Use of OneNote as an ELN in undergraduate teaching labs at the University of Southampton in the department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Case Study

In late 2019, the undergraduate teaching laboratories in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Southampton (UoS) underwent a major refurbishment, including the introduction of teaching laptops to the labs. This paved the way for the teaching labs to phase out physical notebooks. Yet this phasing out process was not without it complications, and it was not until 2024 a comprehensive replacement for the old physical notebooks was fully implemented. In this case study, we will look at the background for the implementation of an Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) for undergraduate students. We will discuss why we chose OneNote, how we implemented OneNote as an ELN, and discuss the positives and negatives of the implementation with suggestions for readers on about how to approach a similar implementation.