What Can Duolingo Teach You About Creating an Addictive Course? -

Duolingo is a company that has designed an e-learning experience that's rewarding and efficient. Learn how you can apply its most effective features for your class.

Four33 days back, I made an account on Duolingo to the very first time. I'm aware of the exact date since that's what my streak has been. Since then, I've primarily spent my time with the mobile version of their app as well as trying out their courses that are available in Spanish, Russian, German and Korean.

And indeed they are! Duolingo isn't without its flaws However, it offers the opportunity to learn and provides an easier way of exploring a language than its competitors (that I've tried). In addition, the learning experiences it offers are useful that can be used by educators from other fields in addition. If you're looking to provide an engaging and interactive e-learning experience, Duolingo is a highly effective approach.

Five observations I've made that can apply to any course that uses e-learning.

1. Use many kinds of gamification As much as you can.

Gamification refers to the process of ensuring that learning objectives have a connection to particular actions or triggers in ways that motivate learners or create the spirit of competition. Duolingo is notable , not just for its use of gamification and effectively, but also for using gamification in a variety of methods. Some of the ones I've seen are:

• Streaks. Not wanting to be able to lose my streak is the #1 reason I'm still using the app. No joke.
• Points. Duolingo lets learners create a daily goal for points, and also ties points to various other elements of gaming.
• leaderboards. I don't compete to be the top player every week however, whenever I have to, I am enthralled by the task.
• Leagues. Early on, my drive to get to the top league made it easier for me to keep my streak going. This kept me returning until I'd reached my Diamond league, and now, every time I slip out of the diamond league, the desire to return to the top gets me to compete again.
• badges. I had to reach the diamond league to obtain the diamond league badge. After that, I needed to be the winner of the diamond league in order to get the badge. In order to get it, I must earn an award in all areas within a class so that I can be awarded that Conqueror badge. See how it never ends?
• Crowns. Earning crowns provides an uplifting feeling of satisfaction. It is fun to check off boxes.
• Timed challenges. Timed challenges add another level of difficulty and also boost memory speed. In spoken language, you need to create sentences that are in the proper grammar pattern under pressure. This is a fantastic instance of how games can also serve real life educational goals.

The platform supports several of these gamification options with ease, but others can be made possible through modification or additional add-ons. In the case of learners, they can earn points from questions, these points could be tied to a leaderboard or you can put an amount of time for the quizzes, and badges can be awarded when the learner completes a certain action.

2. Don't be afraid to forgive errors.

I would have lost my 433-day streak somewhere around Day 100, if not due to Duolingo's streak freezing. At first this felt as if I was cheating however the reality is that there are times when life gets in the way. And if I'd been unable to keep a streak for 100 days later the event of a crisis come up at work, or because of a personal tragedy, the loss of the streak could be pretty demoralizing--so much so I could even decide to quit the app.

Duolingo is also able to keep the record of any mistakes you make to help you practice those sentences again for extra exp. Also, there's always an opportunity to improve in Duolingo. Mistakes aren't permanent, they're simply an area that requires some practice. If life happens to get impeding your getting better at it for a short time it's not necessary to hold yourself accountable for your mistakes.

3. It is important to prioritize flexibility, mobility and mobility.

The lessons on Duoliongo seldom last more than 5 minutes. That means that there's always enough time for completing a lesson, and when you're able to engage with the material and engaging, there's usually a good reason to take multiple.

But, since the material is so short and so portable, there are times when I've found myself trying to finish a class in a public space where it might not be acceptable to repeat the same phrases over and over. Duolingo solves this issue by giving alternatives that state "I cannot listen at the moment," or "I can't speak in this moment." It allows learners to keep learning even if they're in a noisy or congested space.

4. Engage with a range of capabilities using a variety of learning formats.

In the beginning, when I began using Duolingo, their lessons mostly included the translation of sentences back and forth either with or without word bank. Sometimes , I would have to listen to a sentence and write down what I heard, or I was asked to read out a phrase in front of the application to assess my ability to pronounce. The questions generally followed a few basic formats.

Since then, Duolingo has expanded question formats and provided new kinds of teaching exercises. The most well-known courses are a "stories" section that helps to improve reading comprehension. Additionally, they offer recordings to help develop listening comprehension. In fact, the standard lessons contain longer audio quests, where students must listen attentively for a long time and respond to a question regarding the content they have heard.

These diverse question type cover three of four main parts of learning languages that are writing, reading speaking and listening. Only speaking, which would probably require a one-on-one conversation tutor, is lacking.

The most important thing is that the variety of content types makes for the most interesting and entertaining experience. One year ago I was getting exhausted of reading sentences back and forth. Now, when I grow exhausted of the standard lessons, I can switch it up with other kinds of material.

The same can be done by offering different content types--or with a variety of question types in the creation of your test questions. There are a variety of question types, including multi-choice, single-choice (true false), fill-in-the-blank, matching, sorting and essay.

5. Always be innovating.

Finally, if there's one that I've always been impressed by with the Duolingo app, it's that in the time I've been using it its features have only grown. Every month they are updating their features in order to provide a more enjoyable learning experience. They've introduced new challenges, introduced an array of characters that enhance their narratives and have also expanded their badges. They've designed additional question formats as well as launched daily and monthly point challenges, each with their own gamification reward.

Being a user, I am convinced that the manner in which I use the application is creating an positive feedback loop which only increases my enjoyment of the app over time. It's quite a thrilling experience.

However, many teachers don't have the resources to put into a refined application such as Duolingo. However, on a less level, you could keep an eye on your students when they provide feedback, and always consider ways to enhance the learner experience of the course. If you're constantly advancing your knowledge, you won't be taken off-guard by the competition.

It requires time and effort to develop an engaging online learning process, however the return is enormous.

Duolingo is a popular choice with its admirers as well as its critics. Myself, I find it frustrating because it seems that the Spanish program continues to grow in length and the Russian course remains underdeveloped. A few languages, including Korean, don't have nearly sufficient support to learn and writing in the alphabet, and I'm worried that the other languages are being added in a hurry, more as a show rather than an actual educational experience.

But, it cannot be said that Duolingo has invested more in creating a great experience for its learners over any other educational program I've ever experienced. It does this with an obsessive focus on UX, UI, and user data. This focus hasn't just lead to a more addictive app--but it actually assists learners achieve their learning objectives.

After one year of Duo's Spanish course, where I've devoted myself to reaching the very top of my ability, I'm only at Checkpoint 2. However, the other day I had a chat in Spanish with two friends. One of whom had completed Duo's Spanish course and another is an ESL instructor of mostly spanish-speaking students. One of my teachers asked me about the plans we had planned to start the day, and I discussed the items that I have in my fridge and suggested that we make breakfast.

It's a small victory however, nothing beats a win that makes you want to go on.