LAP Lambert Academic Publishing The Affordances of WebQuests: Perception of students at the Ethiopian Civil Service University

The role of web-based instructional tools in facilitating learning has been a topic of discussion and research for some time. However, there are quite a few research undertakings that consider the perception of students towards these tools. This study is aimed at bridging this gap investigating the perception of students towards the affordances of WebQuests in the context of ECSU. For this, first year first semester undergraduate students of the university were selected to participate in the study. The course and the participants of the study were selected based on purposive sampling technique. In the study, baseline data was collected and a WebQuest lesson was designed and introduced. Data was collected using questionnaire and interview and analysis was conducted using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the responses show that the participants found the WebQuest lesson effective and the majority of them rated its effectiveness medium and above. It is also found out that the participants rated the problems they faced low. From this it can be concluded that WebQuests have high affordances in the context of ECSU.