Desirable Difficulty Classifier
by @quochungto
Classify any learning activity, practice structure, or instructional design element as a desirable difficulty (strengthens encoding) or undesirable difficult...
Example 1 β Corporate Onboarding Audit
Input: A new-employee onboarding program: Day 1 is a full-day lecture with slides covering company history, culture, and processes. Employees are given a manual to read. No assessment. Employees shadow a senior colleague for Day 2 and Day 3. Week 2 is independent work.
Classification results:
Strategy presence:
Top recommendation: Add three retrieval prompts at the end of Day 1: "Without looking at your notes, write down the three things from today that you'll need to do in your first solo task." Low effort, high impact.
Example 2 β Medical Training Workshop
Input: A one-day continuing education workshop for physicians: Morning session is two hours of case presentations (attending presents, residents watch). Afternoon is small-group discussion of cases. Participants complete a satisfaction survey at the end.
Classification results:
Strategy presence:
Top recommendation: Restructure case presentations as retrieval events: present the case with findings, pause, ask participants to write their diagnosis before the attending reveals it. Same content, same time β but changes passive observation to active retrieval.
Example 3 β Self-Study Method Audit
Input: A software developer studying for a certification exam: studies by watching tutorial videos twice through, then reads the official guide once. Exam is in four weeks.
Classification results:
Strategy presence:
Assessment: This method has zero desirable difficulty strategies. High effort with low expected retention. The learner will feel prepared (familiarity illusion) and underperform on the exam.
Top recommendation: Replace re-watching with self-quizzing. After watching each video once, close it and write down the five most important concepts from memory. Check against the video. Repeat for missed items only. This single change introduces retrieval practice, generation, and implicit spacing β three strategies at once.
clawhub install bookforge-desirable-difficulty-classifier