Strengths and Weaknesses of Webquests

To truly evaluate webquests I think I need to look at them from the perspective of both a student and a teacher, however, the strengths and weaknesses for each perspective do tend to overlap. 

As a student I think the greatest strength of a webquest is that if created well it is more interesting and motivating than other class activities.  Because of webquests multifaceted nature they also gives students with different learning styles a chance to showcase their particular talents.  As a student webquests also make research easier because their is less to "wade" though when you have previewed and pre-linked websites available.  Strengths from a teacher's perspective is the amount of engagement on behalf of many students. I guess most people would call it active learning.  I think this is invaluable. 

I perceive the weakness to be the same for students and teachers.  Being side-tracked by something like advertisements or videos on the website seems to be inevitable for some students.  As a teacher who has given webquests to students working in groups of 2-3, I have found that students can incorrectly divvy up the workload or waste lots of time hanging out.  The final weakness from a teaching perspective is the amount of time it takes to create a meaningful webquest and grade the final product.  I made one for my US History class concerning the Causes of the Civil War. I was hoping to impress my visiting principal, which I did, but at the cost of a lot time grading the new project. 

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