Winn Wing-Yiu Chow, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of
Melbourne
Transforming Lectures into Comprehensive Learning Resources
At most universities, lectures and tutorials are the primary methods of teaching. Lectures convey core concepts
and explain the fundamental ideas and logical relationships behind key topics. Conversely, tutorials provide
interactive, small group learning environments where students can deepen their understanding through
discussions, problem-solving, and personalized feedback. Assigned readings complement both formats, allowing
students to explore the material in greater depth and reinforce their learning. Consequently, students primarily
acquire knowledge through lectures, tutorials, and assigned readings.
However, we are witnessing changes in student behaviours that can significantly impact their learning through
these three main sources. First, while the availability of lecture recordings is beneficial for students with
personal, work, or health challenges, it has led to a notable decline in lecture attendance, with a report indicating
attendance rates as low as 26% by mid-semester. As a result, many students choose to watch recordings at their
convenience, which may cause them to miss out on the immediate engagement and social learning opportunities
that live lectures offer. In contrast, tutorials appear to be less affected, with the same report showing an average
attendance rate of 84%. Second, it is reported that up to 80% of university students are not completing their
assigned readings, further hindering their understanding and performance.
To address this situation, numerous discussions and suggestions have emerged, including the adoption of a
flipped classroom approach, which aims to transform lectures into a more “tutorial-like” learning experience.
Implementing this model will require significant effort and resources to effectively redesign the delivery
method. In this approach, students are expected to complete their pre-class preparation to acquire a sufficient
basic understanding before participating in in-class activities. This preparation enables them to actively engage
with the knowledge and skills during class, ultimately maximizing their learning.
However, given students’ frequent neglect of assigned readings, requiring them to be well-prepared for in-class
activities can be challenging. Additionally, we recognize that students’ lives are becoming increasingly busy, and
changing their existing behaviours may require substantial effort, if it’s even possible. This raises the important
question: are there simpler ways we can enhance student learning, considering their infrequent attendance at
lectures and their tendency to overlook assigned readings?
Generative AI applications are rapidly advancing in their capabilities. Notably, the launch of ChatGPT 4.0-Omni
in May 2024 marks a significant milestone, as it can now engage in omnichannel communication through video,
audio, and text with users. In September 2023, Google released its new AI notebook, called NotebookLM, built
on its Gemini Pro generative AI model. This tool offers unique capabilities, such as source-grounding and
automatic podcast creation, enhancing how users interact with and utilize information. Additionally, Anthropic’s
Claude 3.5 Sonnet has shown excellent performance in content generation, particularly excelling at creating
maps and diagrams.
In light of these developments, we have explored the possibility of transforming lecture recordings into an
engaging and comprehensive set of learning resources. This approach aims to enrich the learning experience for
students, allowing them to engage with the lecture recordings in a variety of formats and choose their preferred
way of learning.
A quick summary of the lectures
Our goal is to first provide a summary of each lecture. A recorded lecture typically lasts for two hours, so being
able to summarize the key topics covered in one page would be highly beneficial for students. This summary
would provide them with a quick, overall understanding of the lecture, enabling them to grasp essential topics
before watching the entire lecture. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are particularly effective at summarizing
content and providing concise explanations. These tools can be utilized to distil a recorded lecture into an easily
digestible summary, making it simpler for students to identify and focus on key discussions.
Many recorded lectures come with downloadable transcripts. By uploading these transcripts to an AI tool like
ChatGPT, we can easily generate a summary of the lecture. In a trial with one of our subjects, ChatGPT
produced a concise summary that included a list of seven key topics covered in the lecture. A sample extract of
the summary is shown below.
In ChatGPT 4.0-Omni, using the prompt: “Give me a summary of the lecture”:
Response:
A mind map to illustrate key concepts and their relationships
A lecture typically introduces several key concepts and demonstrates how they are related. A primary learning
goal for students is to understand these key concepts and articulate the connections among them. In How
Learning Works: Eight Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, authors Marsha Lovett and colleagues
present eight key principles that are grounded in research on how students learn. One key principle is to teach
students how to effectively organize knowledge. This principle highlights that helping students create a coherent
framework for understanding concepts can improve their ability to integrate new information with their existing
knowledge. By encouraging students to develop mental models or visual representations of the relationships
among concepts, educators can promote deeper learning and enhance information retention.
Therefore, our second goal is to identify a list of key concepts related to a topic, such as problem analysis, from
a lecture and create a visual representation of their relationships using a mind map diagram or a concept graph.
This time, we use Google’s NotebookLM to compile the key concepts and their relationships associated with
problem analysis, resulting in the following response.
In NotebookLM, using the prompt: “Based on the lecture, identify all the key concepts associated with problem
analysis and explain their relationships”:
Response:
As shown in the response from NotebookLM above, it provides source references—labelled with numbers—that
link explanations to the corresponding sections of the lecture transcript. This feature is useful for verifying the
accuracy of the explanations given by the AI tool.
Since Claude 3.5 Sonnet excels in diagram creation, we leverage it to create a mind map or a concept graph.
In Claude 3.5 Sonnet, using the prompt: “Create a detailed graph using the key concepts and their relationships.
Use different colours to group related concepts, and label the connections with descriptive names to clarify the
relationships between them”:
Response:
This generated mind map or concept graph effectively illustrates how the lecturer has organized key concepts
related to problem analysis. It provides students with a clear visual representation of the organization, helping
them better understand the relationships between key concepts. This approach makes it easier to grasp the
overall structure and flow of the topic.
A quiz for testing students’ understanding
Testing is crucial for students to develop and refine their understanding. It helps them identify gaps in their
knowledge and recognize misunderstandings. When students encounter challenging questions or answer
incorrectly, it encourages them to revisit and reassess those concepts. Therefore, providing opportunities for
students to practice new skills and receive constructive feedback is a key principle highlighted in Marsha
Lovett’s book.
NotebookLM includes a built-in feature that can generate a “Study Guide” with revision quiz questions based on
uploaded documents, which can be accessed in the “Notebook Guide” section. We use this feature to generate
quiz questions with answers based on the lecture.
In NotebookLM, using the “Study Guide” creation feature:
Response:
Students can then use these quiz questions to assess their understanding and revisit the lecture materials if
needed.
How about learning from a Podcast?
Also noted in Marsha Lovett’s book, motivation plays a significant role in learning. Educators should cultivate a
learning environment that fosters students’ intrinsic motivation by emphasizing the relevance of the material,
providing choices, and setting achievable goals. In addition to offering recorded lectures, summary notes, and
mind maps or concept graphs, NotebookLM also enables the creation of engaging podcast audio content. These
podcasts transform traditional dialectic lectures into lively conversations between two hosts, summarizing the
content into approximately 10 to 20 minutes while incorporating humour, making the material more accessible
and enjoyable for students. This innovative approach not only enhances engagement but also encourages active
listening and retention of key concepts.
Hence, we use NotebookLM to create a podcast based on the lecture. This feature is also accessed in the
“Notebook Guide” section.
In NotebookLM, using the “Audio Overview” creation feature:
Response: [Link] (This is a 4 mins
extract of the podcast.)
In this brief blog post, we have explored various methods to transform our lecture recordings into diverse
learning materials that engage students and enhance their learning experience. Generative AI tools facilitate this
transformation, enabling the creation of new learning materials to be fully automated or to take less than an hour
of work. There are certainly more possibilities beyond those we describe here. With its human-like intelligence
across various tasks, generative AI has great potential to serve as a smart teaching assistant, helping to develop
more engaging learning materials in multiple formats, including text, audio, graphics, chatbots, and video. I
believe this is an exciting area for exploration and research. Please feel free to reach out and share any exciting
findings with me at winn.chow1@[Link].
