What do core, pass and excel mean in Area9 Rhapsode CURATOR™?

Core, pass and excel are priorities that content developers can apply to specific learning objectives to influence the behavior of the Area9 Rhapsode™ adaptive engine.

Area9 Rhapsode™ deliberately provides relatively few options for content developers to change or influence the behavior of the adaptive algorithms. Simply put, excellent learner outcomes are best achieved by giving the algorithms freedom to adapt and not constrain them; a learner's optimal path to proficiency is an emergent property of their real-time interactions in the platform, and not something that can be predicted when content is being developed.

But, we do want to give content developers and instructional designers some influence over the macro-level behavior of the algorithms relative to the particular course content. One example is the ability to 'label' each learning objective with a priority of Core, Pass or Excel. We use priorities to indicate the relative importance of each learning objective:

• Core: these learning objectives are fundamental to everything else in the course or module; mastering core learning objectives is essential to have a basic understanding of the overall topic
• Pass: these are required for the learner to adequately meet the learning goals of the overall topic. Proficiency in all core and pass learning objectives is generally viewed as mastery of the overall course objectives.
• Excel: these are required to achieve a standard of excellence in the overall topic. These may not be appropriate for every learner.

By default, new learning objectives have a Pass priority, and it is NOT necessary to adjust priorities unless there is a particular reason to do so. If priorities are promoted to be Core, then the adaptive algorithm will prioritize mastery of these objectives before Pass or Excel objectives.

More information on the Excel attribute can be found in this knowledge base article.