WebQuest - A new way of self-learning

In this Internet era, all students can get access to all sorts of information easily. It leads teachers to think about how to make use of this channel to help students learn. That's how all sorts of self-learning research and projects that students have to do begin. Yet for most of the time, students will just directly copy what they found on the Internet. So at the end of the day, they cannot learn anything and have no awareness about the importance of intellectual property. WebQuest can solve this problem yet serving the purpose of having students to think critically and synthesis their own arguments.

So what is WebQuest?

WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most of or all of the information that learners work with come from the web. Rather than simply presenting establish facts, a WebQuest starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios, in which students have to identify and research issues and questions to develop their knowledge or solutions. Most of the time, teachers will provide some useful links in a WebQuest to assist students with their research.

Basic structure of WebQuest

Why WebQuest?

• Extend students' thinking to a higher level as they have to analysis (the problem given and the information online), synthesis (different data from the web and their own arguments) and evaluate (if the information they found are useful to solve the given scenario).
• Support critical thinking and problem-solving through authentic assessment, cooperative learning, scaffolding and technology integration
• Establish a coherent unit of activity
• Encourage independent thinking as students cannot directly copy from any online resources
• Foster cooperative learning and establish a harmonious learning atmosphere
• Cater for individual learning differences as students can choose the websites that suit their level of understanding
• Encourage accountability of the results as students know the marking criteria for the tasks
• Enhance transferrable skills 
• Bridge the gap between school and "real world" experience

Point to note:

• More suitable for self-learning, fostering students' prior knowledge and lesson preparation
• Students need good reading skills as they will have to understand the problem(s) and task(s) listed in WebQuest

How to build your WebQuest?

Want your own WebQuest right now to bring students all the benefits? Here is a quick guide of building your WebQuest in QuestGarden, which is a website with built-in WebQuest model to help teachers to create their own WebQuest. You can sign up for a free 30-day free trial to build and edit your unit of activity. After the trial period, your WebQuest will still be there, but you can't edit your work anymore.

Sources

J., Dixon. (2009, February 21). Inquiry Based Learning - Webquest [Digital image]. Retrieved February 4, 2016, from http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/images/thumb/4/4c/Webquest_etec_510.jpg/400px-Webquest_etec_510.jpg 

(n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebQuest