Beyond Lectures and the Textbook:
Google's NotebookLM as a Personalized Learning Companion
| Course Subject: | Social Media and Brand Strategy Implementation |
| Student Level: | Graduate |
| Number of Students: | 20 |
| Developed by: | James A. Gardner, Lecturer, College of Professional Studies |
What Students Did
Students used Google’s NotebookLM generative AI tool to make sense of complex course materials by “dialoguing” with it and creating outputs such as lecture summaries, study guides, quizzes, and simulated podcast discussions.
NotebookLM is billed by Google as a “personal research assistant.” According to the tool’s website, users can “Upload PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs, or Google Slides, and NotebookLM will summarize them and make interesting connections between topics.”
Purpose
The tool was introduced to improve engagement, comprehension, and outcomes for a diverse group of learners, many of whom speak English as a second language.
Assessment
Students used Notebook LM on their own, as needed, to support their learning. Their work was not graded and it was not required. Anecdotally, students have shared that they find the tool to be enjoyable and helpful.
Faculty Reflections
I’ve encouraged students to upload (into Notebook LM) articles, book chapters, and class slides with lecture notes. They can ask the tool specific questions about the materials, or prompt it to generate study materials. This gives them a fresh new way to revisit what we discussed in class and make sense of the content.
At least half of them are using it in the course on a regular basis, and some are even using it outside of the course. Students have enjoyed the podcasting feature in particular; there’s something about the unfamiliar voices bantering back and forth that my students find intriguing. It can make the dullest material seem interesting. Different students can get different results with the same material, and sometimes it’s funny. They enjoy sharing their results.
It’s fun to be doing something new. I’m interested in doing some more formal inquiry into how NotebookLM is impacting students’ learning experiences.
Step-by-Step Directions
| Step 1 | Upload course materials (such as links, PDF articles, slides, YouTube videos, etc.) into the Google NotebookLM tool. NOTE: According to the NotebookLM website, the platform does not use uploaded materials to train the model and user privacy is maintained. |
| Step 2 | Enter your questions about the content, engaging in an interactive, conversational dialogue to help you understand it. Prompts may include instructions for generating answers in a specific way, such as for a beginner. |
| Step 3 | Prompt the tool to generate materials that will help you understand the material. Example outputs include:
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Related Materials
- Recording of a simulated podcast discussion generated by NotebookLM, based on PDF copies of chapters from a book.
Screenshots of sample screens in NotebookLM are shown below.
Download PDF version of this assignment
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