Student orientation and study support using NotebookLM

The challenge was not to simplify the content, but to assist students in navigating and managing its complexity without removing it. We aimed to prevent the so-called "open AI" problem, where students produce answers freely, often disconnected from the actual unit, and without developing genuine understanding. We preferred AI use stay anchored to the unit's specific materials and supported learning outcomes, rather than replacing them. The capacity to build knowledge banks in NotebookLM provided an avenue to address this.

We created a NotebookLM knowledge base with selected materials for student engagement, including assessment guides, the Week 1 lecture, and essential discipline documents like construction codes and sustainability resources. Instead of providing students with a blank NotebookLM to explore freely, we shared a pre-prepared version called curating a "student view.' This allowed students to interact with deliberately selected documents and pre-made NotebookLM  studio elements and ask questions about the unit and assessments without generating uncontrolled content. The curation process also influences all subsequent interactions.

Watch the video below to see the NotebookLM outputs and what they looked like

This use case points to NotebookLM as a teacher-curated companion to navigate content in complex units. It could support active learning, self-regulated learning, and constructivist engagement while keeping the knowledge source base bounded. For educators, it suggests a model for sharing AI-assisted study spaces that are shaped by course design rather than left entirely to student improvisation. Importantly, it reinforces the need for pedagogical control, ensuring AI use aligns with learning outcomes. In this way, AI enhances clarity, confidence, and engagement, while maintaining academic rigour and supporting deeper understanding.

• What we observed was a shift in how students approached the unit. They were less overwhelmed in the early weeks, asked more informed questions and they could explain how materials connected, not just what they contained. Most importantly, they were still reading the original documents, but now they knew why they were reading them and what to look for.
• So, it is not about giving students more tools, but about designing better learning environments with considered use of AI platforms. A key starting point is curation rather than prompting, carefully selecting materials, as this shapes everything that follows.
• It is also important to design the student experience intentionally, providing a structured entry point and engagement rather than a blank tool used ad hoc.
• AI should be used to orient students, not replace their learning; the goal is to support understanding, not bypass it. Finally, thinking in terms of narrative is powerful, when students experience a unit as a coherent journey, their engagement and sense of purpose shift significantly.