NotebookLM Settings - Student Guardrails

[Lasand89]

Greetings Technology Education leaders! Has anyone found a way to manage settings in NotebookLM. Specifically we are looking for a way to allow students as specific grade levels the ability to interact with teacher create NotebookLM content but not create their own. Is this possible?

[Kristal]

Thank you for asking this important question.  Here is the way to manage the settings:

This is an excellent question, and the ability to manage access levels for students is primarily handled through the Google Workspace for Education Admin console and notebook sharing permissions.¹

Here is a breakdown of how you can achieve your goal of allowing students to interact with teacher-created content but not create their own notebooks:

1. Control Overall Access via Google Admin Console²

The most granular way to control who can use NotebookLM in your domain is through the Google Workspace for Education Admin console.³

• Manage Access by Organizational Unit (OU) or Group: As an administrator, you can manage access to NotebookLM at the OU level.⁴ Since your user accounts are typically structured by grade level or school (e.g., "High School Students," "Middle School Students"), you can:

  • Enable NotebookLM for the Organizational Units (OUs) that contain students you want to have any access (e.g., your high school OU).

  • Disable NotebookLM for OUs that contain students you do not want to have any access at all (e.g., lower grade levels).

This allows you to control which grade levels can access the tool.

2. Control Creation Rights through Sharing (Viewer Role)

Once students have general access to NotebookLM, you can restrict them to read-only/interactive access to a specific notebook by using the standard sharing settings.

When a teacher shares a notebook, they can set the permission level:

Permission Level	Student Ability
Viewer (Recommended for this purpose)	The student can interact with the teacher-created notebook (e.g., chat with sources, generate summaries, take quizzes) but cannot add, edit, or delete sources, nor can they delete the notebook itself.
Editor	The student can add, edit, or delete sources and use all features, making them a creator/contributor.

How the "Viewer" role enables your goal:

When a teacher shares a notebook with students as Viewers (or assigns it in Google Classroom, where students get read-only access by default):

1. Students can access the notebook and all the resources created by the teacher (audio overviews, mind maps, quizzes, etc.).

2. They can use the chat feature to ask questions about the source material.⁵

3. They cannot create a new, separate notebook using their own documents.

4. They cannot edit the teacher's sources.

Summary of Recommended Strategy

To implement your desired restriction for specific grade levels:

1. Use the Admin Console: Turn on access to the NotebookLM service for the Organizational Units (OUs) that represent the grade levels you want to interact with the content.⁶

2. Use Sharing Permissions: Teachers should explicitly share their NotebookLM notebooks with students using the Viewer permission (or assign it via Google Classroom, which grants read-only access).

This combination ensures the students you select have the ability to engage with the advanced study aids you create, but prevents them from using their own files to generate new content.