- Teach toward verifiable outcomes. In-app success must predict performance on credible external assessments.
- Enforce mastery gates at ≥90% accuracy. Do not advance students based on time, completion, or self-report.
- Award XP only for verified learning. No XP for passive activity until learning is verified through retrieval. No XP below 80% accuracy.
- Design for cognitive load limits. Keep granularity tight, reduce noise, avoid bundling multiple new skills in one lesson.
- Make misconceptions hard to form. Use clear examples, non-examples, and fast error correction.
- Build in retrieval practice and spaced review. Practice must require recall, not just recognition.
- Prevent gaming. Treat incentives as adversarial. Make the target cognitive process unavoidable.
- Emit learning events and keep outcomes transparent. Results are surfaced to students, families, and operators. Apps cannot hide poor performance.
Concepts
Non-negotiables
The rules every Timeback app must follow
These are the rules every integrated learning app must follow. They protect outcome integrity across the ecosystem.