised by Sarin's request to switch off laptops in his lectures but supports the move.

"It's normally so easy to open up Facebook when I start to feel bored or when things become a bit too confusing, but when I don't have a screen in front of me I have no option but to pay attention," she says.

"Personally, taking notes for me hasn't been a problem. I print out the slides, write some additional info during class, and read the textbook later."