JWIT 2005
What are WebQuests?

"WebQuests are as much about good teaching
as they are about technology...
it's important not to get distracted
and to remember why we're here.
It's all about teaching."

~ Bernie Dodge (Learning & Leading with Technology, March 2003)

See WebQuests created in JWIT 2003.

WebQuests were originally developed by Bernie Dodge and Tom March of San Diego State University as an easily-adaptable lesson format for structuring student learning around inquiry. Dodge and March have tirelessly refined the format to make it easy for teachers to create and implement WebQuests, and have helped spread the concept through a variety of approaches, including conducting workshops and building an online library of existing WebQuests, templates, and other resources. Due to their influence—and the ease of creating and using them—WebQuests are the most popular approach to building web-based lessons.

While WebQuests can be designed as either short-term or long-term activities—that is, as units of instruction ranging from one class session to a curriculum unit covering many weeks—most WebQuests are created on the short-term model, with activities designed to be completed in one to three class periods. The length of time it takes learners to complete a WebQuest depends on the complexity of the task and the process necessary to complete it. Long-term WebQuests—which are hard to find—require more elaborate web sites than short-term ones that can be contained within one web page.

WebQuests are organized around a question, issue, case, or problem that requires students to use web resources to complete an inquiry or investigation involving higher-order thinking. A well-designed WebQuest guides students to make comparisons, evaluations, or syntheses of existing information, resulting in new theories, creative solutions, or custom-designed products. See

All WebQuests embody a similar structure, or set of elements, which makes it easy to use templates in the construction of new WebQuests. A variety of templates exist that allow teachers or other novices the option of basically "filling in a form" to create a WebQuest. Some of these templates and a huge array of additional resources about WebQuests can be accessed at http://webquest.org.

The basic elements of a WebQuest are:

• Introduction (a statement that sets up the problem, putting it in context, and often including an essential question)
• Task (a statement of what is to be done to complete the WebQuest)
• Process (a detailed step-by-step guide to completing the WebQuest)
• Evaluation (an explicit statement of how any products resulting from the WebQuest will be judged, often in the form of a rubric or rubrics)
• Resources (the links to web-based resources, and citations to print-based resources that will be used by the learners to complete the WebQuest)
• Conclusion (a statement that ties the WebQuest together, perhaps leading to additional questions or encouraging learners to continue to increase their understanding of the subject-matter)
• Teaching Guide (information for teachers about the purposes and structure of the WebQuest)