Silter Andreea - Webquests - Great Tools to Facilitate Inquiry-Based Learning

Proiectul Internațional “Omul drag de la catedră”

Ediția a III-a 2018-2019

Concurs elevi. Simpozion Internațional dascăli

Inclus în CAERI, anexa 9 din OMEN nr. 3016/09.01.2019, poziția 1518

ISBN 978-606-725-262-0

Webquests - Great Tools to Facilitate Inquiry-Based Learning

Prof. Silter Andreea, Liceul Tehnologic Sf. Antim Ivireanul, București

This article aims to get teachers familiar with innovative teaching and learning tools, such as webquests and help them successfully integrate the Internet into teaching in order to enhance their students’ motivation and interest in learning.

For your information, a few years ago I completed a teacher training course focused on the methodology involved in Inquiry-based Learning for teaching English.

One of the training modules focused on integrating webquests into teaching. Webquests are great inquiry-based learning tools, which promote cooperative learning and help students develop their higher order thinking skills (comparing, classifying, inducing, deducing etc.) as well as their communication and research ones.

What is a webquest?

It is an inquiry-based learning activity that asks students to use the Internet  in a guided and meaningful manner in order to learn about a specific topic or to solve a problem. It involves group work and provides students with scenario/roles to play as well as detailed information on the steps learners should go through in accomplishing an authentic task.

Webquest structure

There are six basic sections of a webquest: introduction (which provides background information and a scenario/roles to play for students as well as learning goals), task(s) to accomplish, process (the steps learners should go through in accomplishing the tasks), resources (links/bookmarked websites) needed to complete the task, evaluation (a rubric for assessing students’ work) and conclusion (it encourages students to reflect on what they have just learnt).

Guidelines for creating webquests

Here are some guidelines that can help teachers create webquests:
- select the topic that fits into your curriculum
- decide on an appropriate task that addresses the higher-level thinking skills of Bloom's Taxonomy
- get familiar with the online resources related to that topic
- select only those resources that are appropriate for your students in terms of age and level of knowledge and skills
- use a template as it saves a lot of time or use the free WebQuest creation tool
- make sure you have presented the information in a logical order

Why use webquests?

Firstly, webquests increase students’ motivation and interest in learning as most tasks are designed to address real-world problems. Secondly, students have the opportunity to use updated resources (links/bookmarked websites) instead of dated textbooks and gain valuable research skills. Besides, webquests involve cooperative learning, requiring students to work collaboratively (in pairs/groups) and play certain roles in order to accomplish specific tasks. In addition, webquests can help teachers successfully integrate technology into teaching, providing students with the opportunity to develop their digital skills, too.
The best place to start when looking for examples of webquests is Bernie Dodge’s Matrix of Webquests.