How to use the learning-to-learn agent skill in OpenMAIC

What the skill makes the agent do

The skill adds study habits to a concept lesson as a second goal, running alongside the subject content. The main concept line stays the same. What changes is how students work through the concept, check their understanding and review it.

The skill names six strategies: retrieval practice, self-explanation, prediction before feedback, monitoring understanding, deliberate review and productive failure. It tells the agent to use one or two that fit the task rather than listing many at once.

• Before the lesson explains an idea, students recall what they already know or write a prediction.
• After a conclusion, students explain it in their own words and answer a follow-up 'why'.
• In interactive activities, students answer or predict first, then receive feedback.
• The lesson closes by asking what students understood, how they learned it, what is still unclear, and how they will retrieve it again later.

Install the learning-to-learn skill

You can install the skill by hand or upload it through the Claude apps. Download the ZIP from the skill's page on our directory and unzip it. The skill folder contains a single file, SKILL.md.

For a personal install, unzip it into your Claude skills folder at ~/.claude/skills/. For a single project, unzip it into that project's .claude/skills/ folder instead.

In the Claude apps, you can instead upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

• Personal install: ~/.claude/skills/
• Project install: the project's .claude/skills/ folder
• App install: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP

Check the requirements before you start

This skill only works inside an OpenMAIC project. Its instructions refer to OpenMAIC-specific tools and pages, so it gives little value in a general chatbot.

The OpenMAIC project must also have its stage-design skill. The learning-to-learn instructions say stage-design still governs how classrooms are created and saved. Two other skills are optional and referenced by name: understanding-by-design and social-emotional-learning. If you use them, the skill says to set the big idea and essential questions first, then add the study strategies, and to let both parallel goals serve the same concept task.

• Required: an OpenMAIC project with its stage-design skill
• Optional: understanding-by-design
• Optional: social-emotional-learning
• The skill runs no scripts and makes no network calls, according to its listing

Trigger the skill with a natural request

You do not need a special command. Ask for the outcome in plain words, and name the strategy you want if you have one in mind. The skill's description lists the triggers: students learning how to learn while studying a subject, retrieval practice, self-explanation, prediction before feedback, monitoring understanding, deliberate review and productive failure.

If you want a lesson that has study habits built in, say so directly. If your request is a course about study skills or learning science itself, the skill is the wrong tool, and the skill's own instructions say to confirm the scope with you before going further.

• Make a lesson on photosynthesis where students predict before the answer is shown.
• Build a unit on fractions that includes retrieval practice and a short review in three days.
• Add self-explanation to my OpenMAIC lesson on supply and demand, keeping the economics as the main topic.

Write a good request

Name the concept students should end up understanding, then name the one or two study actions you want. The skill asks for a clear concept goal and a separate learning-habit goal, and it deletes any strategy it cannot justify by the concept.

Keep the lesson's on-screen text in student-facing language. The skill's instructions tell the agent to use plain action phrases such as 'answer before you look it up' or 'give a reason in your own words', not technical labels.

• Good: state the concept, the misconception you expect, and the strategy (for example, predict then check).
• Less useful: ask for 'a lesson on learning science' when you want a subject lesson.
• Check the on-screen text for internal labels before you publish.

Review the result and keep the main topic in focus

The skill's quality checks ask for a few things you can verify. Each study strategy should say which concept it serves and what students would visibly do. Students should actually try recall, self-explanation or predict-then-check at least once, not just read about them. Errors should lead to feedback, a fix and a retry, not a dead end.

The skill also forbids a universal learning method claim. If you need research evidence for a particular strategy, the skill says to verify the source before citing it.

• Each strategy names the concept it serves.
• Students practise at least one active strategy.
• Mistakes lead to feedback and a retry path.
• The closing covers concept understanding, reflection on learning and a later review step.