Learning Rewired Lab™ / Free Diagnostic

Retention Risk Checklist

Companion to Designing for Forgetting. Check off what your current design already accounts for. The unchecked items are where retention is most likely to break down after launch.

What needs to be remembered You’ve named the specific information or skill that has to survive past the first exposure. When it will be needed You know the real-world moment the learner will need to recall or apply this. Retrieval before the real moment The design includes practice retrieving the information, not just reviewing it again. Feedback that corrects assumptions Learners find out when they’re wrong early enough for it to matter. Support at the moment of need A job aid, cue, or tool exists for the moment they need to act, not just the moment they were taught. Reinforcement after first exposure The first exposure is not treated as the only exposure. It is revisited later. What can be supported instead of memorized You’ve decided what genuinely needs to live in memory versus what just needs to be easy to find. A way to know if it transferred There’s a signal beyond completion or quiz score that shows the learning held up.

Your retention risk

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Check off the items your current design already covers. Each unchecked box is a place retention is likely to break down after launch.

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The Designing for Forgetting Application Pack turns this checklist into planning tools: a retrieval practice planner, reinforcement map, moment-of-need support planner, and a stakeholder recommendation script.

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