Unlike a traditional AI chatbot, Gemini Notebook provides a dedicated, secure workspace built around your specific documents, resources, and subject matter. Once sources are uploaded, it becomes focused on your content, allowing you to ask questions, generate summaries, create resources, and explore information with confidence.
As the Notebook’s AI is looking at your specific source materials, this helps improve accuracy, makes it easier to verify information, and reduces the risk of AI-generated inaccuracies or “hallucinations”.
Like Copilot, you can upload and use institutional content as the data remains within the College Group’s control and is not used to train AI models.
Getting Started
What can you upload?
A notebook can contain up to 50 sources, including: PDFs, Word Docs (docx), PowerPoints (pptx), Audio files (mp3), Videos (mp4), Images (jpeg and png), URLs, and more.
Setting up your first notebook is straightforward and only takes a few minutes. Select Get started on the slide deck below:
Notebook setup, written instructions (select to expand).
- Create a notebook: Once signed in (learn how to do this here), select Create new notebook and give your Notebook a name.
- Add your sources: Upload content by dragging and dropping your files into the “Sources” panel or by selecting the Add sources button.
- Explore with Chat: Once your sources have been uploaded, use the “Chat” panel to ask questions, request summaries, identify key themes, or locate information across multiple documents.
- Create resources with Studio: From the “Studio” panel, you can generate a variety of outputs from your sources, including: Audio Overview, Reports, Slide Deck, Quiz, and more. Select the option you would like to create.
- Customise and generate: From the pop-up window, customise the output by specifying the format, level of detail, audience, or any additional requirements. When you’re ready, select Generate.
- Review, download and share: Generated resources appear at the bottom of the “Studio” panel. Review the content, and then from the ellipsis More menu, you can rename, download and share it.
Sharing Notebooks and Resources
To help maintain data security, notebooks can only be shared directly with individuals within our organisation.
When sharing a notebook, you can assign either:
- Viewer access for read-only permissions
- Editor access for collaborative editing
You can also enable Allow Copies, allowing recipients to create their own version of the notebook.
If you would like to distribute generated content to a whole class, we recommend downloading the resource and sharing it through LearnZone or Microsoft Teams.
Examples
To demonstrate what’s possible, we used Gemini Notebook to generate an Audio Overview of this blog. Audio Overviews convert written content into a conversational podcast-style discussion.
Listen here:
Below, we have shared the notebook project so you can explore the uploaded sources and experiment with the Studio features.
View the notebook: Getting Started with Gemini Notebook
Feel free to create your own copy and see what you can generate.
Example Use Cases:
Gemini Notebook can support a wide range of staff and student activities.
- Generate Instant Briefings: Transform lengthy reports and policy documents into a concise summary or an FAQ sheet.
- Review Data: Analyse large collections of documents and identify key themes.
- Create Study & Training Materials: Generate flashcards, quizzes, and study guides directly from your uploaded content.
- Listen: Use the “Audio Overview” feature to transform dense reports or reading materials into an engaging, two-person podcast.
Whether you’re preparing learning materials, reviewing policies, analysing reports, or supporting research, Gemini Notebook can help transform information into actionable outputs, saving time and helping you work more effectively.
Help and Support
As always, contact the Digital Learning Team for more information, guidance, and support. You can also book a coaching session here: Digital Learning Coaching.