Students are provided with sources (usually online, such as web sites), or leads to tools that can help them complete the task. In order for this to be valuable, a teacher must thoroughly review each source.

• Using commercial sites. Commercial sites can be rich with information. These web sites are supported by network and cable television stations, newspaper and magazines, or other media soruces. Travelers’ information sites fall into this category. These sites can be interesting current, but the advertising can be very distracting to students and can often be inappropriate.

• Using noncommercial sites. Noncommercial sites are organized and run by nonprofit institutions such as museums, public school systems, and universities and vary greatly in quality but can provide valuable and advertisment–free information.

• Using individually run sites. Individual’s sites are web pages assembled by individuals; the Internet truly is a place where anything can be published. Many individuals post valuable and free resources such as public domain clip art, observations and anecdotes. There are many unreliable, inappropriate, and out-of-date sites, and many vanish as quickly as they appeared. Some sites have content to which school administrators and parents object due to good reasons. Teachers must explore each site as they intend to use in the WebQuest thoroughly and restrict students to only those sites for their projects. Teachers must also be aware that while any site can change without notice, individually run sites are most susceptible to this effect. Therefore checking Internet-based resources during an active WebQuest is advisable.

Our Sources

Halat, E. (2008). A good teaching technique: WebQuests. Clearing House, 81(3), 109-112. Retrieved from: EBSCO Academic Search Premiere

Kelly, R. (2000). Working with WebQuests: Making the web accessible to students with disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 32(6), 4-13.

March, T. (2000). WebQuests 101. Multimedia Schools, 7(5), 55. Retrieved from: EBSCO Academic Search Premiere

March, T. (2004). WebQuests: The fulcrum for systemic curriculum improvement. helping educators work the web.

March, Tom (2003/2004). The learning power of WebQuests article. Educational Leadership Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Yoder, M. (1999). The student web quest. International Society for Technology in Education

Zheng, R., Perez, J., Williamson, J., & Flygare, J. (2008). WebQuests as perceived by teachers: Implications for online teaching and learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 24(4), 295-304. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2007.00261.x.

Zheng, R., Stucky, B., McAlack, M., Menchana, M., & Stoddart, S. (2005). WebQuest learning as perceived by higher-education learners. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 49(4), 41-49. Retrieved from: EBSCO Academic Search Premiere