VetsLearn · Facilitator primer · Facilitation guide v2, 2026-10-09
You do not need to be an AI expert to run this session. You need to be prepared, and willing to say “I don't know, let's check.” This primer covers how the lessons talk about AI and the few moves that keep a session useful.
The one rule under all the others
The lessons come back to one line: AI drafts, you verify, you own. A fluent draft is useful. It is not proof. Your job is to leave people better at checking a draft against its source. If a room walks out excited and uncritical, the session missed.
How the lessons talk
Plain, direct, short. Brief the room. Do not pitch it.
| Do | Do not |
|---|---|
| “Here is what it does. Here is where it fails.” | “This changes everything.” |
| “Run one rep this week on real work.” | Promise a productivity number. |
| “That claim has no source behind it. Check it.” | Wave a failure away as rare or nearly fixed. |
| Short sentences. Verbs first. Numbers when you have them. | Adjective stacks and motivational filler. |
| “I don't know. Let's verify it now.” | Bluff to protect your authority. |
Keep out of the room
No hype. No fear-selling. Do not promise anyone a job, a raise or a dollar outcome. You are teaching a skill.
Who is in the room
Expect a mix: someone three weeks from separation, someone five years out and stalled, a spouse rebuilding a career after a move, a senior NCO who doubts this is worth the time. Most have sat through a bad briefing and can tell a sales pitch. Show a flawed draft and how to catch it in the first fifteen minutes.
Operator framing
These are people who have run real operations with real consequences. Frame AI as a tool they operate, held to a standard they set. “You already check a plan before you brief it. Same habit. New tool.”
Five moves that make a session work
- Open with a flawed draft. Use the one from Foundations 01. Put the source facts and the draft on screen and have the room judge each claim before you explain anything. It needs no AI account and it fails the same way every time.
- Teach against their work. Have each person name a task they will do this week and work on that.
- Read the limits aloud. When a tool shows a “Data current as of” line or a coverage note, read it and say why it is there.
- Make them do one rep. Build in worksheet time and hold the room to filling it in.
- Close with the next move. End on one thing to do tomorrow and where the free lessons and tools are.
Hard moments
“Is AI going to take my job?”
Do not dismiss it and do not predict. Say what you can stand behind: people who can direct a tool and check its output are in a better position than people who cannot. Then go back to the skill.
“This is a fad.” or “This is dangerous.”
Agree with the true part. There is hype. It does fail. That is why the session teaches checking.
A question you cannot answer
Say so. Then open a source and check it with the room.
Someone starts to share something sensitive
Stop it gently. Keep everything unclassified. No unit locations, no operational details, no personal identifiers. Nothing sensitive goes into a live demo.
What the tools do with typed text
Some tools at tools.vetslearn.com send what is typed to an AI provider, Anthropic, to generate part of the result. Each one says so in a notice at the input. Read that notice aloud before you type. In front of a room, type only fictional or sanitized text. The privacy page lists which tools do this and what stays in the browser.
What you are not doing
- Not giving legal, financial, medical or benefits advice. Point to the real source: a VA-accredited VSO for claims, the official site for a number.
- Not certifying or grading anyone. Completion of a lesson is self-reported.
- Not collecting personal data for VetsLearn. VetsLearn asks you for nothing about your learners.
- Not speaking for VetsLearn or for any agency. VetsLearn does not run your session and is not a government program.
Pre-flight
Run each demo that day. Read the demo script. Have the flawed draft ready to show. Print the worksheets. Know where the free lessons are so you can point to them.