WebQuests

WebQuests are an excellent educational tool to use in the classroom. WebQuests give students the opportunity to learn through exploration and problem solving.  They incorporate different learning styles into the lesson and allow students to learn the material more effectively.  However, there are many poorly made WebQuests that teachers must be aware of and try to avoid.  If a WebQuest is too complicated for the students' skill level, or is not navigable, the learning experience can be equally as poor as the WebQuest itself. Click here to see more information on WebQuests.

These are my thoughts on WebQuests as posted on our EDLF 345 class blog. Personally, I have not really had experience with WebQuests. However, I think they can be a great learning tool for teachers to use in the classroom because they provide students with the opportunity to work together in groups to solve a problem or answer questions. They give students freedom to do some exploring on their own and allow students to form their own opinions and conclusions on the topics addressed in the WebQuest. I think that students would be more likely to retain information they learned through the WebQuest as opposed to reading it out of a book or being lectured on it because the students are actively participating in their learning through the WebQuest. They are finding information themselves, and then thinking about it and transforming it. I think WebQuests fit into the Universal Design for Learning because they give students different options for learning. Students are given a number of resources to look at and use and so students can use the forms that they are most comfortable with. For example, if a student is not good at understanding charts, he could look at a different type of source such as a newspaper article or essay. If a student has trouble reading, he could choose to use the video conference. Students who have trouble seeing could implement devices on the computer to help them, such as enlargening the font. Although there are certain instances where I think some students could be at a disadvantage in using WebQuests, as long as the resources are varied enough, I think WebQuests generally do fit into Universal Design for Learning. When creating a WebQuest, designers must remember to give students a clear purpose and clear, straightforward directions on what they are supposed to do. Students must also be given a definite set of resources to use and these resources must included varied types of data and information. Without this, students would be lost on the web without a sense of direction. They would take a lot longer than necessary to complete the assignment and they probably would miss the point of the assignment altogheter. Designers must also remember to make sure the information collected in the WebQuest ties into the curriculum and that students complete the WebQuest with an understanding of what it is they have just done.   The following is an evaluation of WebQuests I looked at. Of the three WebQuests that I evaluated, I thought the best one was "Adaptations Adventure!" by Claire Higgins, Laura Mase, and Erin McCracken, which can be found at http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webquests/adaptations/ I thought this WebQuest was especially good because it allowed students to be creative, to analyze, and to draw conclusions based on information they found through the WebQuest. The point of the WebQuest was not just for students to find facts and spit them back out. Instead, the purpose was to apply information they learned to new things. I think this is an important factor that distinguishes good WebQuests from bad ones. Students will learn and remember more when they have to use and interpret the information they gain, rather than just memorize it. I also thought this WebQuest was good because it gave descriptions of what could be found at the various links before a student clicked on the link so that they became less confusing. The links that I clicked on were all working and appeared to be composed of age appropriate material. The WebQuest also included interactive games which I thought was a good idea to help students learn. The website itself was very plain and could be somewhat confusing for students to navigate, but overall, I thought it got the job done and was not difficult to read. The WebQuest's tasks were fairly simple and not too time demanding either and they required both individual and group work. I did not think any of the WebQuests I viewed were examples of bad WebQuests. I looked at one called "Art Gallery Exhibition" and another called "Take Me On Vacation." Although neither were bad, they did have some problems. The first did not have a good layout on the website and several of the links were no longer working. The second had links that might be difficult for students to use. In addition, both did not really allow students to use the information they found through the WebQuest well. Back to Top

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