# Turn your study notes into a course > What you can bring, what happens to it, and what to expect from a course built on notes you already have. https://learnfold.app/use-cases/study-notes-to-course/ ยท Updated 2026-10-31 You have the notes already. A page from Tuesday's lecture that made sense when you wrote it, a Markdown file of bullet points, the slides your lecturer posted as a PDF. What you don't have is a way back into them. Learnfold takes that material and plans a course from it. You approve the plan, then read short lessons that build on what you brought, and you can edit any page yourself. ## What you can bring A course in Learnfold can start from any of these. - Notes or plain text - Markdown - A PDF - A photo - A web link - A topic or question, if you have nothing else For lecture notes, the simplest route is usually the one closest to how you took them. Typed notes go in as text or Markdown. Slides or a handout usually come as a PDF, which our guide on [turning a PDF into a course](/guides/turn-a-pdf-into-a-course/) covers in detail. A handwritten page can go in as a photo. If the lecture pointed you to an article, see [learning from a link](/guides/learn-from-a-link/). A question on its own is enough to start. Notes give the course something concrete to build from, which is the point when you're studying one module and not a subject in general. ## Why notes are worth turning into lessons Lecture notes are written fast, for someone who was in the room. A week later, "see diagram, ask re: entropy" means very little. A course built from them fills the gaps in full sentences, and lets you ask about the parts you only half caught. ## What happens after you add it ### You see a plan first Learnfold proposes a course plan based on what you gave it. Nothing is written until you approve it. This is your chance to check that the plan covers the parts of your notes you care about. If it doesn't, don't approve it. Start again with cleaner notes or a more specific question. ### Lessons arrive section by section After you approve, lessons are written section by section, so you can start reading while the rest is still being written. Lessons are short pages, with interactive pictures where a picture explains something better than a paragraph. ### You can question the material On any page you can ask about the whole page in your own words. You can also select a passage and ask Why, How, or for an example. Discussions are saved and can be reopened. Some answers stay in the chat, and some become pages of their own. More on that in [an AI tutor you can interrupt](/use-cases/ai-tutor-you-can-question/). ### You can check yourself A page can end with an optional check, which might be multiple choice, a written answer or a guided discussion. You get feedback on what you got right, wrong answers can become a conversation, and practice pages help you revisit lessons after missed answers. ## Edit it until it reads like you Your notes had your wording in them. A course built from them will have the AI's wording, at least at first. You can change that. Edit any page yourself. Fix a sentence, add the example your lecturer used, cut the paragraph you'll never need. Or ask the AI to rewrite a section. A course is made of pages, subpages and folders, so one course per module, with a page per lecture, is easy to keep tidy. Every lesson also ends with "Where next?", with options to go deeper, go sideways, zoom out or type your own question. That's useful when your notes cover something in one line and you need a whole page on it. Picking one writes a new page linked to the lesson it came from. ## What to expect Two things are worth knowing before exam season. First, Learnfold uses AI to write the explanations. The course starts from your notes, but the AI writes the sentences, and AI makes mistakes. When accuracy matters, compare the lesson with your notes or the textbook. Our guide on [studying a textbook chapter with AI](/guides/study-a-textbook-chapter-with-ai/) covers how to do that. Second, the course can only be as good as the material. A clear PDF or a page of full sentences gives the plan a lot to work with. A blurry photo or a half page of shorthand gives it much less. If the result looks thin, the notes are the first place to look. If you're weighing Learnfold against a tool built mainly for asking questions of your documents, [Learnfold vs NotebookLM](/compare/learnfold-vs-notebooklm/) goes through where each one fits. ## Before you upload anything sensitive With each of the three ways to run the AI, your notes leave your phone when a course is written. - **Learnfold Cloud**, Learnfold's own AI service, sends your prompts and sources to Learnfold's cloud service and an AI model provider. The [privacy policy](https://learnfold.app/privacy) has the details. - **Codex** sends your material to OpenAI or the compatible service you connect. Check that provider's terms. - **Hermes** runs on your own computer or server, and sends your material to whichever model it runs. Check that model provider's terms too. If your notes include anything you wouldn't put in an email to a stranger, such as patient details from a placement, take it out first. ## When a course is the wrong shape If you need a word-for-word summary that only restates your notes, a course will frustrate you. Learnfold writes its own explanations, and Go deeper or Go sideways can take you past what your notes cover. If you want to understand material you've been handed, and keep asking about it until you do, it fits. ## Quick answers **Can I turn my lecture notes into a course?** Yes. Learnfold can start a course from notes or text, Markdown, a PDF or a photo. You see a course plan and approve it before anything is written, then lessons are written section by section. **What kinds of files and sources can Learnfold use?** You can start a course from a topic or question, a web link, a PDF, notes or text, Markdown, or a photo. **Can I edit the lessons made from my notes?** Yes. You can edit any page yourself or ask the AI to rewrite a section. Courses are made of pages, subpages and folders. **Are my uploaded notes private?** It depends on the AI you choose. Learnfold Cloud sends your prompts and sources to Learnfold's cloud service and an AI model provider, as described at learnfold.app/privacy. Codex sends your material to OpenAI or the compatible service you connect, and Hermes sends it to whichever model it runs, so check that provider's terms.