Study plans

A study plan is a reusable curriculum: the title, method, and ordered steps someone follows when they start a study. You author plans once; Garrison applies the right version when a learner or mentee begins.

Where to work

Open Administration → Study plans.

Action	How
Browse and filter plans	Study plans list
Create a new plan	New study plan
Edit an existing plan	Open the plan from the list
Start from AI	AI assistant (when enabled)
Quality checklist	Rubric — see Outcomes and rubric

Create a study plan

1. Click New study plan (or finish the AI assistant flow and save).

2. Fill in the basics:

   • Title and short description
   • Study method — book, topical, word, character, hypothetical, or guided
   • Focus — the book, topic, or guided series this plan is for
   • Spiritual phases — who this plan is meant for (milk, transition, meat, and so on)
   • Participation — whether the plan supports mentored study, individual study, or both

3. Add steps in the mentored list and/or individual list. For each step, set:

   • Title and instructions — what the learner and mentor should do
   • Wave — steps in the same wave unlock together; wave 1 is available when the study starts
   • Who acts — mentee, mentor, or both
   • How the step completes — write a note, answer a quiz, meet, assign a track, and other modes shown in the editor
   • Separate instructions for mentee and mentor when the step is mentored

4. Optionally wrap one or more contiguous steps in a loop. Click a step (or Shift-click a range), then Wrap selection in loop. In loop settings:

   • Input — learner continues until they finish (open), a mapping catalog, or items collected by another loop (for example walk the sections you just outlined).
   • Output — what this loop asks for on a write-note step: item title, a Bible reference (chapter and/or verse, constrained to the current book or parent section), and whether to ask on the first or last write-note step when the loop has more than one step. Default loops are open and collect nothing until you turn on output. Use placeholders such as {{section}}, {{passage}}, {{index}}, and {{bookName}} in titles and instructions (insert-variable buttons appear inside loops).

   Nested open loop (verse-by-verse inside each gathered section): wrap the outer work first and set its input to the gather loop. Then select one or more steps inside that outer loop — not the outer loop’s first step — and wrap again. The inner loop stays open (learner continues until they finish that section). Turn on inner output for a verse range; Garrison limits the picker to the parent section’s passage. One inner loop per outer loop.

5. Attach a quiz on any step that requires answering questions — pick from your quiz bank or jump to Quizzes to create one.

6. Tag learning outcomes on the plan or on individual steps when you need to track growth.

7. Review the plan against the rubric checklist. Optionally run Review for AI feedback (suggestions only — nothing is changed automatically).

8. Publish when the plan is ready. Unpublished plans cannot be added to tracks or chosen for new studies.

Fix wording on in-flight studies

By default, saving or merging changes to a published plan affects new studies only. Learners already in a study keep the step copy they started with.

When you need to fix poor instructions retroactively:

1. Update the plan as usual (staged revision + merge when the plan is published).
2. On the plan edit page, if open studies exist, use Force update in-flight studies.
3. Confirm the action. Garrison copies titles and instructions onto those studies.

What changes: step titles and instruction text (including mentee/mentor lanes where applicable).

What does not change: step order, waves, who acts, quizzes, completion rules, or any notes learners already wrote. Steps cannot be added or removed on existing studies.

Ended studies are not updated.

Learner feedback

After learners and mentors use a published plan, feedback appears on the plan’s admin page:

• Step reports — missing or unclear instructions (grouped by step).
• End-of-study ratings — 1–5 stars with optional comments.

Acknowledge reports when you have triaged them. When study-plan AI is enabled, use Analyze feedback for a grouped summary. Critical reports (especially missing instructions on published plans) show badges on the plan list and trigger email to designers.

Try before you publish

On the study plans list, use the resolution simulator:

1. Pick a study method, spiritual phase, and focus (for example, a book).
2. See which published plan would be offered for a new study with those choices.

Use this to avoid duplicate plans or gaps before you publish.

Mentored vs individual steps

If a plan supports both mentored and individual study, you maintain two step lists. Garrison uses the list that matches how the study was started — mentored studies follow the mentored steps; solo studies follow the individual steps.

Many milk and guided plans are mentored-only. Plans for transition and meat often include both lists.

Intro and checkup plans

Some plans exist only for mentorship moments — for example, pairing a new mentee with a mentor or checking whether someone is ready to advance in spiritual phase. These appear in the gateway row on the Curriculum map, not inside a track’s module list.

AI assistance

When AI authoring is enabled:

Task	Where
Draft a new plan	AI assistant from the new-plan flow
Improve step wording	Per-step actions in the step editor — preview, then Apply
Quality feedback	Review on the plan form

AI work may take a moment; the page updates when results are ready.