I’ve tried every NotebookLM competitor I’ve come across, but none have managed to match its capabilities. The only tool that seemed to help me more than NotebookLM when I was studying was a Google Labs experiment called Learn About.
Though the project is certainly impressive and I can’t wait for Google to launch it widely, the way it works is quite different from NotebookLM. In fact, the features both tools offer are nowhere similar.
So, I was on the lookout for a tool that worked more like NotebookLM and offered a similar feature set. Well, Google recently announced a new Labs experiment that seems to be a step in exactly that direction.
What is Google’s Learn Your Way experiment?
The future of studying
Learn Your Way is a fairly new Google Labs experiment, which the company announced on September 16 via a blog post. If you aren’t familiar with Google Labs experiments, they’re essentially early-stage projects Google is working on and testing before (and if) they eventually make their way into full-fledged products.
NotebookLM, too, was once a Labs project under the code name “Project Tailwind” back in 2023. The company has a couple of other learning tools it’s working on in Labs, and Learn Your Way is the latest addition to the portfolio. The experiment uses Google’s education-specific AI models, LearnLM, and the way it works is pretty interesting. In the blog, Google explained that it realized two things, both backed by research:
When students actively engage with information in various formats, they build a more robust and complete mental model of the material.
Personalization is increasingly becoming an aspirational standard in K-12 educational setting.
So, Google decided to combine both personalization and active engagement into a single learning experience. The Learn Your Way experiment begins by personalizing the content a student wants to learn based on a few parameters, and then re-levels the content accordingly (while maintaining its overall scope).
It then generates multiple representations of the same material and personalizes it to ensure it meets the student’s learning needs, much of it similar to NotebookLM’s approach.
The experiment lets you personalize your learning
Based on your grade level and interests
Given that Learn Your Way is currently an experiment Google is working on, there’s a waitlist you’ll need to join to access the tool’s fully personalized version and actually be able to upload your own PDFs. Unless you’re taken off the waitlist, you can’t upload any of your sources to the Learn Your Way experiment and are limited to the topics and materials Google provides within the tool (provided by OpenStax, a provider of free educational textbooks).
The content is grouped into subjects like Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, and more, and when you select a category, all the relevant topics appear, and you can pick the concept you’d like to learn. I’m a Computer Science major, so I decided to pick the Computer Science category.
Only one topic is currently available, Intro to Data Structures and Algorithms, so that’s what I decided to pick. I haven’t taken this course yet, but I have a general idea of what it covers, so it felt like the perfect topic to test the experiment with.
When you click on a topic, you’re first asked, “What personalization do you want to learn?” and you’re then given two options to choose your interest. I noticed these vary based on the notebook. For instance, for the topic I chose, the two options I got were: Middle schooler who likes food and High schooler who likes basketball.
Though I’m not in high school anymore, I decided to go with the latter (despite not being a big basketball fan), since it felt like the tool would tailor the explanations to that grade level, and the middle school option would likely be far too simplified.
Learn Your Way offers four learning features
NotebookLM favorites, reimagined
Within seconds of selecting your desired personalization option, you’ll be redirected to the actual learning interface. Here, you’ll notice four primary tabs: Immersive Text, Slides & Narration, Audio Lesson, and Mind Map.
Immersive Text
The Immersive Text feature breaks the material you want to study into “digestible sections.” To make it easier to understand, the sections are broken down with relevant images and embedded questions. With Immersive Text, Google is trying to turn passive reading into an active learning experience.
Next to each paragraph, there’s a clickable question mark, and clicking it reveals a multiple-choice question. There’s also a short quiz at the end of each page, each with a different number of questions. Now, remember when I said I picked High schooler who likes basketball?
When I was reading through the Immersive Text pages, I noticed certain lines of text were underlined, and those were concepts from the content I was learning (i.e., Data Structures) connected to basketball examples! For example, to explain a List in computer science, the AI described it as:
For example, a list can represent the order of players in a substitution queue, where each player is the next person to enter the game in order.
With examples like these, I already know I won’t feel the need to memorize abstract concepts blindly. They make it easier to understand and remember how each concept actually works in context.
Slides & Narration
This is similar to NotebookLM’s Video Overviews feature and displays a presentation that covers the entire source material, feeling similar to a recorded lecture. For instance, the video included questions similar to how a professor might ask in class — like “What do you think of when you hear the term ‘Computer Science’?”
The video included a bunch of examples (many related to basketball), diagrams related to the content, highlighted key terms, and easy-to-understand narration. The slides even included a fill-in-the-gaps activity to test my understanding! I’ve generated a bunch of Video Overviews in NotebookLM, many to learn new concepts, and I don’t think any have been as impressive as this.
It was far more in-depth than any video I’ve generated before and actually felt like a full lesson I’d find on YouTube or Khan Academy. NotebookLM’s Video Overviews are often more like summaries, while Learn Your Way’s approach felt like a complete, interactive lesson with multiple ways to engage and reinforce the material.
Audio Lesson
Another super interesting feature is Audio Lesson, which seems inspired by NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews. However, instead of a male and female host discussing your sources in a podcast-like format, in an Audio Lesson, an AI-powered teacher and a student discuss the content you’re learning. The goal is to simulate how a real learner would engage with the material, covering different questions you might have and addressing common misconceptions.
While it’s called Audio Lesson, it also includes visual aids, which I found very helpful. For instance, when the AI-powered teacher discussed how computers handle data, a Concept Map was also displayed to visually break down relationships and the flow of information. Different Concept Maps appeared throughout the Audio Lesson, and this too felt like attending another class — complete with structured explanations, examples, and visual reinforcement that made the material easier to understand.
Mind Maps
Finally, the last feature the Learn Your Way experiment offers is one of my favorite NotebookLM features: Mind Maps. In the experiment, this works much like it does in NotebookLM, organizing material hierarchically in a branching diagram. You can expand nodes and subnodes by clicking the arrow next to them.
This feature is particularly helpful for complex topics, as it allows you to see the “big picture” while drilling down into specifics, just like mapping out your own notes. In NotebookLM, clicking a node or subnode instantly generates a summary of the content within that branch.
Unfortunately, this experiment doesn’t currently have that functionality, so you can view the structure and details but can’t generate quick summaries directly from the Mind Map.
You can’t interact with the material yet
No way to ask questions for now
If you want to view the original source you’re studying, all you need to do is hit the PDF button at the top-left corner of the interface. There’s currently no way to interact with the material or ask questions if you have any, so it seems like this particular experience is targeted at more self-guided learners who want structured, ready-made lessons rather than a back-and-forth study session where you can ask the AI questions in real time.
However, who knows? The tool is still early in its development, and Google could add more interactive features over time. Even in its current form, it’s already impressive in how it organizes, personalizes, and presents educational content.
Learn Your Way might just be Google’s most impressive Labs project
Google’s Learn Your Way experiment is truly impressive. While I do wish it let you pick how you’d like to personalize your content yourself (by letting you pick your grade level and interests) instead of needing to select from two options, the tool already does a lot right. It brings together all my favorite NotebookLM features and seems to do it a lot more seamlessly and cohesively. While I’m yet to get off the waitlist and try it with my own study material, the available lessons are enough to give a clear sense of how effective and engaging the tool can be.