4.8: Learning Trees

Learning Tree assignments are adaptive assessments that faculty can construct as an alternative to traditional homework questions. The main goal of a Learning Tree assignment is to provide students an opportunity to test their understanding of the material and receive specific support materials when they need help. This section will provide an overview of the Learning Trees and show you how to construct Learning Tree assignments and create your own Learning Trees. 

Overview

Learning trees are questions that evaluate a student’s understanding of a topic with support materials. In general, a student interacts with a question; 

• if they answer it correctly, they can move on to the next. 
• if they get the question incorrect, the student is prompted to move into the learning tree, where they interact with support material and further concept checks. 

A learning tree has branches connected to a root question to provide meaningful support materials for students who need help with the material. Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) shows the general structure of a learning tree, and Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) gives a specific example of a tree used in a General Chemistry course. 

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): General structure of a learning tree.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Learning tree to support General Chemistry class at CSCU (planned for Spring 2022)

The tree has nodes connected to the root via different paths. Here is a general description of the types of nodes used in the learning trees: 

• Expositions: ADAPT pages that contain text, videos, or other linked material. There are two main types of expositions:
  • Strategy Maps: The map is a way to help guide the students through the learning tree and direct them toward the material they may need to review. In the map, there’s generally a description of the skills required for the root question and the individual branches of the tree.
  • Branch Expositions: The branch exposition should contain learning materials for the student that address the skills/concepts required to solve the root problem. The material can be text, videos, or other materials, and it is best to focus on one skill or a couple of skills to help students target their learning. 
• Assessments: These are questions in the tree. They can either be root questions or branch assessments. The question should assess the materials described in the branch exposition when using branch assessment. 

The goal of the learning tree is to provide support materials in each branch that address the potential gaps in students’ knowledge. When a student successfully completes a branch or branches, they earn another attempt at the root question.

When a student enters a learning tree, they must complete the exposition or assessment in the hierarchy before moving on. For example, a student must complete the strategy map in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) before accessing either branch assessment: this ensures that students engage with the material and do not click through to earn a resent. Expositions are competed by spending a certain amount of time on the exposition – a setting you control (discussed in the “Creating Learning Tree Assignments” below). Assessments are completed by correctly answering the question.

You can format trees using different structures, but the majority of the trees generated by the ADAPT team will follow the general format shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\).

Viewing Learning Trees

The ADAPT/LibreText team and other ADAPT users have created several learning trees for instructors to use in their courses. You can find learning trees by clicking the “Browse Learning Trees” (Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)) option in the Dashboard dropdown menu in the upper right corner of your ADAPT page.

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Browse Learning Trees link in the Dashboard dropdown menu. 

In the Browse Learning Tree page, the learning trees are listed according to their ID, and search options (Title and Author) are at the top of the page (Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\)). You can also copy a tree ID by clicking the copy button next to the tree’s ID. 

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Browse Learning Trees view with search options.

 The search options for learning trees include title and author. When searching, enter your criteria in the different options and click the “Update Results” button to refresh the learning tree list. You can view a learning tree by clicking the name, which brings up the learning tree overlay view (Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\)).

Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Learning Tree view with the parts of the tree and important navigation buttons. 

 While in the learning tree view, you can view the different assessments (outlined in blue) and expositions (outlined in cyenna) by clicking on the box: this brings up the question view overlay. You can close the question view overlay by clicking the “Exit Node” button in the upper right corner of the view. If you like aspects of the learning tree but want to change part of it, you can clone it to your learning tree question bank by selecting the clone option in the upper left corner next to the tree’s name, and there’s more information about editing learning trees later in this page. 

After viewing the tree, you can return to the browse page by clicking the “Exit Learning Tree” button in the upper right corner. 

Creating Learning Tree Assignments 

Learning Tree Assignments have several different features and properties than other assignment types (see the assignment types section). When creating a learning tree assignment:

1. Click the “New Assignment” button on your course home page.
2. Enter the appropriate information: name, description, modality, group, source, scoring type, and points or weight.
3. Select the “Learning Tree Assessment” assessment type. 
4. Identify the Minimum amount of time, in minutes, in an exposition – this applies to branch expositions and strategy maps.
5. Select whether you want to reset node assessment after an incorrect attempt. Resetting a node gives a new branch question if there are algorithmic options. 
6. Identify the number of successful paths for a reset.
7. Select the number of allowed attempts for the root question.
8. Identify the attempts penalty for each attempt after the first. 
9. Complete the remaining information. 
10. Save the assignment using the “Save” button. 

Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\): Learning tree assignment information

For help with steps 1, 2, and 9, see section the creating assignments section. Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\) shows the different options for learning tree assignments, and here are brief descriptions of the special assignment properties:

• Exposition time: students must complete a node in the hierarchy before accessing the next node. For expositions, the exposition time set the completion criteria. For example, setting the time to 2 minutes requires the students to view the expositions for at least two minutes before moving to the next node. 
• Successful Paths: each branch in the tree represents a path, and path completion requires completing all nodes in the branch. The successful paths option defines the number of paths a student must complete to receive a reset (re-attempt) for the root question. Please note, the number of paths cannot exceed the number of branches, but the system automatically adjusts. For example, if you select 3 successful paths, but a tree only has 2 branches, the number of successful paths becomes 2 for that question. 

If you know there’s a consistent format you will use for your learning tree assignments, you can always make a template (creating assignments section) and use it to fill the different properties automatically. 

Adding Questions to Learning Tree Assignments

Once you have your assignment created, you can add questions by:

1. Navigating to the assignment.
2. Clicking the “Add Questions” button.
3. Entering the learning tree ID in the box provided.
4. Click the “Get Learning Tree” button, which brings up the learning tree view.
5. Click the “Add Learning Tree” button to add the tree to your assignment.
6. If you want to add more trees, repeat steps 3-5.
7. To go back to the list of questions, click the “View Questions” icon. 

Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\) shows the information and options for steps 3 to 7. 

Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\): Adding Learning Tree to an assignment

View Learning Trees in Assignments

You can view the learning trees from the assignment questions page by clicking on one of the added trees, which takes you to the “question” view, where you will see the root question and other properties/options. In this view, you can adjust the tree points, try the root question, explore the learning tree, view question statistics and solutions, and navigate to the student view (see Figure \(\PageIndex{8}\)). 

Figure \(\PageIndex{8}\): Question view of a Learning Tree in an assignment. 

Learning Tree Editor - Creating and Editing Learning Trees

To create and edit learning trees, navigate to the My Learning dashboard by choosing the “My Learning Trees” option in the Dashboard dropdown menu. In the My Learning Trees dashboard, you can create a question by:

1. Clicking the “New Learning Tree” icon.
2. Enter the tree properties: name, descriptions, and public access. 
3. Hit save
4. This takes you to the learning tree editor.

To edit an existing learning tree, click on the tree name in your listed learning trees. Please note that you can only edit learning trees you have authored. If there’s a tree you like but can’t edit, you can clone it to your trees. 
Here’s a description of how to use the editor, but it’s best to watch the video to get a sense of how to adjust the location of nodes.

Adding a node:

You can add a node by either clicking the “New Node” button or entering the ADAPT ID and clicking the “Add Node” button (Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\)). Using the “New Node” option will create a new, blank ADAPT page that can be edited. Any added node will appear in the node list on the left, but the list is cleared when you add a node to a tree.

Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\): Adding nodes to the Learning Tree

Placing nodes into a tree

To place a node in the tree, drag it from the node to the tree area. The first node added will start the tree, and you can add nodes by dragging and connecting them to the appropriate location. When dragging a new node into the tree, the connection point is identified using a blue dot (see Figure \(\PageIndex{10}\)). 

Figure \(\PageIndex{10}\): Adding a node to a Learning Tree.

Moving Nodes

Mou can drag nodes to place them at different points of the tree. All nodes connect to a node below the selected node will move with the selected node (see Figure \(\PageIndex{11}\)).

Figure \(\PageIndex{11}\): Moving nodes/branches in a Learning Tree

Removing Nodes

You can remove a node by dragging it to an open space – where it’s no longer connected to another node. 

Editing Nodes

If you create a new node or want to adjust the name/information of a node, click on the node in the tree, which brings up the node view overlay Figure \(\PageIndex{12}\). In the node view, you can update the name and description of the node in the tree. If you want to edit the content of the node, you must edit the ADAPT page by clicking the “Edit Node Source” button. You can also update the ADAPT page ID using the ADAPT ID box if you already know the page you would like to add. Once you have edited the node source of updated the ADAPT ID, click "Refresh Node" to view the updates.  

Figure \(\PageIndex{12}\): Editing a node.