1. Linda R. Desnoyers Assistant Professor Hudson Valley Community College
WebQuests
Linda R. Desnoyers
Assistant Professor
Hudson Valley Community College

2. WebQuest Presentation Goals
Define the WebQuest concept and explain how it fits into the realm of educational practice.
Describe how cooperative learning, “real life” scenarios, and integrationing it into a course can be part of a WebQuest.
Describe the critical components and assignments for a WebQuest project and how to interlace them into your course.
Discuss various WebQuest topics and create a template for your own WebQuest.

3. As Educator’s we may…
Reflect on what has been successful and what has seemed lacking
Try to think of new ways to introduce topics.
Wonder how to get students to engage in higher-level thinking and
Want to develop authentic learning products that share with the real world

4. Hx and Definition of WebQuests
Developed early 1995 by Bernie Dodge and Tom March
The WebQuest Page at
According to Bernie Dodge, a WebQuest is a project where a real life scenario or task is developed and integrated into investigating a problem. Some if not all of the resources that a student will use for the WebQuest are found on the Web. The students work together in a cooperative learning environment and divide the components of the WebQuest to help solve the problem that is posed. They then come together in the end to finalize the project.

5. So Why WebQuest? Students go beyond fact-finding.
It focuses on using information constructively rather than just having the students look for it
The problem is “real world” – needs a genuine and reasonable solution
It asks students to analyze a variety of resources which you choose. Students use resources such as URLs on the internet, authors of text , publications and experts who are often quite accessible
Once they access the resources available it asks them use their creativity and critical-thinking to derive solutions to a problem.

6. What do WebQuests do for…
Student Motivation and Authenticity
Developing thinking skills
Cooperative learning
Process and Access

7. Student Motivation and Authenticity
WebQuests use strategies to increase motivation
A central question is used that needs answering
Directly relevant to the course or curriculum and combined with real life scenarios
Students are given real resources to work with rather than dated textbooks.
They can directly access experts, search databases, gather and exchange information within a group.

8. Developing thinking skills
Built into WebQuest process is the strategies of cognitive psychology and constructivism.
The questions posed to student cannot be answered simply by collecting and spitting back information.
The WebQuest forces students to transform information into something else.
Helping or guiding the students to come up with their own answers by breaking down the task into meaningful “chunks”.
Some call it scaffolding, prompting, redefining, procedural facilitation this has been shown to facilitate more advance thinking.

9. According to Dodge… Three types of scaffolding are in a WebQuest:
Reception – allows us to put students in touch of resources that they might not have seen before.
Transformation – WebQuests ask students to transform what they read into something new.
Production – WebQuests commonly require students to create things they never created before.
My Example: echoprotocol2.ppt

10. Cooperative learning According to Johnson and Johnson (2000)
Positive interdependance: Learners perceive that they cannot succeed without each other.
Promotive interaction: (preferably face-to-face): Students help teach and applaud each other as they wrestle with authentic work.

11. Cooperative learning
Individual and group accountability: The group is held accountable for completing the task, and each individual is held accountable for his or her part in the process.
Group processing: Conversation about how to improve the group’s effectiveness is deliberately built into the process.

12. Cooperative learning
Students take on roles in small groups. Each student has input. This tends to promote motivation.
The learners “divide and conquer” to master all aspects of the topic and project.
The students develop expertise in one area and bring to their peers a contribution for the complete picture.
The students at the later stage of the project gain the overall understanding of the topic.

13. Process and Access
It is important to clearly integrate the WebQuest to previous and subsequent activities so that the WebQuest is not an isolated experience disconnected from the rest of the course or curriculum.
It also helps students to begin to use the Web for learning.
WebQuests direct a more responsible use of the internet.

14. Long versus Short WebQuests
Short Term WebQuests
Good for introducing new information and making sense of it.
Can be completed in one to three class periods.
Long Term WebQuests
Good for extending and refining knowledge. Good for bring students to a higher order of thinking. A learner would have analyzed a body of knowledge deeply, transformed it in some way, and demonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to, on-line or off.
Can be completed between one week or a whole semester.

15. Critical Components of WebQuests
Introduction
Task
Resources
Process
Guidance
Evaluation
Conclusion

16. Introduction
“Sets the stage” –orientates the learner to what is coming.

17. Task
It’s all about what we ask the students to do with the information.
It is a description of what the learner will have done at the end of the exercise .This is a product that they will produce.
WebQuest Taskonomy:

18. Task Examples
A position to be formulated and defended such as an ethical dilemma
A product that you would like your students to designed
A complexity to be analyzed
Personal insight to be articulated
A summary to be created, persuasive message or journalistic account to be crafted
A problem or mystery to be solved
Anything that requires the learners to process and transform the information

19. Resources What the students are to consider to accomplish the tasks
Documents, experts available via , searchable databases on the net, video conferences, books and other documents physically available in the learner’s setting.
If you use Blackboard or your Faculty Web Site, you need to provide active links.
The URLs for the links should also be given so that students could use a paper copy to complete the WebQuest

20. Process and Guidance
The steps the learner should go through in accomplishing the task.
Timelines, writing requirements, bibliography requirements, concept maps, cause-and-effect diagrams etc.
Break it down into clearly described steps
There should be some guidance on how to organize the information acquired.
You can give them some strategies for dividing the task into subtasks, descriptions of roles to be played or perspectives to be taken by each learner.
You can use this space to give learning advice or interpersonal process advice. (How to brainstorm)

21. Evaluation and Conclusion
We need to be able to measure results.
You should use a rubrics . Students usually ask if there is going to be common grade or individual grades.
A conclusion which will bring closure to the quest. The final word. It usually summarizes the experience, reminds the learners about what they’ve learned, and perhaps encourages them to extend the experience to other domains.

22. Summary - Design Steps  
Become familiar with resources online in the content area you plan to use. Master a Search Engine!
Organize the resources into categories (e.g. databases, reference material, and people.) Don’t lose what you find!
Describe the steps the learners should go through. A lot of detail and care should go into this. This will also allow you to see how the lesson flows. Create a problem or scenario and place it within the introduction, write the WebQuest with the student as the intended audience. Prepare and hook the reader.
     

23. Summary - Design Steps
Describe clearly what the end result of the learners’ activities will be. Take your learners to task!
Create a grading system, how will the learners performance be evaluated. Be specific if it will be a common grade vs. individual grades.
Sum it up for them!

24. Feedback from the Class of 2002
The following video was made using a structural feedback technique. This feedback given by two students who were willing to share their ideas and answer question about the two WebQuest projects they were involved in.
This help me to work on some problem areas within the WebQuest project to make the project better for subsequent classes.
Click here…….denoyer.avi

25. WebQuest Examples http://webquest.sdsu.edu/matrix.html

26. Additional Resources http://www.iste.org/LL/archive.cfm
Volume 28 ( ) May No. 8
Volume 26 ( ) April No. 7

27. Your Assignment
Develop a draft of an idea that you would use as a WebQuest
Create document using all components to a WebQuest. Use the template provided as a guide. Roughly sketch in the elements. It doesn't have to be a completed project.
I will hand you out a rubrics. “Are You or Aren’t You a WebQuest?”
Please feel free to contact me if you want me to look at your WebQuest.
or ext. 7706

28. Bibliography
Dodge, B (2001). The webquest page. Retrieved March 4, 2001, from San Diego State University Web site:
Dodge, B. (1999). WebQuest taskonomy: a taxonomy of tasks. Retrieved March 4, 2001, from San Diego State University Web site:
Dodge, B. (1997) Building blocks of a webquest. Retrieved January 20, 2002, from

29. Bibliography
March, T. (2000). WebQuests for learning: Why webquests?, an introduction. Retrieved March 14, 2001, from ozline.com Web site:
March, T. (2000). Working the web for education: WebQuests 101 tips on choosing and assessing webquests. Retrieved January 31, 2002, from MultiMedia Schools Web site:
Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, R.T. (2001) An Overview of Cooperative learning [Online]. Retrieved January 15, 2003 Available:
Schrock, K. (2000). Kathy schrock’s guide for educators. Retrieved November 15, 2001 from Discovery School Web site:
Yodder, M (1999). The student webquest - A productive and thought-provoking use of the internet. Retrieved January 15, 2003, from International Society for Technology in Education Web site: