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Recommendation Assessment & Engine

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  2. Use Case Information
  3. Recommendation Assessment Overview
  4. Recommendation Assessment Configuration
  5. Recommended Content Widget
  6. AI Recommendation Overview
  7. AI Recommendation Configuration
  8. Recommending Content in a Panorama
  9. Notes, Tips, & Considerations

 

Admins have the advantage of helping to predict, narrow down and find what e-learning content should be taken by learners based on both their previous performance, as well as, recommending suggested content.

Use Case Information

Suggest and personalize content for a particular learner using the Thought Industries Recommendation Assessment or AI Engine. In this article, we will review both options so you can customize and guide your learner's journey through your content.

Recommendation Assessment Overview

The Recommendation Assessment feature is a great way to recommend and personalize content for a particular learner.  The Assessment is configured by your platform Admin and is completed by the learner. The Recommendation Assessment is a multiple choice question assessment presented to learners through the Recommended Content Widget (available within Layouts and Pages). When building this assessment, you will assign content tags to question answers. After taking the assessment, learners will be presented with content based on their answer choices and corresponding tags.

The Recommendation Assessment is behind a feature flag.

Navigate to Apps in your instance to request to have this feature enabled on your site.

Recommendation Assessment Configuration

Once the flag has been turned on for this feature, please follow the below steps to configure the assessment:

  1. From your homepage, select Courses > Settings
  2. In the left menu, select Recommendation Assessments.
  3. Click Add Question.
  4. Determine your question type:
    • Multiple Choice - Use a "Multiple Choice" question when you want your learner to pick just 1 option from a list of choices.
    • Drop Down List - Use a "Drop Down List" question when you want your learner to pick just 1 option from a list of choices.
    • Select Boxes - Use a "Select Boxes" question when you want your learner to be able to pick more than 1 option from a list of choices.
  5. Create your question.
  6. Click Add a choice.
  7. Type in the answer(s) to the question you created.
  8. Using the content tags you have created when building your content and assign tag(s) to the choice.

    Note

    To learn more about tags and their importance, please refer to this article.

  9. Click Add a choice and repeat steps 2-7 until all choices have been entered.
  10. Once all choices have been entered, click Add Question. 
  11. A 'Preview' option is available, located on the top right of the screen.

    Admin View: Assessment Configuration
    RecommendationAssessment_ConfigureAssessment_AdminView.png

Recommended Content Widget

Once the Recommendation Assessment is created, the Recommended Content widget can be configured for the learner. The Recommended Content widget can be added to any layout or custom page with exception of sidebars & detail pages. If an assessment does not exist, the admin will be prompted to create one upon adding the widget to a layout or page.

The widget has two display states, Preliminary & Populated, based on whether or not the learner has taken the assessment.

01

Preliminary State

Learner has no recommendation query associated with them. This applies to all non-registered learners/viewers as well as authenticated learners that have not taken the recommendation assessment and therefore have no associated recommendation query.

RecommendationAssessmentWidget_PreliminaryState_AdminView.png

02

Populated State

Learner has a recommendation query associated with them. This is an authenticated user that is logged in and has taken the recommendation assessment and therefore has an associated recommendation query.
RecommendationAssessment_Learnerview1.png

When adding the Recommended Content widget to a layout or page, the settings for the widget are separated into the two display states, Preliminary and Populated.  Below are the steps to build the widget.

Configuring the Preliminary State Widget Settings

  1. From your homepage, navigate to Site > Site Builder.
  2. In the left menu, select Layouts. 
  3. Select the layout in which you would like to include the widget.
  4. From the left margin, click on the Recommended Content widget option. 
    RecommendationAssessment_Widget_AdminView2.png
  5. Click on the option Select Recommendation Assessment.
    RecommendationAssessment_Widget1_AdminView1_GIF.gif
  6. Force Assessment Pop-Up.
    • Never:  The assessment will not popup unless the learner clicks the CTA.
    • If the Learner has not completed the assessment:  The assessment will popup each time the learner navigates to the page the widget is configured on until the learner completes the assessment. 
  7. Display Type
    • Background Image - apply an image to populate in the widget. A CTA will appear on the image for the learner to click and begin the assessment. 
      RecommendedContent_AssessmentWidget_LearnerView.png
    • Text Only - text to display in the widget without any images. 
      RecommendedContent_AssessmentWidget_LearnerViewTextOnly.png
  8.  Title - add a title to display when the widget is in a Preliminary State.
  9. Subtitle -  optionally, add a subtitle to display under the widget title.
    • By default, Thought Industries provides the following suggested text in the subtitle of the Preliminary State settings: 'We have a few questions to ask you before recommending content. Take a short assessment to get your recommended items immediately!'
  10. CTA Button Text and Action
    • Text - Editable text field for the CTA button.
    • Action - Pre-set to Recommendation Assessment (which is not editable).
  11. CSS - optionally create custom code to place in the widget for further customization.

Configuring the Populated State Widget Settings

  1. Title - add a title to display when the widget is in a Preliminary State.
  2. Subtitle - optionally, add a subtitle to display under the widget title.
  3. Enable 'Retake Assessment' CTA? - When toggled to ‘Yes’, the learner will have the option to retake the assessment from the Recommended Content widget. Previous answers will be selected for the learner.
  4. Number of items to display - the number of content objects to display in the widget.
    • Maximum is 50 pieces of content.
  5. Next, choose what details to display on the thumbnails for the recommended content (such as content titles, content types, sources, authors, images, descriptions, and start dates).
  6. Click Save.

Note

You can populate the recommended content widget with slugs! By way of JWT SSO, you can populate the recommended content widget with a custom list of content items that you’ve selected for each individual learner. This is a great option for programs that provide each learner with a highly customized, unique learning path or collection of content.

AI Recommendation Overview

Use AI and Machine Learning to suggest content automatically based on learner activity. Here's how it works.

We have created three courses:  Course A, Course B, and Course C.

We have two learners:  Learner 1 and Learner 2.

  1. Learner 1 completes all courses:  Course A, Course B, and Course C.
  2. Learner 2 completes Course A.
  3. Wait 24 hours to allow recommendations to update.
  4. When Learner 2 logs in, they should see Course B and Course C in their recommendations.

AI Recommendation Configuration

The AI Recommendation Engine suggests courses to learners based upon this and other learners' completion of other content.  To set up the AI Recommendation Engine, please follow the below steps:

  1. From your homepage, navigate to Site > Site Builder.
  2. In the left menu, select Layouts.
  3. Select the layout in which you would like to include the widget.
  4. In the left margin, click on the Recommended Content widget option. 
  5. Click on the option Select Automated Recommendations.
    RecommendationAssessment_Widget_AdminView3.png
  6. Title the widget. 
  7. Select 'Use New Title Display' to center or left align. 
  8. Optionally, create a Subtitle.
  9. Number of items to display -  the number of content objects to display in the widget.
    • Maximum is 50 pieces of content. 
  10. Next, choose what details to display on the thumbnails for the recommended content (such as content titles, content types, sources, authors, images, descriptions, and start dates).
  11. CSS - optionally create custom code to place in the widget for further customization.
  12. Click Save.

Recommending Content in a Panorama

Within the primary settings of a Panorama portal, Admins with permission are able to create a separate Recommendation Assessment for the Panorama learners, or allow Panorama learners to take the assessment offered to public learners on your site.

01

Recommendation Assessment in a Panorama

Just as you would set up on the global area of your site, The Recommendation Assessment questions are presented to learners through the Recommendation Content Widget (available within Layouts and Pages). When building this assessment, the Panorama Admin will assign content tags to question choices. After taking the assessment, learners will be presented with content based on their answer choices and corresponding tags.

To offer the Recommendation Assessment in a Panorama, please follow the below steps:

  1. From your homepage, navigate to Panorama and then select the Panorama to edit.
  2. Once in your Panorama portal, select Courses > Settings.
  3. In the left menu, select Recommendation Assessment.
  4. Click Add Question.
  5. Determine your question type:
  6. Multiple Choice - Use a "Multiple Choice" question when you want your learner to pick just 1 option from a list of choices.
  7. Drop Down List - Use a "Drop Down List" question when you want your learner to pick just 1 option from a list of choices.
  8. Select Boxes - Use a "Select Boxes" question when you want your learner to be able to pick more than 1 option from a list of choices.
  9. Create your question.
  10. Click Add a choice.
  11. Type in the answer(s) to the question you created.
  12. Using the content tags you have created when building your content, assign tag(s) to the choice.
  13. Click Add a choice and repeat steps 2-7 until all choices have been entered.
  14. Once all choices have been entered, click Add Question. 
  15. A 'Preview' option is available, located on the top right of the screen.

Recommended Content Widget in a Panorama

To add the Recommended Content widget in a Panorama, please follow the below steps:

  1. From your homepage, navigate to Panorama and then the Panorama you would like to edit.
  2. Once in your Panorama portal, select Site.
  3. In the Dashboard Layout field, click Add Custom Layout if you prefer to style the Panorama learner dashboard differently than the global learner dashboard of your site, to include the widget.

    RecommendationAssessment_PanoDashboardLayout_AdminView.png
  4.  Select the Recommendation Content widget and configure following the steps earlier in this article.

Note

In Panoramas, be sure to only recommend content intended to be provisioned to the Panorama portal.

02

Recommendation Engine within a Panorama

Panorama learner recommendations will not include content that the learner cannot access via their Panorama.

  1. From your homepage, navigate to Panorama and then the Panorama you would like to edit.
  2. Once in your Panorama portal, select Site.
  3. In the Dashboard Layout field, click Add Custom Layout if you prefer to style the Panorama learner dashboard differently than the global learner dashboard of your site, to include the widget.
  4. Select the Recommended Content widget and configure following the steps earlier in this article.

Notes, Tips, & Considerations

Below are some additional details to be aware of if using the Recommended Content feature:

  • Currently we do not store learners’ responses to report on.
  • When adding questions to the Recommendation Assessment, a disclaimer is displayed regarding Privacy Policies.
    RecommendationAssessment_Disclaimer_AdminView3.png
  • If using the Engine, recommendations update once per day at 07:30:00 GMT.
  • Content that’s been completed by the learner will not appear in their recommendations.
  • The widget returns results from any content type, Learning Paths included.
  • The Recommendation Engine can be enabled on the Related Content Widget. If enabled, we only display Recommended Content and ignore any Related Content added to the course.

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