Case Study #2: NotebookLM in Computer Science Education
Associate Professor of Computer Studies Xin Ye (Rockland Community College) implemented NotebookLM by Gemini 2.0 in an introductory Java programming course to address a specific educational challenge: students’ difficulty with organizing and retaining information, particularly content accessed through AI tools. This implementation targeted a fundamental academic skill gap—effective note-taking and information management—that impacts student success across disciplines and is essential in programming courses where concepts build upon one another. By introducing NotebookLM as a centralized repository for course materials, AI-generated content, and student notes, Ye aimed to scaffold students’ organizational skills while simultaneously enhancing their ability to synthesize and review programming concepts.
The outcomes of this implementation reveal NotebookLM’s strength as an organizational and summarization tool that supports students’ learning processes. The platform’s ability to automatically generate study guides and practice quizzes from collected materials provided valuable learning aids, particularly benefiting students who had not yet developed systematic note-taking habits. This functionality addressed a critical need in the learning process—bridging the gap between information collection and knowledge synthesis. However, the limited student engagement with the audio feature suggests that not all technological affordances align with student preferences, underscoring the importance of flexibility in AI tool implementation. Indeed, if students use multifunction and powerful tools like this to summarize, synthesize, analyze, and interpret complex educational concepts and texts, offloading these critical literacy and disciplinary skills to AI tools that promise to do the “hard thinking” for us (NotebookLM’s tagline) can be convenient but educationally counterproductive. The case study demonstrates that the effectiveness of tools like this depends on thoughtful integration into course activities and consistent modeling by instructors.
