Effectiveness of cooperative learning fostered by working with WebQuest

Abstract

This research is part of a broader project being carried out by Erain School (San Sebastian) since February-March, 2004. The project is centered on the educational use of digital video. It has been catalogued as an R&D&I Project by the Diputacion (provincial council) of Guipuzcoa and the Basque government who collaborated in financing it, together with the European Regional Development Fund. The objective for using the WebQuest was to introduce a tool that allowed self-regulated and cooperative work of students in making a scientific video. Our research question was the following one: Does the WebQuest foster self-regulated and cooperative work in the students of Secondary Education (16 years old) when making a scientific video? In order to answer this question, we present a project carried out with a group of students in their fourth year of Secondary School. These students had to produce a scientific video about the geography of Guipuzcoa (Spain) for their Geography course. In order to do so, and following strategies to undertake scientific work as designed by the instructor in a WebQuest, they carried out their research work and then prepared the video (http://www.erain.es/vde/produccion3.asp). Data collection was carried out through two surveys which were specifically designed to collect data about this context of cooperative learning. The conclusions of this paper are similar to research about cooperative learning with regard to cognitive and affective variables. Finally, we present some prospects for follow-on research about self-regulated and cooperative learning.