Graded work, defended aloud
A milestone is where the grade comes from. The learner builds real work against a brief, locks it, and then defends it in a short live conversation — so the grade rests on understanding the learner can explain, not on text anyone could paste.
Why a defense
Any written answer can now be produced by an AI tool in seconds. A short spoken defense cannot. Asking a learner to explain their own work — why they chose this, what would change if that were different — is the oldest test of understanding there is, and Maestro makes it part of every milestone.
The path through a milestone
Every milestone is entered through its Milestone Guide, and the guide's button always shows the next step.
1 · The Milestone Guide
What the milestone covers, the outcomes it proves, and every criterion with its percentage weight.
2 · Choose your world
The learner picks a context for the brief, so the work is theirs from the first line.
3 · Build the work
Autosave with version history, file uploads, and a log of each day's work.
4 · Ready to defend
A mic and speaker test, a quiet place, and the work locked but still readable. Then: “I am ready: submit and start my defense.”
5 · The spoken defense
A live voice conversation: the learner's locked work on the left, the questions on the right. They can interrupt, and the examiner stops to listen.
6 · Your results
A weighted report against the rubric, kept in Your results for the course and in My results across every course.
Ready, not rushed
- Revision first. Before a milestone opens, the learner gives each “Before Milestone” revision item one honest try. Passing isn't needed.
- Weights you set. The percentages come from the course's own Rubric and Weighting review — shown in the guide, the page, and the report.
- Marked against what they took. Released versions are frozen, so work and grades stay tied to the version of the course the learner took — a later release never rewrites them.
One grade column per milestone
Delivered through your LMS over LTI 1.3, each approved milestone gets its own gradebook column carrying its weight.