The Process

Step 1

Select Your Team and Topic

Choose your team members carefully, as it is important that all of your work well together and share responsibilities. Brainstorm possible research topics and define the basic subtopics. Next, write some possible research questions and do some research to answer these. Finally, you can get started with writing about your topic. Individually you will be required to write your outline, introduction, body and conclusion before getting started with the webpage design.

Step 2

Gather Information

Now that you've determined what kind of webpage you want to create, visit examples of other webpages which have the same content that you will be sharing. You can find a list of example sites checking out the �Thinkquest� library page.  While viewing these examples, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What kind of information are they presenting (homepage, information, images, etc.)?
2. How did they present the information (page layout)?
3. Does their webpage download quickly?
4. Can I navigate easily throughout their activity?
5. Does this site engage the visitor?
6. Is the content rich enough that I will want to return again?
7. Do all of the links work?
8. Have they included a contact resource person?
9. Does it tell when the page was last updated?
10. How could you improve this webpage?

Create a bookmark of resource sites that you want to incorporate into your webpage. Find sites that offer additional activities that will engage the visitor while using your webpage. Look for quizzes, puzzles, games, slide shows, and other additional resource links that you can add to your webpage.

Step 3

Select your Audience.

Your audience will have effect on the design and content of your project. If your target is high school students, your presentation will be different than if you were creating a page intended for children to use.

If your audience is elementary level students, shorter pages with few activities on each page will be more "kid friendly" rather than a long list of activities on one page. The older the student or audience is, the more diversified your web activity can be on one page.

Step 4

Create a Storyboard

As you begin designing your web page, remember that the top structure should be a menu format pointing to available resources. Include folders near the top of your structure so that new resources can be added at a later date. Create a storyboard of ideas that you want to use in your activity. It's helpful to write each concept or activity on a different piece of paper, then physically arrange them until you have the structure you want. Don�t forget that you must include all aspects asked for by the �Thinkquest� competition: home, subtopics, glossary, learn more � interact, team members, acknowledgments, copyrights.  

When naming your files, avoid using uppercase letters in the filename. Try to use short but descriptive names for each file that you are creating.

Step 5

Plan Your Navigational Tools

Plan how people will navigate within your activity. Every page should have a link to either the main menu page of the activity or a link to a special page. If your activity contains more than one file, you need to plan how visitors will advance to the next page or return to the previous page. If you are using a graphic as a navigational button, you should include a text alternative for navigating. Not all web browsers will recognize an image as a link to another file or webpage. Some people choose not to download any graphics when they are on the Internet. If you only had graphics for your navigational links, they would have a difficult time getting around within your activity. Within the description of the graphics or image tag, you should include a text alternative so that when images are not downloaded, a text description will appear.

Step 6

Create an Aesthetically Appealing Webpage

We have become a very visual society. Although content is more important than a "glitzy" page layout, your visual presentation plays an important role to the appeal of your lesson. Include the following items in your webpage:

1. Graphics
   • If your graphic is larger than a two inch square or a one by three inch rectangle, use a thumbnail image of the picture.
   • Reduce the color palette to the lowest possible pallette size to ensure quick download of your webpage.
   • Use the same graphics as often as possible. An image that is used repetitively, only has to be downloaded once. Using a large number of different images will slow the download time of your webpage. Visitors may decide not to visit your webpage if it takes a long time to download.
2. Add background color or a background image.
3. Vary your font color. Light backgrounds should have dark text and dark backgrounds should have light text. Be sure that your text is readable if you are using a background color or image. Be careful when choosing your colors. Not all computers see the same color hues.
4. Vary your font size. Use the font size tags to vary the body text and the header tags to vary the size of your headings and sub-headings.
5. Give credit to the graphic's artistof your images. Read the terms artists have given when using an image from their website. Many appreciate a link back to the website where you got the graphic, while others state that no link is necessary. Parenthetical citations for your images are a must!

Step 7

Oral Presentation

You and your team members will give a lesson on your chosen topic to your peers, using your personal webpage. You will have done enough research to be able to answer all their questions and the webpage should only serve you as a guideline during your presentation.

Step 8

Publishing

Finally, your webpage will be evaluated to see if it followed all instructions and is really appealing to others. If so, it should be published for the �Thinkquest� competition before the deadline following all your teacher�s instructions.

Give Credibility

Before creating an educational webpage, you should understand some basic copyright issues. What is fair use, the necessity of getting other people�s permission to publish their work, and crediting other people's work.

1. Research copyright laws and follow instructions on how to cite properly.
2. Get other person�s permission to use their work, images.
3. Credit other people�s work.
   • Citing Text Sources. As you begin to gather information that you want to use on your webpage, citing these Internet sites as resource links will lend credibility to your work. It will also prevent you from misusing other people's work.
   • Citing Graphic Sources. Often you will find sites that post graphics that you can use to make your webpage visually attractive. It is important that you give credit for those graphics that you are using. By citing where you found the images used on your webpage, you are helping the creator of those images spread the word about their resources that they have developed.