Peer Review

Can positive psychology overcome human realities?

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Overview:: This webquest assignment that focuses on positive psychology. The website for the webquest brings the user through a six step process focused on the question “Can positive psychology overcome human realities?” The goal of the webquest is give the user/student practice finding sources online, making an argument with supporting evidence, defending a position, and constructively debating different perspectives on the same topic. This assignment can be used in a variety of disciplines and even as practice for a debate team.
Type of Material:: Online Course Module Assignment- webquest
Recommended Uses:: • Supplementary learning material for a psychology, history, or sociology course • In-class or homework assignment • Peer review assignment • Step-by-step guide in training/practice for debate team This is a good introduction to webquests.
Technical Requirements:: Website opens in Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: 1. Locate appropriate sources on the internet 2. Use reliable sources as evidence to defend your position on a topic 3. Defend a position 4. Constructively debate a position 5. Locate opposing sources
Target Student Population:: Appropriate populations including upper level high school students and college students.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Users should be familiar with basic internet navigation and research.

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Strengths:: • Information is mostly clear and concise • Embedded hyperlinks throughout the webquest provide supplementary material and information. This material ranges from information on how to properly complete tasks to content material, making it both practical and relevant.
Concerns:: • A few areas are slightly confusing. For instance, the Task page begins with “Which ever path you chose”. Perhaps an additional step telling the user to make the choice first will make this less confusing. • It is unclear why the assignment is to find 10 supporting documents for one position and only 5 for the opposing position. Isn’t this unbalanced? The site requires that students find a partner. Of course, the teacher may also assign partners.

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Strengths:: • This assignment has the potential to be used in a variety of disciplines and even in a debate team. • The rubric and clear instructions to users/students makes this assignment well-suited for measurement.
Concerns:: • While the tasks seem simple and straightforward, a note on the webquest indicates it would take 10 hours to complete. This may be prohibitive for some classes. • Learning objectives are hinted at on the teacher page but not stated explicitly. In the example, there is an extra step: students must post and respond to a class discussion board. This assumes that such a board exists.

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Strengths:: • Easy to navigate and appealing.
Concerns:: Teachers may need to go into greater detail about the mechanics and may wish to revise the rubrics so that students are given full credit if they complete the assigned task. The rubric suggested requires that students do MORE than required to receive full credit.

Other Issues and Comments:: The task requires the students to find 10 web sites to support their view and 5 web sites to oppose their view, but if they successfully do this they do NOT receive full credit according to the rubric. They have to find MORE than 10 sites for support and MORE than 5 sites for rebuttal. Students may be frustrated by this. They need to know this ahead of time.
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