How to use

How to use a skill tree

Every tree on this site works the same way. You can try each step below in any tree as you read.

The clips are recorded in the Mathematics 2P demo tree. The AI chat in them is a mock-up with replies written in advance; a real AI chat will answer differently.

Practise skills

As a student, you can practise one learning goal at a time. Click a box in the map, and a panel opens with what the learning goal is about and what it builds on.

Press Copy AI instruction, open the AI chat you already use, and paste it in. The AI then works with you on that learning goal alone, and asks questions rather than handing you the answers. Press Show AI instruction if you want to read what you are pasting first.

When you know it, tick Mark as mastered. The boxes that build on it light up, and you can see what to take next.

The different nodes

Each box in the map is one learning goal, and there are three kinds:

Concept (green): an idea you should be able to explain in your own words.
Skill (orange): something you should be able to do, such as solving or calculating.
Facts (blue, square corners): a list of things to know by heart.

A pale box is locked: something it builds on is not ticked off yet, and the panel says what to take first. You can still open it and practise. A box you have mastered gets a green frame and a tick. The tag on a skill, such as Part 1, says which aids you may use; more on that below.

Generate tests

You can make a test from everything you have marked as mastered. Open the menu with the ☰ button at the bottom left, set the Number of tasks, and press Make a test from mastered learning goals.

Paste the instruction into an AI chat. You get a test across several learning goals at once, one task at a time, with feedback on each answer.

Track your progress

You can tick a box straight in the map, without opening it. The ✓ at the top of a column ticks off a whole topic at once, and ✕ clears it again. The menu shows how many of the learning goals you have completed.

Your ticks are saved in this browser, on this device, and are never sent anywhere. As a teacher, keep in mind that the ticks are your own: they show what you have been through, not what your class knows.

Find your way around

You can drag to move around the map, and zoom with + and −. The ⤢ button shows the whole tree at once.

In the menu, Show all learning goals gives one list of the whole course, sorted by topic, with the status of each: ✓ mastered, ◇ ready to learn, and ⊘ with the codes of what to take first. You can tick learning goals off as mastered straight from the list. Search finds a learning goal by a word from its name or description, and takes you to it in the map.

Plan a lesson

As a teacher, you can get a lesson plan for the next lesson. Open Lesson planner in the menu and tick the learning goals the lesson should cover, using the boxes on the left of the list.

Set the length in minutes at the bottom and press Build a lesson plan. Paste the instruction into an AI chat, and you get a plan for the whole lesson.

Why should I learn this?

As a student, you can ask why the subject is worth learning at all. Many trees have a Why should I learn this? button in the menu.

It gives an instruction for a short conversation that starts from what you care about, and ties the subject to it. Paste it into an AI chat when you need a nudge.

Aids and the course

You can click the tag on a skill, such as Part 1 or Part 2, to see which aids belong to that level, for example whether a calculator is allowed. A tag split into several colours means the learning goal belongs to several levels, and you should manage it under the strictest one.

It opens About the course, which is also in the menu. There you find the tree's language, its size, the levels, and who made it.

Make your own

Make and edit a tree

As a teacher, you can make a tree for a subject that does not have one yet, or change one that does. It all happens on Make your own: nothing is uploaded, and the tree stays in your browser until you download it.

Open Make your own

Make a tree with an AI chat

Press Copy the prompt and paste it into the AI chat you already use. The chat asks about your subject, level and curriculum, goes through the learning goals with you, and gives you the tree as a spreadsheet at the end.

Copy the spreadsheet from the chat and press Paste from the AI chat. The tree opens in the editor, ready to change.

Start from an existing tree

You do not have to start from nothing. Press Find a tree in the catalogue, search or filter, and press Open a copy. You can also press Edit or download in the menu of any tree.

You get your own copy to change. The published tree is not affected.

Edit a node

Click a node in the tree on the right, and the Node tab shows everything about it: name, type, topic and learning outcome. The tree updates as you type, and ↶ undoes a change.

Under Builds on, press Pick in the tree and click the nodes it should build on, then Done picking.

Add a node

The Nodes tab lists every node by topic. Press + Add a node here under a topic, give it a name, a type and a learning outcome, and choose what it builds on. + New topic adds a new column.

A prerequisite that would make a circle cannot be chosen.

Change the instructions

The Instructions tab shows the instructions your students paste into their AI chat, section by section: the practice tutor, the test generator, the motivation conversation and the lesson plan.

Press Edit on a section to rewrite it for this tree only. It is then marked Changed in this tree, and Use the published text takes you back.

Share it with your students

View shows the tree the way your students will see it. Download the tree gives you one HTML file that opens with a double-click and works without a network, so you can share it in your learning platform.

Download spreadsheet gives you the file you keep: open it here again whenever you want to change the tree. If other teachers could use it, you can submit it to the catalogue.