WebQuest: have you ever heard of it?

Have you ever heard of a WebQuest? For me, it has been totally a brand new concept before I explored it these days. I think a majority of teachers in China have never heard of it, so I am motivated to write this blog to introduce the WebQuest to all language teachers globally. I bet you will discover a whole new world after learning more about it.

(Click here to go to the website)

📑 What is a WebQuest?

A WebQuest can be considered as a lesson model where all the learning materials are selected by the teachers from the web. To be specific, creating a WebQuest is like creating a lesson plan in the form of a webpage, on which you present the designed lesson introduction, the task description, the detailed procedures for finishing the task, and the evaluation criteria for the task outcomes. Therefore, there is a standard set of parts of a WebQuest: introduction, task, process, evaluation, and teacher page. Since a WebQuest is created by a teacher based on his/hers own teaching plan, there may be additional parts added to their own WebQuest. Here is a video of an interview with Dr. Bernie Dodge who is the creator of the WebQuest model. He explained why he wanted to create this lesson model and how he made it.

Here is the link (http://webquest.org/search) Dr. Bernie Dodge mentioned in the interview where people can find more WebQuest examples to learn from. You can also click here to go to the website.

💖A great example of the WebQuest

Dr. Bernie Dodge introduced the WebQuest about the Berlin Wall as a good example to give the audience a taste of what a good WebQuest could look like. Now, I can't wait to introduce one WebQuest that I consider a terrific example, for it has many features which can differentiate it from other similar WebQuests. 

Name: Oh, the Possibilities!: Choosing an English Language Course Abroad (Click here to go to the website.)

Grade: 9-12; College/Adult

Creator: Kerry Ann McKevitt

Description: This WebQuest has been designed for EFL students. It offers students the chance to plan a trip to an English-speaking country where they will study English for three weeks. Students need to come up with a detailed trip plan and present the plan to the whole class afterward to convince others to vote for their chosen destination.

💎 Evaluation of this great WebQuest example

• Great color scheme

I have read many WebQuests these days, and most of them use really bright colors, such as pink, blue, and brown with high saturation. In my personal opinion, I think these kinds of high saturation colors put people under strong pressure. When students read these pages, their eyes will be exposed to a large area of high saturation colors, which will seriously stimulate the retina, making people produce visual fatigue. Of course, bright colors are perfect choices to catch people's attention, but I think lesson materials should put more emphasis on how to make people enjoy the class and generate the will to read more and learn more. 

Oh, the Possibilities!

Oh, the Possibilities! chooses grey as the background color of the Webquest, which makes students feel at ease and less stressed. Additionally, the main body of the texts chooses to use yellow, which makes students focus on reading useful information without being bothered by other elements.

• Detailed activity procedures

This WebQuest gives very detailed procedures for finishing the task, including transportation, accommodation, activities, and financial issues. Importantly, the teacher does not simply tell the students what to do. She encourages the student to think thoroughly about various aspects of the trip plan in the form of raising questions. Students have to work hard to solve these problems. After they figure out all the answers to the questions, they can develop a full understanding of how to plan a trip.

• Improving autonomy

For each part of the plan, the teacher gives many websites for the students to search for useful information instead of asking students to make a decision based on one single website. In this process, autonomy in learning is promoted. Students have to distinguish among these websites to find out which one is of the most significance to them, for different groups may have different destinations. Since all the websites are pre-selected by the teachers, every website must contain useful information, but students need to figure out which one matters most to themselves.

📚Evaluation of the WebQuest model in language learning 

• Task-based language learning

All the materials in a WebQuest are from the web, which means that they are authentic and students are using authentic information to cope with actual problems. Moreover, the evaluation part of a WebQuest is based on the outcomes after students gather enough information and finish discussing. Students are also required to report their outcomes to the whole class. Therefore, it is a perfect learning model of TBLT which focuses on task solving and reporting. This is one of the best ways to activate learners’ motivation to learn the language for practical usage.

• Constructivism learning theory

Constructivism learning theory believes that learners learn by dealing with external information and rebuilding their previous knowledge and understanding actively. It supports that people do not accept knowledge passively. The WebQuest model is based on the same theory. Dr. Bernie Dodge wants to use this tool to force the students to get in touch with external information and organize what they have read from the outside world into something meaningful to meet their own needs. Teachers using WebQuest preselect useful web pages from the web, give students enough freedom to explore the world themselves, and hold an open mind to the different outcomes from the students. They believe students will develop their higher-level thinking skills while using a foreign language, which makes the best of both worlds.

• Social interactionist approach

Since all the tasks in WebQuests are assigned to a whole team instead of one person, students have to work together to finish the final report. Some tasks in WebQuests may ask the students to make a foreign pen pal through specific websites to learn more about other cultures and countries. In this way, social interaction between people is promoted. Additionally, students will use many resources in the WebQuest to collect information to finish the task, so they have to read many authentic English websites to gain useful information. In this process, the interaction between the students and the outer society is stimulated. Overall, students learn this language during the process of having more interaction with others and observation.

👭Using the WebQuest model in language teaching

This is a great model for university students. For one thing, teaching students how to cooperate in a team matters significantly, especially for university students who are ready to get into society for work. The WebQuest forces students to take responsibility for different parts of a task. Since all the tasks in WebQuests are challenging enough for their target students with so much information from the web, every member has to be responsible for their own parts. It is impossible for one person to finish all the work. Additionally, all the information has to be gathered to finish the final report, which needs to be presented to the whole class and accept comments from the public. It also helps the students to develop some public speaking skills, which also matters for university students. 

In terms of how the new technology and authentic tasks can motivate the students to read authentic English texts and solve English problems, we all know where it may lead to. University students are always full of curiosity and passion to try anything new and engaging. In China, almost all the students get tired of the changeless textbook structures and themes. They want to get rid of grammar and just enjoy the language. WebQuests give them this opportunity to use language for real purposes.

💢Limitations

• Time-consuming and energy-consuming for teachers

I think the major limitation of using WebQuest in language teaching is that teachers have to make great efforts to make one😂. It is both time-consuming and energy-consuming. Teachers may have to spend more than one week to create one WebQuest, for the teachers have to think of an engaging task, the specific procedures of finishing the task which should be easy for the students to follow without any guidance from the teachers, the evaluation standards, and most importantly select useful information from the web! As you know, sometimes there may be more than one hundred students participating in one English class in the university, so it requires the teacher to give more possibility when organizing the web materials, which allows the students to have more options and generate various learning outcomes.

• High-level requirement of using the internet skillfully for the students

There may be some students who have not been accustomed to using computers for information searching. It requires some practice, but this issue could be dealt with easily since students are working as a team rather than individually.

• High-level requirement of English reading skills for the students

Since WebQuests are using authentic English materials, it may be difficult for some students with poor English reading ability. Therefore, teachers have to try to control the difficulty of the authentic information to meet most of the students' English abilities. Otherwise,  teachers can set different levels of difficulty when arranging the procedures of the task. In this way, students who are good at English can take responsibility for the difficult part of the task while the others can have different assigning tasks based on their English levels. 

Here is another website called QuestGarden where you can find many WebQuest examples. Click here to go to the website or copy the URL:  http://questgarden.com/author/examplestop.php and paste it into your browser.