Review on WebQuest

WebQuest-A Computer Based Learning Tool

On education and training around the world, Information and communication technologies have a major impact. All over the world E-learning is increasingly incorporated day by day into different educational programs.

One of the relatively recent e-learning tools is WebQuest. The concept and the term was created by Dodge in 1995 (in Ezell et al., 2003).

According to Dodge it is ‘’an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the web. Wubquests are designed to use learners’ time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners’ thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.”

WebQuest can be created at different educational levels for different subject areas. It is a technological tool which is becomimg popular day by day in the academic world.

In 2001 dodge devised a set of general guiding principles for creating a well-developed webQuest. These principles can be explained by the following acronym:

·         Find great sites

·         Orchestrate learners and resources

·         Challenge learners to think

·         Use the medium

·         Scaffold high expectations

Dodge believes that by following the five principles, through previous peoples experience new creators can improve their knowledge and practice. He developed a five-step process that will help to design a WebQuest (Dodge 2002). These five steps are to:

(a) Select a topic appropriate for WebQuest;

(b) Select a topic that suit for the topic;

(c) Describe how students will be evaluated;

(d) Design the process by finding specific resources which could be explained further; and

(e) Modify and improve the WebQuest.  

These principles and steps need to be followed while creating a WebQuest. The objective is to process the knowledge about a specific topic o field. Students can get new information and complete the task by attending several steps. After finishing the task they have to “transformed it in some way, and demonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to on-line or off-line” (dodge, 1995).

If we consider Dodge’s definition (1995), a WebQuest should contain these 6 essential parts:

1.      Introduction:  the introduction section provides background information. It also provides motivational scenarios like “ suppose you are an astronaut, planning for a space trip to find out a new planet”. This part also provides the overview of learning goal. The goal of the introductory part is make the students interested to the topic, to make it fun and desirable. Projects should relate to the students interests, past experience, or future goal. Then the project becomes inherently interesting. A successful introduction can keep the students engage throughout the work-from beginning to the end.

2.      Task: The task is the formal description what students need to do. Firstly, the teacher will search resources online for a particular topic, arrange them. Then he will devise some activities for the students. Students will be able to use the arranged information. The task should be exciting and doable. The tasks should be important and fun for the students. The teacher can give an example of a finished project to make the students understand what they are going to accomplish.

3.      Process: this is description part of the steps through which students should go to accomplish the work. Every step should be embedded with link. Teacher should provide example for every step.

4.      Resources: this section is a list of resources like book mark, website etc. previously, resources can be found in a separate section but now process part is embedded with resources so that they can be used while necessary. The important thing is non-web resources can also be given along with the online resources. These can include videos, audio cassettes, lectures, posters, models, sculptures etc.

5.      Evaluation: Each WebQuest needs a rubric to evaluate students’ work. The standards should be fair, consistent, clear and specific.

6.      Conclusion: this section allows the students to reflect and allows teachers to comment. In this section the teacher can also suggest other possible ways to complete the task.

In spite of having a lot of benefits WQ also have some limitations

·         It can take a considerable amount of class time when access is not possible from home

·         Students can get bored with the same content, reading, and writing

·         Students can be easily distracted by using the web.  

·         If the WQ is not properly created and if task are not relevant, it will be a total waste of students’ time.

WebQuest is a proper way where students can gather knowledge from unlimited source. It is an interesting way of free learning.