week 10

web quest software is very helpful in guiding and setting up frameworks for the development of lesson plans. i feel it encapsulates the true "essence" of e-learning as it caters to primarily web-centric resources of information and does not require any prior knowledge of web authoring software which many websites require today.

the definition given in class describes web quest as " an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web"

a typical web quest is made up of:

an introduction stating the rationale/background for choosing a certain topic and includes newspaper articles or case studies

tasks which specifically state the required learning activities and may also include various tasks such as design, analysis, creative, decision and prediction tasks

resources which tell students where to find information about the topic (books, journals etc.)

process which explains how to attain the resources listed (go to the library, useful links etc.)

evaluation which provides a checklist (like the rubric's cube, for example) for assessing the students' effort

conclusion which summarises the main learning tasks and expected outcomes and may also consist of instructor led reflections either face to face or via forums or social networking sites

a teacher's page which acts as a helpful resource for educators to review the lesson plan and
states the purpose of the web quest, goals and objectives, its target audience and credits.

breaking down learning activities into such categories provides a useful step by step guideline for both educators and students to follow. web quests provide a form of scaffolding for students to follow and leads them to desired learning outcomes. web quests are especially useful for complex topics which require much effort on the part of students. breaking down the topic into the categories as mentioned above allows students to mentally strike off their required inputs one by one. it provides them with a "starting point" for their task and hence reduces the likelihood of them from being overwhelmed which could adversely affect their performance as a result.