Integrating modified WebQuest activities for programming learning

Abstract

The study designed WebQuest activities and explored the learning performance of learners to understand the suitability of using WebQuest in a college programming course. The study modified the processes of WebQuest based on social constructivism and scaffolding learning, and included programming tasks such as debugging practice to encourage learners to develop their problem‐solving abilities. The WebQuest learning sheets include the following four parts, introduction, task, resources and evaluation, and the learners had to complete the tasks without the detailed processes. After they had tried to solve the problem for approximately two weeks, the detailed WebQuest processes were provided. A total of 109 learners (third year of college) participated in the study and were separated into two groups. The experimental group underwent WebQuest teaching, while the control group received the traditional IT‐integrated teaching. The study duration was 18 weeks (3 hr/week). The results indicated that the modified WebQuest activity gave learners scaffolding to do try‐and‐revise practice, and the processes of using provided possible information to test and debug the resulting codes encouraged them to associate and analyze learning information before programming and then to generalize the programming steps on their own instead of following the instructor's step‐by‐step instructions. The learners thus have a deep understanding of the programming concept rather than surface learning. The findings revealed that the modified WebQuest activity is a helpful form of scaffolding for promoting learners' positive learning experiences regarding organizing information and problem solving and reasoning skills. Besides, integrating debugging practice in the WebQuest activity could promote learners' intermediate and advance level programming ability. Subsequent research could further explore the effects of adding after‐practice WebQuest activities to assist and trigger learners' self‐reflection for refining their problem‐solving processes after the in‐class WebQuest activities.

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