From draft to a student's screen
Most of what a student sees in their first six weeks was written by a staff member well before that student arrived. This guide follows one piece of content — a nudge or resource — from a blank draft to the moment it lands on a student's screen, and shows the controls that keep the wrong message from reaching the wrong group.
The principle: write once, target deliberately, and deliver in context rather than as a broadcast.
1. Drafting
A staff member starts from the template library or a blank draft. Drafts are private and editable; nothing a student sees changes while a draft is in progress. The draft-to-publish flow is the staff-facing detail.
2. Review and publish
The draft is reviewed and published. Publishing is the deliberate line between "work in progress" and "students may see this" — there is no halfway state where an unfinished draft leaks into the student experience.
Up to publish, content is safe to iterate on freely. After publish, it is live to whichever cohorts it targets — so the targeting choice in the next step is the one to get right.
3. Targeting a cohort
Published content is scoped to cohorts, and which features and content apply is set per cohort. A first-year nursing cohort and a returning postgraduate cohort can have entirely different experiences from the same library.
This is what keeps delivery deliberate: a message reaches the group it was written for, not everyone at once.
4. Delivery in context
The app delivers the content to targeted students in context — tied to their timetable and the right moment, as part of their first-six-weeks arc — rather than as an undifferentiated feed. A nudge attached to a real deadline is one a student actually acts on.
5. Iterating safely
When staff revise content, they work on it and re-publish; students keep seeing the last published version until the new one goes live. There is no flicker of half-edited content on a student's screen.
What this lifecycle guarantees
- Students never see work-in-progress: only published content reaches them.
- The right group gets the right message, because delivery is scoped to cohorts.
- Staff can iterate without fear, because the live experience only changes at the publish step.
Common questions
Can a draft accidentally reach students?
No. Drafts are private until published; publishing is the explicit step that makes content live. See draft to publish.
How do different cohorts get different content?
Content is targeted to cohorts, and features are set per cohort, so two groups can have different experiences from the same library. See features per cohort.
What happens to the old version when I republish?
Students keep seeing the last published version until the new one goes live, so there is no half-edited state on a student's screen.
Related
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