Take Control of Your Content with Gemini Notebook
How this helps
Planning course assignments and materials often starts with volumes of documents and data. If you find yourself facing a sea of content and need a tool to navigate it, Google’s Gemini Notebook might be the solution.
Gemini Notebook (formerly known as NotebookLM) is designed to serve as a personalized research and thinking assistant, but one in which you control the sources. While it’s powered by Gemini, Google’s generative AI chatbot, Gemini Notebook only works off the sources you direct it to, so the potential for hallucinations is much lower than any web-facing tool. Your data also remains private and secure as part of the University of Michigan’s Google at U-M bundle, which provides core Google tools to all faculty, staff, and students.
This AI-powered tool is similar to U-M Maizey in that it runs on the sources you provide. Once uploaded, Gemini Notebook can interact with your sources — developing summaries, asking questions, building learning materials — giving you a custom GenAI experience.
The U-M Maizey tool offers better pedagogical control, allows for Canvas integration, and is fully accessible, so for some projects it may be the better option. Comparatively, Gemini Notebook has additional Studio Features, including custom podcasts, and can work with a broader variety of sources.
| U-M Maizey | Gemini Notebook |
|---|---|
| Pedagogical control: Offers features like custom system prompting, creating multiple AI experiences via “apps” and other parameters. | Limited customization: Not as many settings to control the project. |
| Canvas integration: Integrates seamlessly with the Canvas learning management system. | Podcast feature: Offers a unique podcast capability for auditory learning. |
| Accessibility: Fully accessible. | Accessibility: Not fully accessible. |
| Sharing capabilities: Maizey projects can be shared with others. | Sharing capabilities: Projects can be shared with specific people or MCommunity groups. |
| Ownership: Maizey projects can be owned by an MCommunity group. | Ownership: Ownership of projects cannot be transferred. |
| Sources: Websites, Google Drive folders, Dropbox, Canvas. Full list of supported file types. | Sources: Websites, Google Drive documents, YouTube, “Discover sources” feature (web). Full list of supported file types. |
Interact with Your Sources
One of the best features of Gemini Notebook is that it’s grounded in your sources, and it shows you which sources it cites for every output it produces. While there is a small probability the tool tries to source answers using a large language model, in this case, Gemini, the tool has a citation feature, so you can click on the citation attached to the specific passage to confirm the source.
Currently, you can upload up to 50 different sources into Gemini Notebook, including more than two dozen document, image, and media file types. You can also easily select and deselect which sources you wish to use for any task. If there’s a source you need but don’t have on hand, Gemini Notebook can search the web, and you can review and select potential sources to include.
Once your sources are uploaded, they will appear in the first of the three columns on the Gemini Notebook interface. The second column is the Chat feature, where you can interact with your sources using the Gemini chatbot. You can guide the Chat outputs through your prompts. Among the key capabilities are:
- Organize and synthesize your sources.
- Ask questions and interact with your content.
- Generate new content from sources (more below on Studio features).
- Enhance team collaboration.
- Valuable for faculty and students managing large volumes of material and seeking fast, reliable insight.
Studio
The third column houses Gemini Notebook’s Studio features. This is the content-creation hub of your Notebook that uses your sources to inform an array of media and study assets.
Audio overview: This popular feature produces a podcast, with two voices discussing your Notebook. This is a great feature for auditory learners, or if you want to review content during a commute or walk. You can even interact with the podcast “hosts” and ask questions in real time.
Video overview: These short-form videos are slideshows of your content with a voice over. You can customize the visual style and what content you wish to have covered.
Flashcard and Quiz: Interactive tools designed for self-assessment and studying.
Reports: You can generate a large number of reports, including briefings, study guides, blog posts, policy briefs, white papers, explanatory guides, and informational pamphlets.
Infographic: Create a custom graphic for your course materials or presentations. Note that while these can be customized, the final product is not editable.
Slideshow: This can help inspire your presentations, though the output is a PDF, so you’re unable to edit it. A workaround for this is to ask Gemini Notebook to write an outline for a slide deck, then copy and paste it into the Gemini app and ask it to create Google Slides, which you can then export to your Drive and edit.
Mind map and Data table: Two additional ways to analyze and portray your sources.
Once you create a Gemini Notebook, it will be saved on your dashboard under “Recent Notebooks,” and you can share it with U-M colleagues and team members.
Practical Tips
- Log in with your U-M credentials: To access the privacy protections offered through the university, make sure to sign in with your “umich.edu” address.
- Configure notebook: At the top of the Chat column is a menu called “Configure notebook,” which allows you to customize the conversational style or role of the output, as well as the response length.
- Learning Guide: Within the Configure tool, there is a Learning Guide option, which creates an interactive learning experience that guides you through your assets.
- Save to note: If you want to keep a Chat output, you can click “Save to note” at the bottom, and it will add it to the Studio column. This is key as Gemini Notebook does not currently have chat History. Chats can also be saved as Sources if you wish to use them to inform the project.
Resources
Upcoming Workshops
From Idea to Insight: Gemini for Education | U-M Academic Technology — ITS Instructional Support Workshop, Sept. 1, 12-1 p.m.
Exploring Gemini Notebook for Education — ITS Instructional Support Workshop, Sept. 15, 12-1 p.m.
Additional Resources
Introducing Google Gemini and NotebookLM — Starting guide to accessing, implementing, and using Google’s core generative AI tools.
GenAI Workshop Series — A series of hour-long workshops available on-demand that cover the basics of GenAI and its applications in academic and everyday settings. Those who complete the courses, which are slotted into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, are eligible to earn GenAI badges.
Teaching with GenAI — A self-paced course for U-M instructors and staff seeking skills on integrating GenAI tools in their teaching practice. Those completing all eight modules receive a Teaching with GenAI badge.
Your essential guide to Google AI for college — Written for students, but a great resource for anyone using Google tools.
50+ Ways to use Gemini in Higher Education — Designed for faculty, researchers, administrators, leaders, and students on how to best use Gemini and Gemini Notebook in higher education.
U-M Resources
- GenAI 101 An Overview of Generative AI (self-paced microlearning course)
- Generative AI Prompt Literacy (self-paced course)
- U-M Generative AI Website
- ITS AI Services and Roadmap at U-M
- Generative AI on the Academic Technology@Michigan website
- Course Policies & Syllabi Statements
Angela Marocco is an instructional learning specialist lead for University of Michigan Information and Technology Services. This article is based on her workshop, “Exploring Gemini Notebook for Education,” part of the Generative AI Workshop Series offered by ITS Teaching and Learning.
