Instructor Guide
Doctrine boundary: Trial Ready is a simplified learning game, not a legal expert system. It emphasizes issue recognition, procedural sequencing, factual application, and record building. Confirm course-specific nuance outside the game, especially in the Erie and class-action preview track.
Before class
Begin with the 30-minute Jurisdiction and Removal pack in Study mode. Its one round uses 5 minutes for briefing, 18 for play, and 7 for debrief. These are planning targets; record actual time. Repeat the pack to exchange roles. Longer packs rotate roles across their planned rounds.
- Open the game in the classroom browser and choose a curriculum track and class length.
- Keep the recommended replay seed unless you intentionally want a different deal. Record any custom seed in your lesson notes.
- Select Apply pack and start. Confirm that the active pack title, schedule, objectives, budgets, and planned round count appear.
- Choose whether to use timed play, Study mode, Exam mode, or hidden explanations. For a first pilot, Study mode is safest during the briefing and normal timed mode is useful for the second round.
- Select Print cards if teams will use physical cards. Printing uses only the active pack's case, attack, motion, and discovery subsets and includes the lesson seed and objectives.
- Print or share the student quickstart.
- Divide students into plaintiff and defense teams. Assign one student as docket reader and one as rule explainer if groups are larger than four.
Recommended room setup
| Group size | Suggested roles | Display |
|---|---|---|
| 2 students | One plaintiff, one defense | Shared laptop |
| 3 to 4 students | Plaintiff pair and defense pair | Shared laptop or projected table |
| 5 to 8 students | Lead advocate, rule explainer, fact checker, and docket reader on each side | Projected game with one operator |
| Whole class | Room votes on moves; instructor or student volunteer operates the game | Projector |
How to facilitate a round
- Claim and defendant: Ask the plaintiff to identify the forum, citizenship facts, and why the selected defendant belongs in the case.
- Threshold window: Before the defense clicks, require a rule, supporting fact, and predicted procedural effect.
- Response: Ask whether the plaintiff's card defeats the attack, cures a defect, or merely redirects the case.
- Discovery: Require students to identify the proof item before selecting a tool. When an objection appears, separate compulsion, narrowing, and privilege-log choices.
- Rule 56: In at least one pilot round, close discovery before the checklist is complete. This makes the record consequence visible.
- Assessment: Stop after the outcome. Read doctrines triggered, wrong motions, missing proof, and governing authority IDs before rotating roles.
Classroom controls
| Control | Use | Important behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Scenario pack | Constrains cases, cards, budgets, timers, and rounds to a validated lesson. | Applying a pack starts a fresh session. |
| Replay seed | Determines deck order. | The same pack and seed reproduce the same deals and instance sequence. |
| Study mode | Pauses timers for discussion. | Turning it off starts a fresh full window for the current timed step unless No timer is enabled. Prediction and revision writing remains untimed. |
| Exchange a card | Trades one selected card for the next draw without spending budget. | Available during the role's actionable phase, including a full hand. Require students to explain the missing tool; note excessive exchanges for pilot feedback. |
| Exam mode | Hides analysis until revealed. | Useful for retrieval practice or cold calls. |
| Save / Load | Stores one exact session in the current browser. | Loading pauses any pending timer. |
| Export / Import replay | Creates or restores a portable JSON replay. | The file contains the exact state, seed, docket event log, and completed assessments. |
| Print cards | Prints a physical deck subset. | The active scenario pack controls every included card. |
Assessment evidence
The post-round panel is formative evidence, not a grade by itself. It reports:
- Doctrines triggered: Procedural issues actually activated by cards and outcomes.
- Wrong motions or tools: Nonresponsive threshold motions and mismatched discovery choices.
- Outcome: Dismissed or trial ready, with the controlling reason.
- Missing proof: Checklist items absent when the round ended.
- Governing sources: Rule or statute references tied to the played sequence.
- Budget failures: Attempts that could not proceed because the role lacked game budget.
A useful debrief asks students to correct one wrong move, defend one correct move with a fact, and identify one result that reflects game abstraction rather than full doctrine.
Replay a confusing round
- At the confusing point or immediately after the outcome, select Export replay.
- Keep the JSON file with your pilot notes. The filename identifies the pack, seed, and round.
- Use Import replay to restore the exact phase, hands, budgets, case mutations, docket, and assessment.
- Read the structured event log in the replay file if you need the order of actions. Re-run the pack with the same seed to repeat the deal from the beginning.
- If the result remains surprising, record whether the problem is doctrine logic, unclear card language, balance, or facilitation.
Local-only playtest data
Completed-round statistics are stored only in the current browser. The panel keeps at most 200 rounds.
Balance history contains counts and fixed game labels, not written reflections, custom seeds, or timestamps. Save/autosave and replay still contain written answers. Use a dedicated browser profile, omit personal information, keep exported files private, and use Clear local game data at the end of a shared-device session. Delete downloaded replays separately.
Clear stats before a comparable run; the panel combines stored rounds. Keep private observation notes on the pack, seed, mode, actual minutes, input method, and anonymous role counts. Share only reviewed aggregate results and paraphrased issues. Keep completed observation sheets and learner replays private.
| Signal | Definition | Possible tuning question |
|---|---|---|
| Average round length | Elapsed time from deal through assessment, including discussion and writing. Time between a save and its restoration is excluded. | Does actual classroom play fit the planned block? Record interruptions separately. |
| Attack success rate | Meritorious defense attacks that produce a defense-favorable ruling divided by attacks played. | Are threshold attacks too strong or too weak? |
| Budget failures | Attempts rejected by the engine for insufficient budget. Disabled unaffordable cards do not record an attempt. | Record unaffordable disabled choices manually; zero misses does not establish adequate budget. |
| Card exchanges | One-for-one exchanges, counted separately from cards played. | Did the exchange resolve a missing tool or encourage searching without reasoning? |
| Cases never trial ready | Played cases with no trial-ready outcome in stored rounds. | Is a case unfair, unclear, or intentionally difficult? |
| Drawn but never played | Cards drawn at least once but never played across stored rounds. | Is the card dead weight, too expensive, or poorly signposted? |
Suggested pilot feedback
After class, record these five items privately. Prefer reproducing issues with a synthetic replay instead of sharing learner writing:
- Pack, duration, seed, section size, and actual minutes used.
- One procedural choice students explained well.
- One card, instruction, or ruling students misunderstood.
- Whether the post-round assessment matched the discussion you wanted.
- One concrete change for the next pilot: wording, budget, timer, case, card subset, or facilitation prompt.
Contingencies
- If the network is unavailable after the page loads, the game, save/load, stats, and printing continue locally. External source links will not open.
- If time is short, close discovery early and use Rule 56 as the final decision point.
- If students are stuck, enable explanations or Study mode rather than supplying the correct card immediately.
- If a timer expires during discussion, load the saved state or import a replay and continue with timers paused.
- If a replay import is rejected, confirm it is an unmodified Version 0.4 replay under 2 MB with the current content version.