Tree

A Tree is a collection of Skills organized by prerequisite relationships.

Say what?

You've heard that old English proverb: "You must learn to walk before you can run." That seems like obvious advice to us, but then again, most of us are expert walkers, and we may know a bit about running. But what if you didn't know that walking is a prerequisite for running?

That's where Trees come in!

The Users who create Trees on Alekese are familiar with their fields and know where the pitfalls are and how to avoid them. They've been down the road you want to travel. They have the map in their heads. And by creating a Tree to demonstrate the relationships between various Skills and their prerequisites, they're giving you a print-out of that map.

Every Skill on a Tree may have one or more prerequisites, and every Skill may be a prerequisite for one or more Skills below it. The only limitation is that no Skill may be a prerequisite for itself, directly or indirectly. (In other words, you can't have loops.)

How to make a Tree

You, yes you!, can make a Tree. Here's how:

1. Log in or register.
2. Click on "Add new tree" in the side bar.
3. Type in the name of the goal Skill.
4. Edit the Tree with the Graphical Tree Editor.
5. Be awesome!

Note: to "Be awesome", be sure to add high-quality Links for all the Skills in your Tree.

Every Tree has a Graph

A "Graph" is a visual depiction of the Tree and her Skills and prerequisites. The Skills on the Graph are color-coded to convey a tremendous amount of information at a single glance. For example, Green Skills have at least one Link associated with them. Gray Skills don't yet have any Links. This allows users to know at a glance which Trees are more complete.

Also, if you are logged in to Alekese, each Graph is color-coded personally for you to show which Skills you have learned, which Skills you should start learning, and which Skills you do not have sufficient prerequisites to start learning.

What are DAGs (Directed Acyclic Graphs)?

Pay no attention to the ugly mathematics behind the curtain.