Notes and Bookmarks
Take notes inside lessons and save video moments to revisit
Every lesson in OptiLearn has a built-in Notes & Bookmarks panel on the right side of the screen. You can jot down thoughts as you learn, save specific moments in a video to come back to, and view everything you've ever written across every course in one place.
Where the panel lives
Open any lesson and look at the right edge of the screen. On desktop, the panel is open by default. On mobile and narrow screens, it collapses to a small rail with two icons — tap either icon to expand.
The panel has two tabs:
- Notes — your free-form notes for this lesson
- Bookmarks — saved video moments (only useful for video lessons)
Taking notes
Click + Add note in the Notes tab. A textarea appears — type whatever you want, then click Save. The note is private to you, scoped to this lesson, and persisted instantly.
For video lessons, you'll see a small Attach timestamp option. Tick it before saving and the note remembers the exact second of the video you were on. The note then appears with a clickable timestamp — tapping it jumps the video back to that moment.
You can edit any note (pencil icon) or delete it (trash icon). Notes you take here also show up on your global My notes page across all courses.
What notes are good for
- Definitions you want to remember
- Questions to ask the instructor
- Key insights you'll want to revisit before exams
- Personal connections — "this reminds me of…"
- Reflection prompts the lesson asks you about
Bookmarking video moments
Bookmarks are simpler than notes — they're just a saved point in a video, optionally with a short label.
While watching a video, click + Bookmark this moment in the Bookmarks tab. Optionally type a label ("formula for kinetic energy"). The bookmark appears in the list with the timestamp.
Tap any bookmark in the list to seek the video to that point. Use bookmarks for:
- Long lectures where one specific section is the gold
- Exam revision — bookmark every "important formula" the lecturer flags
- Skill drills — bookmark the moment a technique is demonstrated
- Reference material — the moment a chart or diagram appears on screen
My notes (global)
Click My Notes in the sidebar (or visit /my-notes) for an aggregate view of every note you've ever taken, across every course. The page has:
- Search box — type a keyword to filter notes by content
- Course filter — narrow to a specific course
- Pagination — 20 notes per page
Each note shows the lesson title, course name, and a snippet — click to jump to the lesson at the relevant timestamp.
My bookmarks (global)
Same idea for bookmarks. Visit My Bookmarks in the sidebar (or /my-bookmarks) for every video moment you've ever saved, with the same search and course filters as My Notes.
This is the page to use when you're studying for exams — search "formula" or "definition" across all your bookmarks at once.
Notes and bookmarks are private — only you ever see them. Take them as freely as you want; nobody else, not your instructor, not other students, can read them.
Tips
- Don't try to take notes while watching for the first time. Watch first; pause; then note. Mixing both halves the learning quality of each.
- Bookmark generously. Bookmarks are cheap. You can always delete them later. Missing a moment you needed is the costlier mistake.
- Use timestamps on notes. For video lessons, ticking "Attach timestamp" turns your note into a navigation aid — every note becomes a way back into the video.
- Search before you re-watch. Before resuming a long video, hit My Bookmarks to see if a past-you already saved the part you need.
Related
- Captions and transcripts — the click-to-jump transcript is also a great revision tool
- Lesson progress — what completion and milestones look like