WebQuest Attributes

Critical Attributes| Non-Critical Attributes| Thinking Skills | Form of Quest| Motivation

Critical Attributes

WebQuests of either short or long duration are deliberately designed to make the best use of a learner's time. There is questionable educational benefit in having learners surfing the net without a clear task in mind, and most schools must ration student connect time severely. To achieve that efficiency and clarity of purpose, WebQuests should contain at least the following parts:

1. An introduction that sets the stage and provides some background information.
2. A task that is doable and interesting.
3. A set of information sources needed to complete the task. Many (though not necessarily all) of the resources are embedded in the WebQuest document itself as anchors pointing to information on the World Wide Web. Information sources might include web documents, experts available via e-mail or realtime conferencing, searchable databases on the net, and books and other documents physically available in the learner's setting. Because pointers to resources are included, the learner is not left to wander through webspace completely adrift.
4. A description of the process the learners should go through in accomplishing the task. The process should be broken out into clearly described steps.
5. Some guidance on how to organize the information acquired. This can take the form of guiding questions, or directions to complete organizational frameworks .
6. A conclusion that brings closure to the quest, reminds the learners about what they've learned, and perhaps encourages them to extend the experience into other domains.

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Some other non-critical attributes of a WebQuest include these:

• WebQuests are most likely to be group activities.
• WebQuests might be enhanced by wrapping motivational elements around the basic structure by giving the learners a role to play (e.g., scientist, detective, reporter), simulated personae to interact with via e-mail, and a scenario to work within (e.g., you've been asked by the Secretary General of the UN to brief him on what's happening in sub-Saharan Africa this week.)
• WebQuests can be designed within a single discipline or they can be interdisciplinary. Given that designing effective interdisciplinary instruction is more of a challenge than designing for a single content area, WebQuest creators should probably start with the latter until they are comfortable with the format.

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Thinking skills required

• comparing
• classifying
• inducing
• analyzing
• deducing

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Forms of a quest

• Searchable data base
• Interactive story
• Multimedia presentation
• Web publishing vehicle which takes a stand and invites users to add or disagree with that stand

The forms that a longer webquest might take are open to the imagination.

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Motivation for web publishing

Putting the results of their thinking process back out onto the internet serves three purposes:

• it focuses the learners on a tangible and hi-tech task.
• it gives them an audience to create for.
• it opens up the possibility of getting feedback from that distant audience via an embedded e-mail form.

(This workshop is based on concepts developed by Applications Design Team/Wired Learning for the Knowledge Network.)

Prepared by Carol Siwninski for Germantown Academy Staff Development Summer Workshop June23- June 24, 1997

Intro

Updated November, 2007

Send comments or questions to Carol Siwinski, Curricular Technology Specialist for Germantown Academy, at carol.siwinski@germnatownacademy.org