Branching with the Adaptive Editor

Branching lets different learners take different routes through a course based on how they do. A learner who scores well on a check can skip the remedial lesson; one who struggles is sent to extra practice.

It is most useful for onboarding where people arrive with different prior knowledge, and for courses with an optional remedial or advanced track. If everyone should cover the same material in the same order, leave the course linear.

In the course editor, click the Adaptive tab next to Outline. The first time, click Enable adaptive paths for this course. You can switch back to linear mode at any time in Course Settings.

The canvas shows each lesson as a node, colored by module, and starts with the lessons linked in outline order. The first lesson is marked as the entry and the last as the exit. Scroll to zoom, drag the background to pan, and use the controls and mini-map in the corners to find your way around large flows. Auto Layout tidies the arrangement.

Drag from one node's handle to another node to connect them. Click a connection, or right-click it and choose Edit Condition, to open the condition editor. Untick Unconditional (always follow) to make it conditional, then choose a condition type:

• Assessment Score: the learner's percentage compared with a score you set (0 to 100), for example "≥ 80".
• Assessment Passed: the learner's percentage is at least the course's Passing Score (set in Course Settings, 80% unless you change it). Change the passing score and every Assessment Passed connection follows it.
• Lesson Completed: the learner has completed the lesson, in this attempt at the course.
• Choice Selected: the learner's latest answer to a Multiple Choice or Multi-Select question in the lesson chose the option you type. Type the option's text as learners see it; capitals and extra spaces are ignored.

Each condition has a Lesson. Leave it on The lesson being left to test the lesson the learner has just finished, or pick another lesson. Scores are the ones Scormbusters calculated from the learner's recorded answers, never a total sent by the browser.

Each connection also has a Priority (lower is evaluated first). When a learner finishes a lesson, Scormbusters tries the conditional connections in priority order and follows the first that matches. If none match, it follows an unconditional (Always) connection.

For example, from a check lesson add "score ≥ 80" to the advanced lesson with priority 1, "score ≥ 50" to the standard lesson with priority 2, and an Always connection to the remedial lesson as the fallback.

Click Validate to check for problems: a missing or duplicate entry node, and lessons that nothing connects to, which no learner can reach.

Click Simulate to open the Path Simulator. Pick a persona (Blank Learner, High Performer or Struggling Learner), enter a score and, for Choice Selected connections, the answer chosen for the current lesson, then step through to see which route is taken. Try the boundary cases, such as exactly your passing score, one point below it, and 0, for every branching lesson.

Adaptive paths route learners by score, pass, completion and chosen answer only; Scormbusters does not keep learner variables. Earlier versions of the editor had a Variables panel and an Action on Follow setting on connections. They have been removed because the Scormbusters web player never applied them. A course that still has them keeps them: the web player ignores them, exported SCORM packages still apply them, and the editor shows a note saying so. Rebuild that routing with score, completion or answer conditions so both behave the same.

Learners never see the diagram; they just move from lesson to lesson. The course is complete when a learner reaches a lesson with no onward connection, so every route should end at a lesson that has none. A learner does not have to visit every lesson to finish.

Right-click a node to Set as Entry (Start), Set as Exit (End) or Remove from Flow.