Webquest – a hunting we will go

[ElizabethECharl]

Please see below my submission for this activity. The link to this form would be sent to learners in an email prior to their scheduled research session with the Library. This would provide the Librarian with some insight as to the skills of the attendees and to get a baseline from which to work from with individual learners; thereby enabling the librarian to have a ‘flipped’ session when class meets F2F.
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1.      Title of activity: Webquest – a hunting we will go. [A practical exercise for learners to undertake a self-assessment prior to receiving training on research skills.]

2.      Intended learning outcome/s:

a) Get learners to undertake a practical exercise of identifying and selecting (a given number of resources) for academic use.

b) To reflect on what criteria used to make their selection.

3.      Activity description:

• a)Learners are given a choice of search topics and asked to select ONE
• b)They then have to select 3 items that they think would be of an acceptable academic quality/level.

[Kathrine Jensen]

This looks excellent. I was thinking that this could be used as preparation for a number of staff/student sessions, to get them thinking about the topic that they are going to engage with and also as you say provide the person running the session with information to embed in the session. In a way this uses elements from the flipped classroom approach as it asks learners to undertake some activity before face to face (or synchronous) session, which can then be addressed and embedded in the session to make it engaging and relevant/personalised.

[Kathrine Jensen]

Just had another thought in relation to this activity you designed as I was reading the 7c design approach by Grainne Conole, which is in the resources section. One of the 7c is collaborate and I wondered if there was anyway you could incorporate this (or an aspect of it) so that when students had done the activity, they would be able to see responses from the other students and possibly comment?

 

[virtualleader]

Excellent idea Elizabeth – this fits perfectly with the module I ma going to be teaching next year. I aim to steal it! (with credit of course!)

Referring to the Scale Up project and opportunities for collaborating – I think doing this in small teams, perhaps with different topics allocated to each – might be a good variation.

Jane

[ElizabethECharl]

Katheine,
Thank you for the feedback. I understand exactly what you mean and I was in two minds about how to allow for collaboration in that I want the individual input but was concerned that if they could see others responses they would be influenced by this and I wanted a true reading from the individual learner. Your suggestions of them being able to see this after their input is a good one. Perhaps a link to the responses spreadsheet after completion….
To allow for collaboration I could also at a set point during the session make available the feedback having anonymised it. In groups of 2/3 depending on the size of the class the groups would quickly review the links and criterias given for a particular topic, assigning points to each out of a maximum of 5. Each group would have only 5 points and would have to discuss and agree as to where each point was assigned. This could be made available on another Google Doc and or spreadsheet that would total up the points as assigned by each group…

[ElizabethECharl]

Jane –

Thank you – absolutely it could be used in that manner with just minor tweakings:

1) change of topics as agreed during the session; and

2) the name section retitled to team/group name that they come up with and enter during the  session.

[ElizabethECharl]

Kathrine – apologies for the typo.

[GraphDesProject]

Hi Elizabeth, I really like this activity and may also steal it!! But I just wondered if the time scale allowed would be long enough. I ask because I have struggled to fit an activity into the time suggested by ocTEL and in the end made my “activity” just part of a string of activities. I tried things out myself and they always took much longer than anticipated. I deliberately tried things I was not familair with. I think I have been guilty on many occasions of expecting my learners to go at too fast a pace. Just wondered if your time would allow them the chance to find things and then evaluate them. I think if I was setting this task I’d allow them to do it overnight, perhaps. Maybe my learners are slower!! PS: Wonder where ocTEL got the idea of 20 mins.

Sancha (@GraphDesProject)

[ElizabethECharl]

Hi Sancha – thanks for the feedback.  Yes the timing can sometimes be an issue and one alway seem to need more time than anticipated – I don’t think you learners are slower. If learners are undertaking the webquest on their own outside of the classroom I am sure they will probably exceed stipulated 20 mins. I would probably be more generous and give 30 mins so would tweak it accordingly or give 20 mins as a guideline.

[Jillian Pawlyn]

Hi Elizabeth,

I also like the activity and the approach. We used to do a similar activity in our undergraduate introduction to research module, however our students did this on site (50+) and many of them needed the full 20 minutes to devise their search terms and then prioritise them before they began the search.  Engaging students with the webquest in advance of your face to face session is a great idea.

Jillian

[ElizabethECharl]

Hi Jillian

It is good to know that this approach has been used successfully.

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