File: workshop/04-github-actions-intro.md
Overall Score: 5.39 / 10.0 (corpus mean: 6.14)
Flagged Dimensions:
| Dimension |
Score |
Benchmark |
Delta |
| cognitive_load |
6.8 |
≤ 15 new concepts per step |
concept_overload flagged (28 new concepts) |
| active_learning |
3.9 |
activity density ≥ 3 |
-6.1 |
Root Cause (≤ 2 sentences):
This page packs 28 new concepts (trigger, job, step, runner, action, on, jobs, steps, runs-on, self-hosted runner, workflow file structure, plus every term in the Classic-vs-Agentic comparison table) into only 756 words, nearly double the 15-concept benchmark, so learners meet almost two new terms per sentence on average. The "Label a sample workflow" and "Try it" activities are good but arrive only after all 28 terms have already been introduced, rather than being interleaved with concept introduction.
Evidence (quoted from the file):
A GitHub Actions workflow is a YAML file in .github/workflows/ that tells GitHub:
- when to run (
on)
- what to run (
jobs)
- how each job executes (
steps)
Learning Science Rationale:
Sweller's Cognitive Load Theory predicts that when the number of new schema elements exceeds working-memory capacity (typically 4±1 chunks held simultaneously, or here nearly 2x the curriculum's own 15-concept ceiling), learners experience germane load overload and retention drops even when each individual concept is simple. Splitting concept introduction into two smaller labeled passes — "the three primitives" (trigger/job/step) followed later by "the extended vocabulary" (runner/action/self-hosted) — would let learners consolidate one chunk before the next is introduced.
Improvement Prompt (for an agent):
Edit workshop/04-github-actions-intro.md to reduce the concept count introduced before
the first hands-on activity. Split the "Quick Refresher" section so it introduces only
the three core primitives (trigger/on, job, step) with the existing annotated YAML
example, and move the "What is a runner?" <details> block and the Classic-vs-Agentic
comparison table further down, immediately before or interleaved with the "Label a sample
workflow" activity so each new term is followed by a labeling or matching exercise rather
than all terms arriving before any practice. Do not remove content — only reorder and
add small interleaved check-your-understanding prompts (1-2 lines each) so activity
density rises above 3.0 per 100 words. Preserve the existing checkpoint section. Run
npx --yes markdownlint-cli2 "**/*.md" after editing.
Expected Score After Fix: 6.4 / 10.0
Generated by 🔬 Curriculum Quality Evaluator · copilot · auto · 96.3 AIC · ⌖ 12.2 AIC · ⊞ 9.5K · ◷
File:
workshop/04-github-actions-intro.mdOverall Score:
5.39 / 10.0(corpus mean:6.14)Flagged Dimensions:
Root Cause (≤ 2 sentences):
This page packs 28 new concepts (trigger, job, step, runner, action,
on,jobs,steps,runs-on, self-hosted runner, workflow file structure, plus every term in the Classic-vs-Agentic comparison table) into only 756 words, nearly double the 15-concept benchmark, so learners meet almost two new terms per sentence on average. The "Label a sample workflow" and "Try it" activities are good but arrive only after all 28 terms have already been introduced, rather than being interleaved with concept introduction.Evidence (quoted from the file):
Learning Science Rationale:
Sweller's Cognitive Load Theory predicts that when the number of new schema elements exceeds working-memory capacity (typically 4±1 chunks held simultaneously, or here nearly 2x the curriculum's own 15-concept ceiling), learners experience germane load overload and retention drops even when each individual concept is simple. Splitting concept introduction into two smaller labeled passes — "the three primitives" (trigger/job/step) followed later by "the extended vocabulary" (runner/action/self-hosted) — would let learners consolidate one chunk before the next is introduced.
Improvement Prompt (for an agent):
Expected Score After Fix:
6.4 / 10.0