10 Tips for Creating Awesome Webquests

1. Use your state's Common Core Standards as a basis for setting student objectives within your Webquest. 
2. Create some kind of narrative or adventure that students must follow as they work through your Webquest.  This makes it more fun for everyone. 
3. Don't use too many links to the same source.  It will get monotonous for students if they spend too much time on the same site. 
4. Make sure your tasks are varied.  For example, if your first task requires them to read a lot, then the second task should involve watching a video clip.  Try to include as many different kinds of tasks and activities as possible. 
5.  Use Blooms Taxonomy as a reference when creating your Webquest.  The beginning of the Quest should be simple and straightforward.  As students progress, the tasks should involve more thinking, synthesizing, and creating.  
6. Make sure you let students know how much time they will need to complete the Webquest.  
7. Include lots of images, charts, graphs, etc. on your Webquest.  It will make it more fun and interesting for students. 
8. Use clear navigational directions for students.  Even though you've been to the sites in your Webquest many times, your students have not.  
9. If you plan to use the Webquest you created again, go through it and check the links to make sure they all work and that websites haven't changed. 
10. Include the answers to your questions at the end of your Webquest along with a credits and references page.  Webquests are great for substitute teachers when you can't be in class.  It helps them out a lot if they have the answers.  Also, it's just good practice to give credit to your sources.  

Five Thoughts on Why You Should Use Webquests:

1. Increasingly tech savvy students find them interesting because they can be done entirely on the computer.
2.  Teachers can use them to appeal to students with multiple intelligences. Students working on a webquests will encounter images, video, music, written and spoken language, and more. I'm sure teachers could also incorporate kinesthetic activities using interactive games and other applications.
3.  Webquests are perfect if you've become ill and need a substitute to take over for the day. 
4.  Webquests are perfect if students want an opportunity to earn extra credit. 
5.  Webquests are simply a lot of fun.

Below is an example of a Webquest I created for my Technology & Teaching class this semester: 

Literary devices webquest pdf from Bensama