# Phase Placement Diagnostic

Use this diagnostic to find where an assignment, exercise, or course sits on the AI fluency progression, then pick the right workbench template. It takes about ten minutes with an AI assistant, or on paper.

The six phases are described in [the AI fluency progression](../framework/ai-fluency-progression.md): 1 Ask, 2 Understand, 3 Produce, 4 Judge, 5 Codify, 6 Supervise.

## AI Facilitation Block

If you are working on paper, skip this section. If you are using an AI assistant, give it this entire file and say: "Run this diagnostic with me."

Instructions for the AI assistant:

- Role: You are running a placement interview for a faculty member. The faculty member owns every judgment about their course. You ask, listen, and place. You do not redesign their assignment.
- Collect first: the course or seminar, the specific assignment or exercise, and what role AI currently plays in it (including "none").
- Process: Ask the placement questions below one at a time, in order. Stop early once the placement logic gives a clear answer. Push back once if an answer is vague, then accept the faculty member's call.
- Never: recommend tools or products; invent NWC policy or doctrine; treat a higher phase as better teaching — the right phase is the one that fits the task and the students; continue past an unresolved answer without flagging it.
- Finish: State the phase placement in one sentence, explain the routing in two or three sentences using the routing table, and return a short markdown note the faculty member can keep: assignment, placement, reasoning, recommended templates.

## Placement Questions

1. In this task, is AI answering questions, or doing work? (Answering only, or no AI yet → likely phase 1–2. Doing bounded work → phase 3 or higher.)
2. What must students own before AI enters — the frame, the purpose, the evidence standard? (If this is undefined, start at phase 2–3 design regardless of ambition.)
3. Is reviewing, verifying, or critiquing AI output an assessed part of the task? (Yes → phase 4 is in play.)
4. Does this task recur — across weeks, sections, or courses — often enough that the method could be written down once and reused? (Yes → phase 5.)
5. Would you trust students to direct a multi-step AI workflow with checkpoints you can inspect? (Yes, and phases 1–5 are in place → phase 6. If earlier phases are missing, place at the earliest missing phase instead.)
6. Who is being placed — the assignment, the students, or you? (This diagnostic places the assignment. Faculty can run it on their own practice too; the logic is the same.)

## Placement Logic

| If... | Placement |
| --- | --- |
| No deliberate AI role yet, or safety and verification habits are not established | 1 Ask |
| AI supports understanding, but production with AI is not assessed | 2 Understand |
| AI does bounded production work; students own task, context, and constraints | 3 Produce |
| Students must judge, verify, and revise AI output as assessed work | 4 Judge |
| The task recurs and the method is worth writing down once | 5 Codify |
| Students direct a bounded multi-step AI workflow under inspection | 6 Supervise |

Place at the **earliest phase that is not yet solid**. A phase 6 ambition with phase 1 habits is a phase 1 placement.

## Routing

| Placement | Use these templates |
| --- | --- |
| 1–2 | [Assignment design worksheet](assignment-design-worksheet.md) — decide where AI belongs and what stays AI-free. |
| 3 | [Assignment design worksheet](assignment-design-worksheet.md) + [source kit template](source-kit-template.md). |
| 4 | [Assessment and oral-defense rubric](assessment-and-oral-defense-rubric.md) + [flawed output library template](flawed-output-library-template.md). |
| 5 | [Method card template](method-card-template.md) + [faculty calibration protocol](faculty-calibration-protocol.md). |
| 6 | [Supervised delegation exercise](supervised-delegation-exercise.md). |
| After any run | [After-action note template](after-action-note-template.md). |

## Paper Worksheet

- Course or seminar:
- Assignment or exercise:
- Current AI role:
- Answers to questions 1–5:
- Placement:
- Reasoning:
- Templates to use next: