Being new to webquests, I found this site very helpful to give me some background. Posting it here in case others are interested.
After reading it, I began to realize that a webquest is not unlike any other rich project one would do in class, it’s just enhanced with information from the internet. So, I’d think any time one is looking to evaluate a webquest, we can apply the same fundamental criteria we use for any educational tool:
Goal-oriented: Is it designed to meet the educational objective?
Appropriate - Does the language and content fit the audience / age level?
Communicates Clearly – This comprises 2 areas:
1. It’s visually clear and uncluttered. The design helps one focus on key things, in their proper order
2. Its user experience is easy to follow (page organization and site navigation is intuitive and makes sense for the audience)
Added value internet research – Doing the project online is preferred to offline research. That it, it’s not online research for the sake of using the internet, the internet provides an added-value component to the research
As a side note, while a webquest is meant online viewing, if many of these had been printed out on a standard classroom printer, it would have been nearly impossible to read. Many have color backgrounds that would kill a pricey color ink cartridge. Others seem to use color tones which are too close to each other, making any printout difficult to read. I’d think webquests with a printer-friendly option would be very helpful.
Examples of good webquests, with some commentary:
Rocks and Minerals
• • Content is all there: tasks broken up into meaningful parts, students each have separate rolls, language is age-appropriate and clear, navigations and site is well-organized and clear.
• But, looks a bit drab due to color choice and lack of imagery. However, the colors are not distracting so it’s still a good webquest.
• Student evaluation rubric is very clearly outlined.
Creepy Crawly Bugs
• Here, the webquest content is excellent. However, the site organization really distracts from the project.
• Color choice is a shocking yellow which makes the bug images visually pop. However, as mentioned above, it may be hard to print this site since it’s one long page. While anchor links help navigate users, one’s eye is all over the place. Students could focus more on the task at hand if the authors had put each section on its own page.
• Student evaluation rubric is not included, which is a minus.
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I couldn't access any of your links. I think that you might have kept the http on the front when you linked it, adding the http twice (if that makes sense). This is what comes up as the URL when I go to open one of the sites up: http://http//questgarden.com/99/93/0/100401135343/task.htm.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you provide great insight, and I agree with everything you said (and made many similar points in my blog). I like the idea of having some printable information on WebQuests, especially printable material for teachers to use.
Good ideas!
Stacey - thank you so much for your help! I will check it now and fix it!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your perspective. I never thought about the layout being suitable to printing. That is interesting as you might need to adapt the quest or students may want to print a page for their reference as they gfo about their tasks.
ReplyDeleteGood points Mary! I definitely found QuestGarden to be useful in deciding on layout. For students, it would definitely take modeling to teach them about the links on the sides, but after that it would be more student friendly. One long page takes can be so overwhelming for me to look at, let alone students.
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