submitted by lindn@augsburg.edu
Dear Faculty,
We’d like to introduce NotebookLM, (https://notebooklm.google.com/), a new AI-powered research tool from Google Labs that can help with querying content, research, and streamlining course prep.
The recent overview video — “NotebookLM for Faculty” — highlights how it can accelerate reading, synthesis, and organization.
The video, “NEW NotebookLM Features” highlights recent upgrades.
What NotebookLM Does
Lets you upload PDFs, slides, or docs so you can ask natural-language questions about those resources like “Summarize key themes” or “Outline arguments across these papers.” Importantly, the content you upload is NOT used to train the model, so it remains private and protected!
Offers a Studio mode to streamline turning readings into an audio/video overview, study guides, mindmaps, or briefing notes.
Acts as a virtual research assistant, helping you explore ideas and find patterns across your uploaded materials.
Why It’s Useful for Faculty
Course prep efficiency: Quickly extract key points and discussion prompts from large reading sets.
Research support: Identify major themes, contrasts, or evidence across multiple sources.
Content creation: Build structured notes, slides, or outlines faster.
⚙️ Getting Started
Upload a few core readings or research articles or discipline standards.
Ask targeted questions (e.g., “What are recurring critiques of this model?”).
Use “Customize” option to review and refine the AI summaries for accuracy and tone.
As always, please feel free to reach out to one of us if you have any questions.
Your eLearning team (still new to NotebookLM!),
Susan, Jad, Shane, Nathan