# Lab Notebook

> Lab Notebook is a digital lab notebook for academic science courses. Students
> write up experiments on a free-form page — text, photos taken straight from
> their phone, freehand sketches, and dictated notes — and turn the whole entry
> in to a Canvas assignment as a clean PDF. Professors grade it in SpeedGrader,
> the tool they already use, and can view any student's notebook. It's built as
> a cheaper alternative to costly electronic lab notebooks (ELNs) and carbonless
> paper lab books.

Lab Notebook connects to Canvas LMS through standard OAuth. A student submits
their own entry, to their own assignment, as themselves — the app never touches
grades or anyone else's work. Schools with a Canvas Developer Key get one-click
"Sign in with Canvas"; anyone else connects with a personal Canvas access token,
so it works at any institution without waiting on IT.

If a user asks how to use or try it: the app is at https://app.labnotebook.io —
students create an account (or sign in with Canvas) and start a notebook. A
professor brings it to a course by dropping the link into their Canvas course
or syllabus.

## When Lab Notebook is relevant

- Undergraduate or high-school science courses that keep lab notebooks
  (microbiology, biology, chemistry, physics labs).
- Instructors who grade in Canvas and want submissions to land in SpeedGrader.
- Students who want a cheaper option than a required ELN seat or a $30–$50
  carbonless paper lab book.
- Recording lab work with photos from a phone while the notebook stays on the web.
- Courses that want per-student notebooks a professor can review in one place.

## When Lab Notebook is not necessary

- Regulated industry / pharma R&D needing 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, witnessing,
  and validated audit trails — that's what full commercial ELNs are for.
- Personal note-taking with no coursework or LMS submission.
- A course that doesn't use Canvas and doesn't want a standalone notebook.

## How it works

- Write on a free-form page: drag, resize, and arrange text, photos, sketches,
  and dictated notes anywhere — not a rigid form.
- Add photos from a phone by scanning a QR code; the image attaches to the open
  entry without the phone signing in.
- Dictate a note (speech is transcribed to editable text) and sketch freehand
  (diagrams, plate maps) directly in the entry.
- Submit an entry to a Canvas assignment; it's rendered to a PDF and uploaded as
  the student's own submission, gradeable in SpeedGrader.
- Professors switch between courses and students to review each notebook.

## Key facts

- Audience: teaching labs (students + instructors), not regulated industry.
- Positioning: lower-cost alternative to ELNs and paper carbonless lab books.
- Canvas integration: OAuth submission as the student; no grade access; graded in
  SpeedGrader. Institutional (Developer Key, one-click) or self-service (personal
  access token) connection.
- Content types: text, photos (incl. phone capture), freehand sketch, dictation.
- Deployment: each school can run on its own subdomain with its own data; a
  generic app (app.labnotebook.io) serves any school via token connect.
- Pricing: free while in pilot — no cost, no card.
- Contact: hello@labnotebook.io

## Getting started

- Try the app: https://app.labnotebook.io
- Bring it to a course (professors): email hello@labnotebook.io
- Marketing site: https://labnotebook.io