Using branching adaptivity in an assignment

Background

In an adaptive assignment with branching items, the paths taken by the participants are not determined by the results they obtain at the end of each part (as in a multi-stage adaptive assignment), but by the answer they give to a branching item.

Using branching items in an adaptive assignment allows you to ask targeted questions to your participants. Participants follow a personalised track. Questions only appear if they are relevant to them. 

You can use a branching item, for example, to know whether your participants take French or English as their major and based on their answer, you can branch them to a set of French or English questions. 

Branching items

Branching items in assessmentQ are always multiple-choice items.

The choice that participants make in a branching item determines the next set of items they will get. 

Branching items can have a score of 0 or more. It is the responsibility of the author to correctly set the score for these items in the item bank.  

Process

Using branching adaptivity in an assignment works as follows:

1. Create an adaptive assignment with branching items.
2. Add parts and branching items to your assignment.
3. Define the paths between the parts in your assignment.
4. Define the assignment template for your assignment.
5. Define the result settings for your assignment.

Creating an adaptive assignment with branching items

To create an assignment with branching items, proceed as follows:

1. Go to Authoring > Assignments.
2. Select Assignments in the navigation bar on the left-hand side of your screen.
   Result: You see the list of assignments.
3. Click +Add at the top right.
   Result: The Add assignment popup appears. 
4. In the Add assignment pop-up:
   • Select the type Exam or Exercise.
   • Select Fixed or On the fly item selection.
   • Select Use adaptivity > Adaptivity based on branching items.

     Note: This option may not be available by default in your assessmentQ environment. If you are interested in using branching adaptivity, please contact Televic Education via support@televic-education.com.

   • Click Add.
     
     Result : The Overview tab of the assignment is shown.

Adding parts and branching items 

To add parts and branching items, proceed as follows:

1. Open the Items tab of your adaptive assignment. 
   Result: You will see that your assignment contains one empty part by default.
2. Select the part.
3. Add your item(s) in the usual way:
   • using fixed item selection, follow steps 5 to 7 in Creating an assignment with fixed items. 
   • using on the fly item selection, follow steps 7 to 11 in Creating an on the fly assignment. 

   Notes:

   • If you want to use a branching item in this part, you need to add the required multiple-choice item in this step. In the next step, you will see how to change this multiple-choice question into a branching question. 
   • In a part with a branching item, you can optionally add other items. The branching item, however, will automatically move to the last position in the part, see below.
   • If required, you can also add items that need grading to your parts, as the path the participants will take in an assignment with branching items is not determined by the scores they obtain on the parts in their path. 
   Result: You see the overview of the items that have been added to the selected part. 
4. If you want to use a branching item in this part, click the three dots next to the multiple-choice question and select Change to branching item.
   
   

   Notes:

   • The option Change to branching item is only shown for multiple-choice questions. Other item types cannot be used as branching items.
   • You can add a maximum of one branching item per part.
   • You can add a maximum of 8 branching items in total in your adaptive assignment. 
   Result:  You see the branching item at the bottom of the item overview. The adaptivity icon is added in front of the branching item and in front of the part to which you added the branching item. 
5. To add another part, click the Add part button and repeat steps 3 to 5 until you have added all the parts you need.
   

   Note: You can use a maximum of 50 parts in your adaptive assignment.

   Result: You see the overview of the parts that have been added to your assignment. Parts that contain a branching item are preceded by the adaptivity icon . 
   

Defining the paths between the parts 

To define the paths between the parts in an adaptive assignment with branching items, proceed as follows:

1. Open the Paths tab of your adaptive assignment. 
   Result: You see the Start and the Finish of the adaptive path. By default, the first part that you added to your assignment is added in Stage 1.  If this part contains a branching item, you will see the adaptivity icon in the top left corner of the part (as in the example below). 
   
   

   Notes: The first stage of an adaptive assignment can contain one part only. All participants will start with this part. 

2. Click on the part in Stage 1.
   Result: The side panel of the part is opened on the right.
3. If you want to change the part in Stage 1, select another part via the dropdown at the top of the side panel.

   Tips:

   • Parts containing a branching item show an adaptivity icon. 
   • In the first stage of an assignment using branching adaptivity, you will typically add the part with the branching item you want to start with. 
4. Define the destination parts for the part in Stage 1:
   • If the part contains a branching item, add a destination part for each answer in the branching item and for an empty answer (next to the icon for the unanswered question at the bottom).

     Tip: You can preview the branching item so you know which destination part to choose based on the choice made by the participant.
     

   • If the part does not contain a branching item, add the destination part.
     

     Tip: A part without a branching item can only have one destination part. 

   • If you want to show a message to the participants before they move on to a destination part, click the message icon next to the destination part and add your message. 
     
   Result: As soon as you select a destination part, Stage 2 is added and an arrow is added from the selected part to the destination part.
5. If you have added the destination parts for the part in Stage 1, define the destination parts for the parts in Stage 2:
   • Select a part in Stage 2
   • Add one or more destination parts for this part.
     Result: As soon as you add a destination part, Stage 3 is added.

     Note: When you add a part to a stage, it is no longer available for other stages. As a result, in the dropdown with parts, you will only see the parts that you have not added yet.

   • Repeat this for all parts in Stage 2.  
6. Repeat step 4 for all parts in Stage 3 and so on until you all the potential paths lead to the Finish. 
   

   Note: You can set a Finish criterion for each part regardless of the stage the part is in. So a participant does not necessarily have to go through all stages in the adaptive assignment.

Defining the assignment template for an adaptive assignment with branching items

To define the template for an adaptive assignment with branching items, proceed as follows:

1. Open the Behaviour tab of your adaptive assignment. 
   Result: You see the behaviour settings of your assignment.
2. Select the assignment template of your choice.
3. If you want to change the template settings, click Modify Settings and make the desired adjustments. 

Define the result settings for your assignment

To define the result settings for an adaptive assignment using branching items, proceed as follows:

1. Open the Result tab of your adaptive assignment. 
   Result: You see the result settings of your assignment.
2. Configure the result settings to your needs.