8 Webquests with Lane Sunwall — 04.10.2015

In the Active Teaching Lab on April 10, 2015 Lane Sunwall shared how he uses Webquests to engage students. He discussed both well structured Webquests that students excelled at, and a less structured one that led to an excellent class discussion on sources.

Key Takeaways

• Model what you want: Create an example for students to model off of. Be sure it includes all the components, and is done to the level of quality that you expect. You may want to create a second “not up to par” one for comparison.
• Try it before you assign it: For the topics that you assign, do a preliminary check on what online sources exist. Do the top search engine returns cover the topic adequately? How will you steer them away from the shallowest coverage of the topic and toward deeper and more scholarly material? Be very clear about the assignment and your expectations.
• Structure: Use the first one as a “throwaway” that they fail at in order to set the stage for a discussion on finding good information. Perhaps, have them create both a “popular media” webquest as well as a “scholarly” view that digs below the top hits and uncovers what the popular media misses and gets wrong.

If you’re interested in learning more about getting up and running with Webquests, watch the videos below and try stepping through the Webquests worksheet we used in this session!

The Active Teaching Lab, a Faculty Engagement program, provides a safe space for structured explorations of cool teaching tools and techniques that your colleagues are using to engage students and teach more effectively. During the academic year, labs are held weekly and will be listed on the Active Teaching Lab page.

Lane’s Webquest Story