2.+Webquest+Creation+and+Examples

=**Webquest Creation **=

The construction of an effective webquest consists of multiple steps and areas to develop. This portion of the wikispace will focus on clarifying the necessary steps in creating a webquest that is both practical and effective.

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Step 1: Select a Topic
The first step in the webquest design process is selecting an appropriate topic. When deciding on a webquest topic, there are four requirements that should be met: 1. The topic should fit into the curriculum standards.

2. A webquest should be new to the students. “The WebQuest you design should replace something and improve upon it rather than being yet another add-on in an already crowded year” (http://webquest.sdsu.edu/project-selection.html)

3. The topic should use the internet in new, interesting, and productive ways. Print resources can also be used alongside online resources.

4. A successful webquest should require high order thinking from the students. “The WebQuest should require a degree of understanding that goes beyond mere comprehension” (http://webquest.sdsu.edu/project-selection.html)

//Selecting a WebQuest Project//, Retrieved January 27, 2010 from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/project-selection.html

Step 2: Design the Task
The next step in creating an effective webquest is to design the task that your students will be undertaking. The task should fit with your topic and will be attributed to one of five design patterns: design, decision, creative, analysis, and prediction.

"These five verbs: design, decide, create, analyze and predict, represent the highest levels of Bloom's taxonomy. Starting with those verbs guarantees that your WebQuest will be wrapped around a higher level thinking task" []

The WebQuest website provides a helpful chart that lists the different design patterns for WebQuests and provides examples for implementing each pattern. The linked page above is a useful tool for any teacher interested in creating their own webquest.

Step 3: Evaluation
Evaluation methods should be included in the webquest so students are aware of how they will be graded. When giving students the opportunity to explore the internet, observational assessment is necessary to make sure that students remain on task. The internet is full of distractions and your webquest's effectiveness will suffer if your students stray from their required websites.

Rubrics are useful for evaluating the students' webquest tasks, but they are also important for evaluating your own webquests, or others you have adapted into your class. The following website provides a rubric that can be used for evaluating the effectiveness of webquests, [] This rubric is a useful tool for evaluating your webquests and pinpointing the problematic areas.

Step 4: Process
The process of the webquest describes how students will go about completing their activity. The teacher must decide whether the activity will be group, pair, or individual based. Group work can provide numerous advantages such as cooperative learning and scaffolding. Some students may not be as proficient with the internet and placing them in a group allows them to work with another student who can cover the technological aspect. Arrangements should be made for students who are slower readers or writers, such as placing them with another student or an assistant who can act as a scribe or reader.

Designing the process also requires selecting a collection of online resources for the webquest. All websites included should relate well with the chosen topic. Some websites such as .org or .edu sites are generally seen as trustworthy and do not need to be evaluated, while other sites (ex: .com) should be evaluated by the teacher before inclusion. Difficulty of comprehension and technicality of websites should be checked for appropriateness for the grade level. Finally, the list of websites should be varied in their representation, do not focus solely on sites that offer text, also look for online visual and audio resources.

Step 5: Layout
The final step of your webquest construction is bringing it all together so that it is highly organized and aesthetically pleasing. Most webquests are organized into the following sections: introduction (provides an engaging look at what the students will be diving into), task, process, resources, evaluation, conclusion (summarizes what the students take away from the experience), and a teacher page which consists of notes about the webquest, evaluation, and curriculum outcomes that areonly viewable by the teacher. The process and resources sections are occasionally combined into one section.

[|Tuck Everlasting (Grade 4)] [|Ancient Egyptian Journey] [|Spiders] [|Ethics Quest: Copyright Laws] [|Greek WebQuest]

[|Web Quest Generator] - Great tool for creating a webquest worksheet

References:
//Selecting a WebQuest Project//, Retrieved January 27, 2010 from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/project-selection.html //The WebQuest Design Process//, Retrieved January 27, 2010 from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designsteps/index.html //WebQuest Design Patterns//, Retrieved January 27, 2010 from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm //A Rubric for Evaluating WebQuests,// Retrieved January 27, 2010 from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquestrubric.html