Course Description Analyzer

Overview

This Anthropic Claude Skill is the first step in the process of generating an intelligent textbook. The next Skill is the 'learning-graph-generator` Skill.

Analyze or create high-quality course descriptions that contain all necessary elements for generating comprehensive learning graphs with 200+ concepts. Check the /docs/course-description.md file for completeness, quality, and alignment with 2001 Bloom's Taxonomy learning outcomes.

Workflow Decision Tree

Start by checking if /docs/course-description.md exists:

File does not exist → Follow Creation Workflow (Step 1)
File exists → Follow Analysis Workflow (Step 2)

Tell the user that they are running Version 0.03 of the Course Description Analyzer Skill.

Step 1: Course Description Creation

Use this workflow when /docs/course-description.md does not exist.

1.1 Gather Course Information

Ask the user the following questions sequentially (not all at once):

What is the title of the course?
What is the target audience of the course?
- Options: elementary, junior high, high school, college undergraduate, graduate students, adult continuing education, professional development, or other
What are the prerequisites for this course?
- If none, explicitly state "None"
What are the main subjects/topics covered by this course?
- Request a list of major topics
What are the learning outcomes organized by the 2001 Bloom's Taxonomy?
- Explain that after this course, students will be able to demonstrate competencies at each level:
  - Remember: Retrieve, recognize, and recall relevant knowledge
  - Understand: Construct meaning from instructional messages
  - Apply: Carry out or use procedures in given situations
  - Analyze: Break material into parts and determine relationships
  - Evaluate: Make judgments based on criteria and standards
  - Create: Put elements together to form coherent wholes; includes capstone projects

1.2 Generate Course Description

Use the template from assets/course-description-template.md and populate it with the user's responses. Create the file at /docs/course-description.md.

Ensure the generated file includes:

Clear course title
Target audience specification
Prerequisites (or "None")
Comprehensive list of main topics
Section for topics NOT covered (to set boundaries)
Detailed learning outcomes organized by all six Bloom's Taxonomy levels
Descriptive text explaining why the course is important

1.3 After Creation

After creating the file, automatically proceed to Step 2 (Analysis Workflow) to validate the newly created course description and provide a quality score.

Step 2: Course Description Analysis

Use this workflow when /docs/course-description.md already exists.

2.1 Read the Course Description

Read /docs/course-description.md and analyze its contents against the quality criteria.

2.2 Course Description Quality Scoring System

Evaluate the course description using this 100-point scoring system:

Element	Points	Criteria
Title	5	Clear, descriptive course title present
Target Audience	5	Specific audience identified (e.g., "college undergraduate")
Prerequisites	5	Prerequisites listed or explicitly stated as "None"
Main Topics Covered	10	Comprehensive list of topics (ideally 5-10 topics)
Topics Excluded	5	Clear boundaries set for what's NOT covered
Learning Outcomes Header	5	Clear statement: "After this course, students will be able to..."
Remember Level	10	Multiple specific outcomes for remembering/recalling
Understand Level	10	Multiple specific outcomes for understanding/explaining
Apply Level	10	Multiple specific outcomes for applying/using
Analyze Level	10	Multiple specific outcomes for analyzing/breaking down
Evaluate Level	10	Multiple specific outcomes for evaluating/judging
Create Level	10	Multiple specific outcomes for creating/synthesizing; includes capstone ideas
Descriptive Context	5	Additional context about course importance, relevance, or value

Scoring Guidelines:

Award full points if element is complete and high-quality
Award partial points if element is present but incomplete or vague
Award 0 points if element is missing
For Bloom's Taxonomy levels, require at least 3 specific, actionable outcomes for full points

2.3 Gap Analysis

Identify missing or weak elements:

List each element that scored less than full points
Explain what is missing or insufficient
Indicate how the absence impacts learning graph generation

2.4 Improvement Suggestions

Provide specific, actionable recommendations:

For missing elements: Suggest what should be added
For weak elements: Provide examples of how to strengthen them
For Bloom's Taxonomy outcomes: Recommend specific verbs and topics
Prioritize suggestions that will have the most impact on reaching the goal of generating 200 concepts

2.5 Course Description Assessment Report

Use mkdir -p docs/learning-graph to create a learning-graph directory in the docs directory.

Generate a comprehensive quality report on the course description and write it to docs/learning-graph/course-description-assessment.md

Overall Score: X/100
Quality Rating:
- 90-100: Excellent - Ready for learning graph generation
- 75-89: Good - Minor improvements recommended
- 60-74: Adequate - Several improvements needed
- 40-59: Fair - Significant gaps to address
- 0-39: Poor - Major revision required
Detailed Scoring Breakdown: Show points earned for each element
Gap Analysis: List of missing or weak elements
Improvement Suggestions: Prioritized recommendations
Next Steps:
- If score ≥ 85: Ready to proceed with learning graph generation
- If score < 85: Recommend addressing specific gaps before generating learning graph

2.6 Update Course Description Metadata

In this section NAME is the name of the course taken from the course description. QUALITY_SCORE is the score you computed for the course description.

If it does not exist, add the following yml metadata at the top of the docs/course-description.md file:

---
title: Course Description for Course NAME
description: A detailed course description for NAME including overview, topics covered and learning objectives in the format of the 2001 Bloom Taxonomy
quality_score: QUALITY_SCORE
---

2.7 Concept Generation Readiness

Assess whether the course description contains sufficient detail to generate 200 concepts:

Evaluate topic breadth and depth
Check if Bloom's Taxonomy outcomes suggest diverse concept types
Estimate potential concept count based on current content
Recommend additions if concept generation may fall short

Add course-description.md and and the course-description-assessment.md to mkdocs.yml Navigation

After the course-description.md file has been added to the /docs direction, ask the user if the new file should be added to the mkdocs.yml file. If the answer is yes, place the new file after the about.md file.

nav:
   ...
   About: about.md
   Course Description: course-description.md
   ...
   Learning Graph:
      Course Description Assessment: learning-graph/course-description-assessment.md

Next Step

For all users with a score over 85, ask if the learning-graph-generator skill should be run next.

Best Practices

When using this skill:

Be thorough: Don't skip Bloom's Taxonomy levels—all six are essential for comprehensive learning
Be specific: Vague outcomes like "understand the material" won't support quality learning graphs
Use action verbs: Each outcome should start with a measurable verb (list, explain, apply, analyze, evaluate, design, etc.)
Think concepts: Each topic and outcome should suggest multiple learnable concepts
Set boundaries: Topics excluded are as important as topics covered for scope management

Resources

assets/

course-description-template.md: Template structure for creating new course descriptions with all required sections and Bloom's Taxonomy framework

course-description-analyzer