This document provides a template and instructions for creating a research notebook. It suggests including links to online learning activities, resources from databases and libraries, and drafting learning outcomes. The template includes sections for lessons, exercises, reflective questions, and wrap-up messages. Students are encouraged to complete online activities and record their work in the notebook. Instructors can share completed notebooks using hashtags to gather ideas from colleagues.

1. Research Notebook
Use this template and instructions to start drafting your own research notebook. Feel free to
change anything you need to--this notebook is yours!
If your institution uses video tutorials or other digital learning objects, you can link to those
activities inside the notebook. As students complete the online activities, they record and reflect
on the work they produce in this notebook.
You can also include online resources from other institutions! See the PRIMO database or
UCLA Library’s collection of online research tips for ideas and examples.
Instructions
First, make a copy of this file by clicking “file,” then “make a copy.” Make sure you’re logged into
your Google account. Now you can edit your copy.
Next, draft the learning outcomes you want to achieve with this assignment. If you plan to use
this notebook as a pre-assignment before a one-shot, for example, what outcomes do you want
the students to achieve before they come to class? Write your learning outcomes below.
(Tip: strong learning outcomes often follow this format: “By the end of this assignment, students
will be able to _________ in order to _________.”)
My learning outcomes:
1.
2.
3.
When you’re done, share your notebook with your colleagues with the hashtags #lilac17 and
#researchnotebook!

2. Student’s name:
Course and section number:
Lesson 1: Title
Briefly tell your students what they’ll be doing in this lesson and why.
Optional online tutorial title
A quick sentence or two on what this online module is about.
Exercise 1
What task do you want your students to complete in order to achieve your first learning
outcome? For example, if you want them to brainstorm search terms, you can have them fill
out a chart of broader terms, narrower terms, and synonyms (for an example, see Lesson 2 in
the sample research notebook).
Replace the text in this box with your exercise.
Exercise 1 continued
If your exercise has multiple parts, it’s a good idea to divide them up into their own boxes so
that students don’t miss any instructions.
Replace the text in this box with the second part of your exercise, if you have one.
You can add more boxes for longer exercises.
Reflective Question
This is your chance to encourage students to practice metacognition. You can ask them how
they feel about the work they’ve done so far or why they made the choices they did. You can
also prep them for the next lesson by asking them to describe their research goals. See the
sample research notebook for possible questions.
Replace the text in this box with your reflective question.
Wrap-up Message
You can write a short message here to wrap up the exercise.

3. Lesson 2:
Optional online tutorial title
A quick sentence or two on what this online module is about.
Exercise 1
Exercise 1 continued
Reflective Question
Wrap-up Message
Lesson 3:
Optional online tutorial title
A quick sentence or two on what this online module is about.
Exercise 1
Exercise 1 continued
Reflective Question
Wrap-up Message