A Quest for Authentic Tasks

Posted on June 29, 2009

In response to the question ‘What percentage of the knowledge you need to do your job is stored in your own mind?’, knowledge workers in 1986 responded, 75%; in 1997, 15 to 20%; and in 2006, 8 to 10%. Source: Robert Kelley, Carnegie Mellon University. In today’s workplace, it’s common for individuals to work in teams where they generate and discuss ideas, come to agreement on issues of strategic importance and represent their organization through the production of high quality items. In the last few years, it has also become increasingly apparent that being effective in the workplace means being literate with online information, locating and accessing learning networks as well as harnessing the expertise of online communities. To ask our own question, how well we are preparing students to be successful in today’s workforce?

One way to foster relevant professional expertise is to involve students in authentic tasks. Authentic tasks are those which allow students to practice and be assessed on the application of real-life skills. Authentic tasks can take a number of different forms, but given the ubiquity of the Internet in the workplace and the need to foster effective teamwork online, the WebQuest is a particularly appealing approach to authentic tasks and assessment.

A WebQuest can be defined as “an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web”(Dodge 2007). For example, as part of the capstone project of an MBA in International Business, Mark Boccia developed a WebQuest where students investigated whether their international company had the potential to expand their business in the Middle East region of Jordan. The project built upon the students’ previous studies into the business models of their companies and was completed prior to an actual visit to Jordan. Students used the Web resources provided and conducted their own web-based research. A report was to due to ‘senior leadership’ on the best course of action.

Like the one above, a good WebQuest activates higher-level thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation and requires individuals to be creative. WebQuests scaffold this higher-level learning through providing resource links, compelling tasks or problems as well as templates for student products and guidance on cognitive and social skills (Dodge 1998). No less important is that students analyze and utilize the vast amounts of information and resources available on the web. A WebQuest is very much about moving beyond factual knowledge. When students work on WebQuests collaboratively, they are actively involved in developing the kind of expertise will make them valuable team members in solution driven environments.

Michael Cassens, Mary Engstrom and I ran a short course recently on the applications of WebQuests in online courses. Included here are some further resources from the session.  If you would like to learn more about the applications of WebQuests in your particular context, we would be happy to talk in person or write back here.

General Resources

Free Sites for Hosting WebQuests

Example WebQuests

Create/Search Rubrics

Evaluate your WebQuest

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