NotebookLM, from Google, is a virtual research assistant that can work across up to 300 documents, and provide study materials in multiple modalities. It provides a structured interface that is user-friendly and cues study-apt interactions.
To begin a notebook, upload the materials that you want it to work from. From this, NotebookLM will create a workspace with a chat window, a ‘Studio’ in which audio and written materials can be generated, and a ‘Sources’ panel in which sources can be selected and deselected, and search conducted for additional relevant sources. Once sources are uploaded, NotebookLM creates a ‘Notebook Guide’ with an automatic summary, key topics, and suggested questions. You can chat with the AI, asking specific questions, requesting summaries of certain concepts across multiple documents, or asking it to identify gaps in the provided material.
Content Generation from Sources:
- Study Guides: Generate study guides with short answer questions, answers, and glossaries based on your uploaded texts.
- FAQs: Create frequently asked questions based on the documents.
- Timelines and Summaries: Organize information chronologically or into briefing notes.
- Audio Overviews (Podcasts): Generate podcast-style audio summaries of your source materials, which can be customized. An experimental feature even allows real-time spoken interaction with these audio summaries.
- Mind Maps: Create visual mind maps to organize concepts from your sources.
Its primary strength is its ability to base all outputs—summaries, answers, study guides—directly on the documents you provide (PDFs, Google Docs, copied text, website links). This minimizes ‘hallucinations’ or off-topic information. Textual materials offer referencing in the form of in-text numbers which, on hovering, will display the snippet of text being drawn upon to support a particular point. Users can pin important quotes or citations from the sources for easy reference. However, documents cannot be opened in-application.
Notebooks can be shared within your organization, allowing for group research and collective note-taking.
For more guidance on using this tool, visit:
General Considerations for Using AI in Teaching and Learning
Course Policy Guidance
Introduction to Prompting
Applications for Student Learning
Assignments in the Context of AI
Labor-Saving Tips for Educators