rootnode-academy/docs/COURSE_CONTENT_MODEL.md

# Course Content Model

Phase 6A §3 — how RootNode represents actual teaching content (lessons, demonstrations,
knowledge checks, guided exercises, reflections) around the existing scenario/assessment
systems, without duplicating either. See `docs/ROOT_PROGRAM_ARCHITECTURE.md` for what this
model is populated with, and `docs/COURSE_AUTHORING_STANDARD.md` for how to author new content
against it.

## 1. Shape

```
program (existing, 019_programs.sql — unchanged)
  → course            (new: courses)
      → module         (new: course_modules)
          → activity    (new: module_activities)
```

`platform/api/migrations/022_course_content.sql` is the schema. Every table follows the same
conventions already established by `programs`/`assessment_definitions`: a TEXT slug primary key,
a plain incrementing `version` integer bumped by hand on a semantic edit, `status`/`visibility`
CHECK constraints, `created_at`/`updated_at`.

## 2. Activity types and what they reference

| Type | References | Completion behavior |
|---|---|---|
| `lesson`, `demonstration`, `knowledge_check`, `guided_exercise`, `reflection` | a Markdown file (`content_path`) | `manual_marker` |
| `lab` | an EXISTING `scenario_id` (scenarios/data/\*.json) | `auto_scenario` |
| `assessment`, `capstone` | an EXISTING `assessment_definition_id` (`assessment_definitions`) | `auto_assessment` |

A `lab` activity never duplicates scenario content — it stores a bare `scenario_id` string, the
same id the existing curriculum/attempt/progress system already uses. An `assessment`/`capstone`
activity never duplicates an assessment definition — it stores the existing
`assessment_definition_id` and a foreign key enforces it actually exists. Neither activity type
is prevented from also having its own `content_path` (e.g. the gold module's lab activity has a
short Markdown intro at `05-lab-intro.md`) — that's framing prose around the reference, not a
copy of the referenced thing.

## 3. Where the prose lives

Long-form lesson content is git-tracked Markdown under `content/root/<course>/<module>/`, not
Postgres. Reasoning, weighed explicitly per the authorization's instruction:

- **Reviewable like code.** A lesson edit is a normal diff/PR, not an opaque row update.
- **No CMS needed.** The authorization explicitly ruled one out ("Do not build a complex CMS").
  A Postgres TEXT column holding Markdown would technically work but loses git history/diffing
  for the one thing (prose) that benefits from it most.
- **Structural metadata still belongs in Postgres** (ordering, type, references, status,
  objectives, prerequisites) because it's queried, joined, and mutated (locking/completion) —
  exactly the kind of relational state Postgres is for, and exactly what the authorization asked
  for ("Postgres preferred for metadata/state").

### The Instructor Notes convention

One Markdown file per activity, not two. Everything before a `## Instructor Notes` heading is
shared (self-paced-visible) content; that heading and everything after it is instructor-only.
`platform/api/src/content.js` does the split (`splitContent()`) — a plain string search on that
exact heading, no frontmatter parser, no template engine. The API layer (`course-progress.js`'s
`shapeActivity()`) only ever attaches `instructor_notes` to the response when the caller is
resolved (server-side, from session identity) to be an instructor — never from a request
parameter. A self-paced student and an instructor read the identical file; they just see
different slices of it.

## 4. Completion rules — one source of truth per behavior

`platform/api/src/course-progress.js`'s `isActivityComplete()` is the only place completion is
decided, and it never invents new state for anything that's independently verifiable:

- **`auto_scenario`** — reads `progress[scenario_id].status === 'completed'`, the exact same
  `progress` table `curriculum-rules.js` already reads for stage completion (`platform/api/src/
  progress.js`'s `loadProgress`). A lab activity's completion is a real fact about whether the
  student actually solved the scenario, not a flag a course layer could get out of sync with.
- **`auto_assessment`** — reads `achievements` (`achievement_type IN ('assessment_completed',
  'capstone_completed')` with `metadata->>'assessment_definition_id'` matching), the exact
  mechanism `achievements.js`'s `recordAssessmentAchievement` already writes on a real pass. No
  new achievement type, no new table.
- **`manual_marker`** — the ONE new piece of state this phase adds: `activity_completions`
  (student_id, activity_id). Used ONLY for activity types with nothing else to derive completion
  from (a lesson has no "pass/fail," a reflection has no validator). `POST /api/student/
  activities/:id/complete` refuses (409 `not_manually_completable`) for any activity whose
  `completion_behavior` isn't `manual_marker` — a student can never fake a lab or assessment
  completion through this route.

Course and module completion are pure aggregates over their activities' completion (`total`/
`completed`/`pct`/`complete` — see `totals()`), never separately stored.

## 5. Prerequisite/locking rule

A course or module lists `prerequisites` (an array of other course/module ids). It's locked if
ANY prerequisite is not satisfied, where **satisfied** means: the prerequisite has zero total
activities (a PLANNED entry — vacuously satisfied, since there's nothing to have completed) OR
the prerequisite is fully complete. This is deliberate: without the "zero activities is vacuously
satisfied" clause, an honestly-PLANNED course with no content yet would permanently lock every
real course that lists it as a prerequisite, which would perversely punish honesty about what
isn't built yet. See `course-progress.js`'s `prerequisitesSatisfied()`.

Locking is computed in two passes over each level (compute every entry's totals/prerequisite-
check, THEN strip working state) rather than one — mutating and reading totals in the same pass
made the result depend on Map iteration order, a real bug caught by `e2e-phase6a.js` during
development (see that file's "found by testing" comment in `course-progress.js`).

## 6. Draft vs. published — separate from READY/PARTIAL/PLANNED

`status` (`ready`/`partial`/`planned`) describes authoring completeness and is shown to
everyone, including students, honestly ("PLANNED — coming soon" is useful information, not a
leak). `visibility` (`published`/`draft`) is a hard gate: a `draft` course/module/activity is
excluded from every query a student-facing route runs (`buildCourseTree`'s `visClause`), full
stop, regardless of its `status`. Use `draft` for genuinely unfinished authoring work you don't
want a student to see at all yet; use `status = planned` for an honest "not built yet" that's
fine to be visible.

## 7. Why this doesn't touch Phase 1-5 systems

No column was added to `scenarios/*.json`, `assessment_definitions`, `achievements`,
`progress`, or `scenario_attempts`. No existing API route's behavior changed (the `/api/
progress/record`, `/api/assessments/*`, `/api/capstone` routes are byte-for-byte unchanged).
The course layer is purely additive: new tables, new routes, new frontend views, reading
existing tables through their existing shapes.