DE Lesson Plan

Web 2.0 Lesson Plan Template

1. Title:  Zotero: Your Personal Research Assistant

2. Subject Area: College Research, Citation and Reference Management

3. Grade Level: College Students

4. Description of your target learners: Target learners are college students who are required to engage in some type of academic research.  These target learners should possess the following learner characteristics:

• basic understanding of digital literacy
• basic understanding of research
• ability to collaborate with others
• learn by doing

5. Prerequisite Knowledge: Students must have a basic knowledge of operating a computer, complete with the understanding of downloading applications.  Students must understand the basic concepts of research and citation formatting.


6. Learning Objectives:

The learning objectives for this DE project include:

•       After watching a series of video tutorials, college students will be able to set up their free Zotero account.
•        After watching a series of video tutorials, students will be able to download the appropriate version of Zotero with its connector. 
•       After forming groups using the designated Google Doc, students will be able to collaborate in Zotero to organize information on a given topic.
•       Using their Zotero account, each student will be able to successfully download metadata for three different items into their Zotero Group Library.
•       Using their Zotero account, each student will be able to add annotations and their initials as identifiers to their three sources.
•       Using their Zotero account, after all members of the group have saved three items into the group’s library, each student will be able to generate a bibliography in APA format by copying and pasting it into the specified Google Doc.

7. Curriculum and Technology Standards:

Because my lesson is geared towards college students, I used the ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. The following standards are addressed in my lesson:

• Learners who are developing their information literate abilities give credit to the original ideas of others through proper attribution and citation.
• Learners who are developing their information literate abilities organize information in meaningful ways.
• Learners who are developing their information literate abilities synthesize ideas gathered from multiple sources.
• Learners who are developing their information literate abilities cite the contributing work of others in their own information production.

I also considered the ACRL Standards for Libraries in Higher Eduation.  The following are addressed in my lesson:

3.  Educational Role: Libraries partner in the educational mission of the institution to develop and support information-literate learners who can discover, access, and use information effectively for academic success, research, and lifelong learning.

• 3.2 Library personnel collaborate with faculty to embed information literacy learning outcomes into curricula, courses, and assignments.
• 3.3 Library personnel model best pedagogical practices for classroom teaching, online tutorial design, and other educational practices.
• 3.4 Library personnel provide appropriate and timely instruction in a variety of contexts and employ multiple learning platforms and pedagogies.

8. Learning Activities (e.g., length of the lesson, concepts covered, learning procedure…)

The following learning activities must be completed in order.  The total time allowance for the learning activities is two hours.  Because this is a group project, I would allow the  students a week to complete the entire project.

1. Students will watch an introductory video on Zotero.
2. Students will watch a video that walks them through the Zotero registration process.  Then, students will register for their own account.
3. Students will watch a video that explains how to download the main Zotero application and its accompanying browser connector.  Then, students will download Zotero and the browser connector to their own computer.
4. Students will follow the written instructions to sync their Zotero library.
5. Students will sign-up for a research group using the provided Google Docs form.  Students will follow the written instructions to set up their Zotero group library.
6. Students will watch a video that provides them a screen cast of the steps necessary to add items to their group library and then annotate them. Then, students will be required to find three sources for their given topic.  These sources will be added to their Zotero group library and annotated. 
7. Students will watch a video that provides them a screen cast of the steps necessary to generate a bibliography.  Then, students will generate a bibliography from their Zotero group library, copy it, and then paste it in the appropriate Google Doc for peer feedback and instructor evaluation.

9. The Web 2.0 tools chosen to deliver the lesson (e.g., technology Integration): 

This lesson will be delivered using PowerPoint with recorded audio.  After converting this to an mp4 file, the presentation will be uploaded to YouTube for the students to view.  Google Docs will be used to split the students up into groups and to record email information.  Video tutorials made with Adobe Presenter Video Express will be used to create screencasts for the students.  These videos will be uploaded to YouTube for the students to view.

10. Assessment(s) used to measure learning outcomes through the lesson: 

Two rubrics will be used to assess the students.

• Assessment on items added to Zotero Group library
• Assessment on generated bibliography