Desirable Difficulty Classifier

Classify any learning activity, practice structure, or instructional design element as a desirable difficulty (strengthens encoding) or undesirable difficulty (creates friction without learning benefit). Use this skill when an instructional designer, trainer, teacher, or learner wants to audit a course design, training session, study method, or practice regimen for evidence-based difficulty management — even if they don't use the phrase "desirable difficulty." Applies to onboarding programs, corporate training, academic course design, self-study plans, coaching sessions, and skill development programs. Identifies which of six proven difficulty strategies are present or absent (spacing, interleaving, variation, retrieval, generation, elaboration) and generates specific redesign recommendations. Do NOT use this skill to build a full study schedule (use retrieval-practice-study-system), to assess learner readiness or aptitude, or to evaluate content quality unrelated to difficulty structure.

Install

Claude CodeClawhHubnpxCursorCodexGemini CLI

1. Add marketplace

› /plugin marketplace add bookforge-ai/bookforge-skills

2. Install plugin

› /plugin install make-it-stick@bookforge-skills

3. Use the skill

› /desirable-difficulty-classifier

CC-BY-SA · Open sourceGitHub

Source Book

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel

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