Concept — The Applied Learning Cycle (6 stages)
The unifying spine. Every revised flow uses the same 6 phases. Naming them on every dashboard, email, and screen header gives engineering, design, content, and the Instructional Strategist one shared vocabulary — and a precise way to ask “where did we lose this cohort?”
The six phases
| # | Phase | What’s happening | What every role must produce here |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prepare | Build readiness + context | Participant pre-work submitted; IS has read it; LA context profile updated |
| 2 | Engage | Introduce + model learning | Attendance + active-engagement signal; IS tailors to cohort |
| 3 | Practice | Low-stakes try in session | Written action plan (what / when / with whom); observable practice in role-play, modeling, or planning |
| 4 | Apply | First real-world attempt within 48 hrs | Evidence of application (artifact, observation, self-report); time-to-first-application logged |
| 5 | Reflect | What worked / didn’t | Post-application reflection + survey + identified gap |
| 6 | Adjust | Refine + plan next cycle | Repeat applications toward mastery; supplemental resources released; next-engagement signal surfaced |
Why these names (the v2 → v3 change)
- “Practice” replaces “Activate” — better captures the low-stakes try-it-in-session moment.
- “Adjust” replaces “Reinforce / Repeat” — a single named phase for refinement + planning the next cycle, instead of two stages.
- Net: the v2 7-stage cycle became the v3 6-stage cycle. The v2 user-stories doc still shows the old names — treat them as stale. See naming question.
The design principle this enforces
Every phase, on every role’s dashboard, must answer: “What’s the next behavior I expect from this user — and what triggers fire if it doesn’t happen?”
Each phase therefore pairs a produced behavior with an intervention trigger (the absence of that behavior). The pairing is the contract between this concept and the intervention layer.
The loop-back (this is the business model)
Adjust loops back to Prepare. The next-engagement signal surfaced in Adjust is what converts each cycle into a renewal/expansion opportunity. See business loop.
Cross-role view
In the master swimlane (Figure 1), columns are phases, rows are roles, and each cell is what that role does in that phase. Key properties:
- Every phase has ≥ 2 roles in play. Even Practice (previously invisible) now has the IS facilitating, the Participant submitting an action plan, the LA observing practice signals, and the PM logging practice data.
- Arrows are handoffs, not just task order. The LA completing the School Context Profile in Prepare is what unlocks the IS Context Brief.
- The intervention layer fires on absence of behavior, beneath every phase.
Related
- Roles and goals
- Intervention layer
- Time-to-apply metrics
- Source: §3 and §4 of recommendations doc; Figure 1 =
image1.png