What is Duolingo's ability to teach about creating an add-on course? -

Duolingo has developed an online learning experience that's rewarding and efficient. This is how you can incorporate its most effective features to your course.

433 weeks ago I signed up for an account on Duolingo for the first time. I'm aware of the exact date as that's the length of my streak runs. Since that time, I've primarily spent my time with their mobile app, and have tried out the courses offered for Spanish, Russian, German, and Korean.

Indeed they do! Duolingo has its faults, but it does deliver a learning experience that offers a far easier on-ramp to exploring a one than the other rivals (that I've used). The most important thing is that the experiences it offers are useful that can be used by educators from other fields too. If you're in the market for an engaging and interactive e-learning experience, Duolingo is a highly effective method.

Below are five observations that I've made which can be applied to almost any elearning course.

1. Utilize a variety of forms of gaming, as much as possible.

Gamification is when learning objectives are tied to certain purposes or triggers which reward students or encourage competitiveness. Duolingo is notable , not just for its use of gamification, but for deploying games in various ways. Some of the ones I've seen are:

• streaks. Not wanting to be able to lose my streak is the primary reason for me to stay on the app. No joke.
• Points. Duolingo lets learners establish a daily target for points, and also ties points with other elements of gamification.
• Leaderboards. I don't compete for a top spot every week and when I do, you can bet that I enjoy the competition.
• Leagues. Early on, my determination to be in the top league made it easier for me to continue my winning streak. This kept me returning until I was in the Diamond league, and now whenever I get out of the Diamond league, the desire to return to the top gets me to compete again.
• Badges. I had to make it to the diamond league to earn the diamond league badge. After that, I needed to be the winner of the diamond league in order to get that badge. In order to get it, I must earn a crown in every skill within a class so that I will earn that Conqueror badge. Isn't it amazing how the process never ceases?
• Crowns. Earning crowns provides an uplifting feeling of satisfaction. I like checking off boxes.
• Timing-based challenges. Timed challenges add a new level of difficulty however they also increase memory speed. When speaking it is essential be able to form sentences that are in the proper grammar structure under time pressure. This is a fantastic instance of how games is also a great tool for real-world objectives for learning.

It supports a variety of these gamification options with ease, but others can be accomplished through tweaks or additional add-ons. In the case of learners, they get points for taking quizzes, points can be tied to a leaderboard and you could set the time limits for exams, and badges could be awarded when the learner completes a certain action.

2. Be forgiving of mistakes.

I would have lost my 433-day streak somewhere around Day 100, if not because of Duolingo's streak thawing. At first this felt a little like cheating, however the reality is that sometimes life happens. In the event that I lost a streak 100 days later the event of a crisis that came up at work or because of a personal loss, the end of this streak would be pretty demoralizing--so much so that I might actually quit the app.

Duolingo is also able to keep the record of any mistakes you make so that you can review those words again to earn extra points. In other words, there's always an opportunity to improve in Duolingo. It's not a matter of if you've made a mistake, it simply an area that requires a little more practice. If life happens to get impeding your learning for a little bit it's not necessary to hold yourself accountable for your mistakes.

3. Prioritize mobility--and flexibility.

Instructions on Duoliongo typically last less than five minutes. This means there's almost always the time needed to complete a lesson, and when you're able to engage with the material and engaging, there's usually a good reason to do several.

The content is so short and so mobile, there are also times when I've found myself trying to finish a class in a public space that it's appropriate to be repeating the same phrases over and over. Duolingo can help by providing alternatives that state "I don't have the time to listen now," or "I can't talk in this moment." This lets learners remain engaged in their studies regardless of whether they're in a busy or crowded space.

4. Learn a variety of skills with a variety of learning formats.

In the beginning, when I began using Duolingo, their lessons mostly involved translating sentences back and forth using or without a word bank. At times, I was asked to listen to a passage and write down the information I heard. Or I would be asked to read out a phrase in front of the application to test my ability to pronounce. The questions generally followed a few basic formats.

Since then, Duolingo has expanded question forms and has introduced different types of exercises for learning. The most well-known courses are an "stories" section that also helps improve your reading comprehension. Additionally, they offer recordings to help develop listening comprehension. Even the regular lessons now contain longer audio quests, where students must listen attentively for a long time and answer a question about what they were hearing.

Together, these various question types cover three of the four main parts of learning a language that are writing, reading listening , and speaking. Speaking, which would likely require a one-on-1 conversation with a instructor, isn't covered.

In the end, the diversity of content types makes for the most interesting and entertaining experience. One year ago I was getting tired of reading phrases back and forth. As I age, I am tired of the normal lessons I'm able to change it up with other kinds of content.

It is possible to do this by providing different types of content or with a variety of problem types when building your quizzes. There are a variety of types of questions like multi-choice, single-choice (true false) as well as fill-in the-blank, matching, sorting, and essays.

5. Always strive to be innovative.

In the end, if there's a single thing I've been continually delighted with about the Duolingo application, it's the fact that over the years I've been using it, its features have only grown. It seems like each month they update their features in order to improve the learning experience. They've introduced new challenges, added an array of characters to enrich their stories, expanded their badges, developed additional question formats, as well as launched daily and monthly point-based challenges each having their own unique reward for gamification.

As a user, I get the impression that the manner in which I use the app is creating a positive feedback loop that will only increase my appreciation of the application as time goes on. That's a pretty heady feeling.

Of course, most educators aren't equipped to put into a refined app like Duolingo. But at a smaller level, you could pay close attention to your students when they provide feedbackand constantly look for ways to improve the experience that learners get from your course. If you're always staying fresh so that you don't get caught off guard by your competitors.

It requires time and effort to create an engaging elearning process, however the return is huge.

Duolingo is a popular choice with its admirers as well as its critics. For my part, I find it frustrating that it seems that the Spanish course keeps getting longer as the Russian courses aren't as well-developed. Certain languages, like Korean aren't equipped with enough resources to support learning and writing in the alphabet, and I worry that other languages have been added in haste, and more for show than a real learning experience.

But, it cannot be disregarded that Duolingo is more invested in creating a great experience for its learners than any other learning program I've ever experienced. It does this with an obsession with UX, UI, and information about users. This focus hasn't just lead to an app that is more addicting, but it actually assists learners reach their goals of learning.

After one year of Duo's Spanish course, where I've devoted myself to reaching the top level in each area, I'm just barely at Checkpoint 2. The other day, I had a short discussion in Spanish with two friends. One who had taken Duo's Spanish course, one of them is an ESL instructor of mostly spanish-speaking students. One of my teachers asked me what we planned in the morning. I discussed the items I had in my refrigerator and offered to cook breakfast for them.

It's a small victory, but there's nothing like winning that makes you want to keep going.