Guidelines for Tree-based Learning Goal Structuring

Educational technology needs a model of learning goals to support motivation, learning gain, tailoring of the learning process, and sharing of the personal goals between different types of users (i.e., learner and educator) and the system. This paper proposes a tree-based learning goal structuring to facilitate personal goal setting to shape and monitor the learning process. We developed a goal ontology and created a user interface representing this knowledge-base for the self-management education for children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Subsequently, a co-operative evaluation was conducted with healthcare professionals to refine and validate the ontology and its representation. Presentation of a concrete prototype proved to support professionals' contribution to the design process. The resulting tree-based goal structure enables three important tasks: ability assessment, goal setting and progress monitoring. Visualization should be clarified by icon placement and clustering of goals with the same difficulty and topic. Bloom's taxonomy for learning objectives should be applied to improve completeness and clarity of goal content.