| Introduction
WebQuests are the most popular form of web-based lesson because of their simple yet adaptable structure. Teachers can easily create them by filling in templates provided on the webquest.org portal and elsewhere. Ideally, WebQuests are designed to foster inquiry in which students do not just collect existing information or resources from the Web, but use those resources to solve problems or develop new theories or products.
Unfortunately, the ease of creating WebQuests does not guarantee consistently high-quality products. Although extremely compelling inquiry-based tasks can be found, many more examples exist that do not require higher-order thinking at all, and in fact that primarily involve mere regurgitation of already existing information. This WebQuest facilitates examination of the question, “What features or qualities makes a WebQuest effective, in terms of whether it fosters inquiry and higher-order thinking as opposed to mere regurgitation?” To answer this question, we first need to ask “What is inquiry?”.
Task
Your task is to develop a working definition of inquiry and use it to construct a rubric for evaluating existing WebQuests in terms of whether they contain no inquiry, contain some qualities of inquiry, or exemplify inquiry.
Evaluate 10 WebQuests using the rubric.
Revise the rubric based on what you’ve seen.
Then, use the rubric as a guide to the development of your own WebQuest Task that embodies the best qualities of the tasks you’ve seen.
Process
The process consists of six steps, as follows:
- Develop a working definition of inquiry that can be used to evaluate whether any given learning activity is based on inquiry. Examine the web sites listed in Resources under “About Inquiry.” Paying close attention to the criteria of good working definitions found in the Evaluation section, write a definition that successfully distinguishes inquiry from other types of learning activities.
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Develop a rubric for evaluating the inquiry quotient of existing WebQuests. Pay close attention to the web sites listed in the Resources section under “About Rubrics.” Your working definition may provide enough criteria for the rubric, or it may not. You may need to add additional features of inquiry in order to have a suitable rubric. The goal is to be able to differentiate among WebQuests using the rubric.
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Use your rubric to evaluate the IQ (inquiry quotient) of 10 existing WebQuests found in the Resources section under “Lists of Existing WebQuests.” You should select WebQuests that address the same subject area—preferably a subject area you are familiar with and have taught or will teach. For each WebQuest, rate each criterion on your rubric, and compute a final score, or “Inquiry Quotient.” Then rank-order the WebQuests from highest Inquiry Quotient to lowest.
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Revise your rubric in light of what you’ve seen in the best WebQuests you’ve evaluated, and in light of what you learned about your rubric by following the procedure described in the Evaluation section. If necessary, revise your ranking.
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Develop a new WebQuest task that embodies the highest possible Inquiry Quotient. Choose a topic and grade level that you will actually teach soon, either the same as the WebQuests you’ve already evaluated or a new topic.
- Create a complete WebQuest built around the task you developed in step 5. The technical steps necessary for this process are explained in Hands-On Lesson 2, found on the companion web site at curriculumwebs.com.
Resources
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MENU
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About Inquiry
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- An Inquiry Primer
- CIBL Center for Inquiry-Based Learning, exercises and teacher training
- CIBL What Is Inquiry
- defineinquiry - Google Search
- Definition of Inquiry
- Engines of Inquiry
- Exploratorium Connect Inquiry Learning
- Exploratorium Institute for Inquiry
- Inquiry Materials and Resources
- Inquiry Matters-Incorporating inquiry into elementary and middle-school physical science
- Inquiry-based Learning and the Web An epaper
- Inquiry-based Learning Explanation
- Inquiry-Based Learning
- Inquiry
- NSTA - View Position Statement
- Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning
- Project, Problem, and Inquiry-Based Learning
- Resource Learning Science Through Inquiry
- Student Inquiry in the Research Process
- Table of Contents - Engines of Inquiry
- Teaching Science through Inquiry. ERIC-CSMEE Digest.
- The Inquiry Learning Forum
- The Keys to Inquiry Introduction
- The Process of Scientific Inquiry
- Web Inquiry Projects - Welcome Page
- WISE - Web-based Inquiry Science Environment
- YouthLearn Learning
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- Lists of WebQuests
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- Best WebQuests . com
- Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - WebQuests
- The WebQuest Page at San Diego State University
- WebQuest Portal
- WebQuests at TechTrekers
- WebQuests
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About Rubrics
- Automating Authentic Assessment With Rubrics
- Chicago Public Schools Performance Assessment Ideas and Rubrics
- Creating Rubrics
- Creating Rubrics
- ETE Teacher Pages
- Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - Assessment Rubrics
- RubiStar Home
- Rubric Machine
- Rubric Evaluation
- Rubric, Rubrics, Teacher Rubric Makers
- Rubrics 4 Teachers
- Rubrics for Assessment
- Rubrics for Web Lessons
- Rubrics resources
- Rubrics, Assessment Rubrics - Create rubrics with easy to use software.
- Rubrics
- Teacher Created Rubrics for Assessment - Online Professional Development for K-12 Teachers - University of Wisconsin - Stout
- The Rubric Bank
- Using Rubrics in Middle School
- What is a Rubric
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Evaluation
As you complete the IQ WebQuest, you will produce four products: a working definition of inquiry, a (revised) rubric for evaluating the Inquiry Quotient of existing WebQuests, an evaluation and ranking of 10 existing WebQuests using your rubric, and a task for a new WebQuest.
Evaluating the Working Definition of Inquiry.
Good working definitions:
- Say what kind or type of thing it is as well as what distinguishes the particular thing from others of its kind or type. (For example, to define computer, you would need to say that it is an electronic device—the type of thing it is—but also that it is programmable—because that distinguishes it from other electronic devices.)
- Are concise. Good definitions define the term using as few words as possible.
- Are clear. Good definitions make sense, and do not confuse the reader.
- Are complete. Good definitions encompass multiple meanings of words and do not leave out meanings that are found in common usage.
- Are distinct. Good definitions show how a particular word is different from other similar words.
- Can be used to determine whether the word applies to a variety of situations. This is what makes a definition a “working” definition; that is, the definition can “do work” in the real world. In our case, we want the definition to work to distinguish inquiry from other forms of learning activities.
Now, using these criteria, evaluate your working definition of inquiry:
Does your definition say what kind or type of thing inquiry is?
Does your definition say how inquiry differs from other things of its kind or type?
Is your definition concise? Is it as short as you can make it without becoming unclear?
Is your definition clear? Does it make sense to others? Ask a few people to be sure.
Is your definition complete? Does it encompass multiple meanings of the word inquiry? (One way to test this is to examine 10 examples of the appearance of the word inquiry on the Web, and see if your definition encompasses them all.)
Does your definition distinguish inquiry from other similar words such as research, investigation, inquest, question, examination, scrutiny, exploration, review, or study? (It could be that some of these are real synonyms for inquiry, and that they cannot be distinguished.)
If your working definition meets all of these criteria, then it is a candidate for a good working definition.
The next step is to see if it can distinguish inquiry from other learning activities. Does your definition provide criteria for distinguishing the following activities from inquiry?
- Fact-finding, such as finding specific answers to close-ended questions
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Responding only to questions raised by the teacher and not to one’s own questions or the questions of other students
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Activities that are solely of “academic” interest, without any correlation to activities undertaken in the real world, or connection to student interests
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Activities that are constrained to just one discipline or subject area
- Activities that can be completed in minutes
- Activities that can be assessed using simple check-off sheets or whether the answer is “right” or “wrong”
- Selecting examples of a thing or type of thing
- Creating artistic works that meet certain criteria
- Presenting information or concepts created by others
- Communicating information to others
- Mimicking the activities of others or creating similar products
- Giving opinions that do not contain carefully selected evidence
- Comparing two scenarios or situations without creating general principles that can be applied to new situations
- Accepting information or opinions without careful examination of the reasons that a particular person or organization would have that point of view
- Using technologies without paying attention to whether they are appropriate to the task
Evaluating the IQ Rubric. To evaluate your rubric, ask yourself the following questions. Does the rubric relate to whether the WebQuest is centered on inquiry, rather than some other criterion? The rubric should not address aspects of WebQuests that are extraneous to the question of whether they involve inquiry. Does the rubric include developmental levels that allow for a comparison of different WebQuests? Does the highest level actually describe the ideal WebQuests, containing the highest level of inquiry, even if no existing WebQuests reach that level? Are the distinctions among various levels in any given criteria clear and easy to apply? Are multiple people applying the same rubric likely to come up with the same score? Can the rubric be understood by teachers and other developers of WebQuests? Can it be explained without using jargon or concepts that are even more complicated than inquiry? Is the rubric too time-consuming to be useful? Can a WebQuest be scored in a fairly reasonable amount of time—certainly less than 20 minutes? Are there redundancies or omissions that need to be corrected before the rubric is used? Do the ratings that result from the rubric correspond with intuitive or alternative means of evaluating the Inquiry Quotient of a WebQuest?
Evaluating the Evaluation of Existing WebQuests. Once you have rank-ordered the 10 WebQuests, it is time to compare the results of using your rubric to another measure of each WebQuest’s use of inquiry as a learning activity. It is up to you what alternative measure you will use. One option is to ask a few of your colleagues to rank-order the WebQuests according to their own criteria of whether they involve inquiry. Another option is to have a classroom full of students rank the WebQuests. A third is to compare your ranking to the rankings produced by the rubric created by another student in your class. A fourth is to find an existing rubric that evaluates inquiry and compare the results of that rubric to your own. If there are discrepancies between the ranking produced by the other measure and by your rubric, you will either want to revise your rubric or conclude that the other measure is not as good as your own (or both).
Evaluating the Inquiry Quotient of Your Task for a New WebQuest. The best tool for evaluating the Inquiry Quotient of the Task you created in the final step of the Process for this WebQuest is the rubric you created in step 2 and revised in step 4. Use this rubric to evaluate your task. Is it at the highest level? If so, you have been successful.
Conclusion
In this WebQuest, you explored the concept of inquiry and worked to develop a way of evaluating whether WebQuests embody inquiry or other forms of learning. Have you gained a greater understanding of the challenge of incorporating inquiry into your curriculum planning? Or, have you become so confused about inquiry and its use as an instructional method that you are about to give up on it? Either way, we hope you have also gained a good familiarity with the structure and functioning of WebQuests so that you are now about to consider creating one of your own.
Give us some FEEDBACK on this webquest.
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