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[workshop-sim] Repair: Add an early Copilot-access gate before Step 7 workflow authoring

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
75/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
github
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Read 06-install-gh-aw.md and the existing Copilot test prompt and access-troubleshooting side quest referenced in the issue; compare them with the Step 7 flow in 07-your-first-workflow.md. Add a brief, skippable access check before the Step 6 “Next” link, with a recovery link, while preserving Step 7 content. Done means the shared assessment scores for Step 7 stay flat or improve.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

feedback simulation workshop

Problem statement

07-your-first-workflow.md (simulator step 07-first-workflow) is the single highest-dropout step in the workshop: 22.4% conditional dropout among 22,237 at-risk Monte Carlo runs (95% interval 21.9%–23.0%). The dominant failure category is copilot-access-missing (3,922 of 4,981 total failures at this step) — learners discover they lack a usable Copilot seat/license only after writing and compiling a full workflow, deep inside Step 7's authoring flow. The billing-method instructions themselves (Step 7d + the Copilot Billing Paths side quest) are sound and fully cover both centralized and personal billing configuration — but there is no early gate that checks basic Copilot reachability before the learner invests time in workflow authoring.

Proposed change

Add a short, mandatory Copilot-access check at the end of Step 6 (06-install-gh-aw.md), before the learner moves into Step 7's authoring flow. This reuses the existing test prompt pattern already present later in Step 7 (gh copilot + /agentic-workflows test prompt), moving the first instance of that check one step earlier so access problems surface before, not after, workflow authoring. Step 7 would keep its own confirmation as a safety net (defense in depth), rather than removing any existing verification.

Failure mode classification

Access barrier — this is purely an environment/licensing gap, not a conceptual gap. No change to workflow-authoring instructional content is implied.

Quantitative guardrail

Current scores for 07-your-first-workflow.md:

  • overall_score: 6.25/10
  • Weakest rubric dimension: checkpoint_quality (0.0/10 — rubric detection artifact affecting all 30 steps equally, not specific to this file)
  • Learning KPI index for this step: active_learning 6.3, checkpoint_quality 0.0, scaffolding 5.0 → index = (2.0×6.3 + 2.0×0.0 + 1.5×5.0)/5.5 = 3.65/10

The proposed change only moves an existing verification step earlier in the curriculum sequence (into Step 6) and does not remove or weaken any existing Step 7 content, exercise, or checkpoint. It should therefore leave overall_score, active_learning, and the learning KPI index for 07-your-first-workflow.md flat or slightly improved (an earlier gate reduces wasted authoring effort for blocked learners without touching the instructional content that scores active_learning).

Acceptance criteria

  • The shared curriculum quantitative assessment overall_score for 07-your-first-workflow.md stays flat or improves after the change
  • The step's learning KPI index (2.0 × active_learning + 2.0 × checkpoint_quality + 1.5 × scaffolding) / 5.5 stays flat or improves for 07-your-first-workflow.md
  • All existing hands-on practice, checkpoints, and scaffolding in Step 7 (the workflow-authoring prompt, compile/commit/push sequence, and existing checkpoint checklist) are preserved unchanged
  • 06-install-gh-aw.md gains a brief, skippable Copilot-access test prompt step before its existing "Next" link to Step 7, with a clear recovery link to the existing Copilot-access troubleshooting side quest

Suggested owner

workshop maintainer
Related to #4215

Generated by 🔬 Workshop Student Simulator · copilot · auto · 191.3 AIC · ⌖ 7.49 AIC · ⊞ 15.1K · ◷

  • expires on Oct 6, 2026, 7:27 AM UTC
Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
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Forks
26
Avg merge
11h 32m
Merged PRs (30d)
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