Close Up on Design Tasks


Design tasks form the basis of some of the more interesting WebQuests. In a pure design task, students solve a problem while working within authentic constraints. This page takes a closer look at lessons built around such tasks.

A good place to begin is with the definition of design as given on the Taskonomy page.

Design Tasks

According to Webster, design is "a plan or protocol for carrying out or accomplishing something." A WebQuest design task requires learners to create a product or plan of action that accomplishes a pre-determined goal and works within specified constraints.

In the Design a Canadian Vacation lesson, students create an itinerary that meets the interests of a given family. In Future Quest, students research career possibilities and make recommendations for four simulated high school students. The Designing a Home WebQuest pulls students into choosing the best floor plan for a given site and guides them through the selection of materials to complete the home. In Adventure Trip Quest, students design a field trip to a natural disaster site.

The key element in a design task is to build in authentic constraints. Asking students to design an ideal X without also requiring them to work within a budget and within a body of legal and other restrictions doesn't really teach much. In fact, an uncontrained design task teaches an illusory "anything goes" attitude that doesn't map well onto the real world.

A well crafted design task:

  • describes a product that is genuinely needed somewhere by someone;
  • describes resource and other constraints that are not unlike those faced by real designers of such products;
  • leaves room for and encourages creativity within those constraints.

Taking a look at additional WebQuests designed around tasks, you can see that the products or events to be designed fall into several distinct categories.

Physical Things

Physical Spaces

Social Systems

Plans of Action

Communications

 

© Bernie Dodge, 2001. Last updated April 23, 2001.