A Guide to Using Google NotebookLM for Course Design
Google NotebookLM is a powerful tool for organizing and developing course content and can enhance and fine-tune your existing ideas.
What is Google NotebookLM?
Google NotebookLM allows users to easily create, organize, and share notes. It acts like a virtual assistant that uses existing information to summarize details, clarify complex ideas, and generate relationships based on selected sources. It can handle various content types, including text, images, graphs, and diagrams.
Benefits of Using Google Notebook LM for Course Design
Organized Planning
Instructors can create separate notebooks for course outlines, reading materials, assessment plans, study guides, and course lectures. This organized structure simplifies the planning process and allows for easy navigation and access in the future.
Resource Compilation
It allows you to compile links, articles, videos, and other materials in one place. You can save links directly into your notebook, annotate them for future reference, and classify them according to topics.
Collaborate
It supports collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit and comment on notes in real time.
Easily Accessible
Since Google NotebookLM is cloud-based, you can access your notes anytime, anywhere, and on any device, allowing you to brainstorm ideas anywhere!
How to get started with Google NotebookLM
Let me walk you through how to start Google NotebookLM!
Creating a Notebook
Go to https://notebooklm.google.com/ and login with your Gmail account.
You will see your Google NotebookLM Dashboard with all the different notebooks you have created so far.
To create a new Notebook select "Create New"
Adding Content to your Notebook
It will prompt you to upload documents, google drive files, text, audio files, website links and YouTube videos. If you are not ready to do that, you can click on the X to close the window.
Make sure to name your Notebook.
Summarizing content using NotebookLM
Once you have uploaded all the content you want for the specific Notebook you created, you can use the "Chat" feature to ask questions about the different content. You can easily select the content you want to include by checking or unchecking the corresponding boxes next to each item. NotebookLM also offers you prompts to choose from, making it easier to develop your content. Please note: Content might not be accurate, so make sure to check for any mistakes.
How to Use Google Notebook LM for Course Design
Google NotebookLM is a powerful tool for organizing and developing course content and can enhance and fine-tune your existing ideas. You can use Google Notebook LM as a starting point for your course content. It will provide a solid foundation for you to build upon the ideas and suggestions it offers to make them even better and more tailored to your specific needs.
Create Course Objectives: create course or module objectives based on selected content. You can enter prompts like, “Create objectives for a module on [topic]” to get customized suggestions.
Develop Lesson Plans: outline the main concepts for each lesson. For instance, input, “Create a lesson plan for teaching [specific topic], including objectives, materials, and activities.”
Create Study Guides: use prompts like, “Create a study guide for [topic] that includes key concepts and questions.” NotebookLM can help summarize important information and develop study questions.
Create Discussion Prompts: generate discussion prompts based on content selected. You can input, “What are some engaging discussion prompts for [topic]?” to stimulate thoughtful discussions in class.
Create Rubrics and Criteria: determine what you will assess (e.g., projects, participation, etc.). Input requests along the lines of, “Create a rubric for assessing [specific project or assignment] that includes criteria for [aspects such as creativity, understanding, effort, etc.].” This will produce a structured assessment guide that you can further customize.
You can effectively use Google NotebookLM to streamline your course design process, enhance student engagement, and collaborate with others in the educational field! Happy designing!
TYPOGRAPHY IN COURSE DESIGN
You encounter typography almost every day! Do you know what typography is?
You encounter typography almost every day! Do you know what typography is? Typography is how you arrange text and letters using spacing, different fonts, and different font sizes. You are using text and letters to create a story. You can use typography to convey various messages and create engaging and readable text. So why is this important for your online course? If you think about it, online course design is almost entirely using text, so why would you not want to use text to create a course that is both readable and visually appealing?
Reasons why you should use Typography in your course:
Optimizes readability – using good typography creates a visual hierarchy. It lets the reader know which elements are essential and how they relate to the other text in your course content. One example of this is using headers. Headers established the main points of each page of content. Examples of headings you can use are H1, H2, H3, and H4.
Creates accessible content: Did you know that you can make your content more accessible with learners who have poor vision depending on the font you choose? Many learners have learning disabilities such as poor vision, dyslexia, or aphasia and need to have course content be as accessible as possible. For example, make sure that all font letters you use are easily distinguishable since many fonts have letters that look alike.
Creates a memorable experience: By using good typography, you create a good experience for your learner. You hold their attention and thereby helping them to easily read and remember your course content and stay focused and engaged in the course.
Basics of Typography
Typography has the following elements that you need to understand to use in your course:
Typeface
Not to be confused with font, it is the style that makes up the font. In contrast, the font is how you graphically render a text character.
There are three types of typeface, (1) serif (2) san-serif and (3) decorative:
In your course, you will not want to use all three simultaneously. You will want to use two fonts at most to keep it clean and easy to read.
Contrast
You create contrast when you emphasize certain text and not the other. One example of this would be using headers or images that has text. You can use text size or color to signify which course information grabs the learner’s attention.
Example 1
Example 2
Hierarchy
Lets your learners understand what they need to read first and how content is organized. Headers allow you to manage your content using different heading:
Whitespace
Also called “negative space.” Whitespace ensures the content is not overwhelming and created when you chunk your content or create other groupings. It makes more visually appealing content by not allowing too much clutter to appear on the page.
Consistency
Having consistent fonts and hierarchy for your course content is vital. If you use too many fonts or hierarchy in one page of content and not in the other might lead to a confusing and even disordered look of your course.
Example of content having too many fonts
Color
The color you use for your content is important. One reason is you might have learners who are colorblind. You can quickly check for color contrast using this online contrast checker.
Alignment
This is how your text or images align with other elements in your course content. You want to keep this as consistent as you can. For example, you might want to place a course banner on the top center of your page or any images you use on the left of the page before the paragraph begins.
Now that you understand the basic principles of typography, I hope they will help you when designing your course content. Comment below if you are using typography principles in your course or any tips you would like to share!