What can Duolingo teach you About Creating an Addictive 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 learning.

About 433 weeks ago I created an account for myself on Duolingo as the first time. I'm sure of the exact amount, because that's how long my streak runs. Since that time I've spent most of my time with their mobile application, and have tried out the courses offered in Spanish, Russian, German as well as Korean.

And indeed they are! Duolingo has its faults However, it offers a learning experience that offers a far easier on-ramp to trying out a new one than the other opponents (that I've used). 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 a more engaging elearning user experience Duolingo offers a powerful approach.

Five observations I've come across that could be applied to any course that uses e-learning.

1. Make use of all kinds of games to the maximum extent possible.

Gamification occurs when the learning goals have a connection to particular actions or triggers in ways that reward learners or inspire competitiveness. Duolingo is notable , not just for using gamification well however, it also uses the game in many ways. Some of the ones I've seen are:

• streaks. Not wanting to be able to lose my streak is the main reason why I'm in the application. No joke.
• Points. Duolingo lets learners set a daily point goal as well as tie points to various other elements of gaming.
• leaderboards. I don't compete for a top spot every week however, whenever I participate, I find the challenge exciting.
• Leagues. Early on, my drive to get to the top league made it easier for me to maintain my streak. It kept me coming back until I was in my Diamond league, and now each time I fall out of the Diamond league, the need to be back at the high motivates me to play with the same intensity.
• badges. I had to make it to the diamond league to earn the badge of diamond league. After that, I needed to be the winner of the diamond league in order in order to earn that badge. In order to get it, I must earn the highest grade in each skill in a course so that I get that Conqueror badge. See how it never ends?
• Crowns. Earning crowns provides an uplifting feeling of satisfaction. It is fun to check off boxes.
• Timing-based challenges. Timed challenges add another level of difficulty, but the also improve recall speed. Speaking in a spoken language, you need be able to form sentences that are in the proper grammar pattern under pressure. This is a great illustration of how gaming is also a great tool for real-world educational goals.

The platform supports several types of gamification features in the native way, while others may be achieved through modifications or by adding additional features. For instance, learners are able to earn points through tests, and points may be tied to a leaderboard or you can put a time limit on tests, and badges may be given out when a student completes a certain action.

2. Be forgiving of mistakes.

I'd lost my streak of 433 days around Day 100 had it not been due to Duolingo's streak freezing. At first this felt somewhat like cheating however the reality is that sometimes life happens. If I had ended a streak of 100 days in due to a problem that came up at work or due to 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 track of your mistakes so that you can practice those sentences again for an extra boost in XP. In other words, there's always an opportunity to improve in Duolingo. The mistakes aren't irreparable, they're just an area that needs a little more practice. If life happens to get out of the way of getting better at it for a short time then there's no reason to punish you for it.

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

Instructions in Duoliongo seldom last more than 5 minutes. It means that you'll have plenty of enough time for completing a lesson, and when the content itself is engaging, almost always a reason to do multiple.

The content is so short and so mobile, there are also times when I've found myself having to work on a task in a public area in which it's not acceptable to repeat the same phrases over and over. Duolingo can help by providing choices that read "I don't have the time to listen now," or "I can't talk right now." It allows learners to remain engaged in their studies even if they're in a noisy or congested space.

4. Engage with a range of abilities using a range of learning formats.

When I first started with Duolingo, the lessons involved the translation of sentences back and forth either with or without word bank. Sometimes I would be asked to listen to a sentence before writing down the information I heard. Or I would be asked to read out a phrase loud so the app could assess my pronunciation. Most of the time, questions were based on some basic forms.

Since then, Duolingo has expanded question forms and has introduced different types of teaching exercises. The most well-known courses are the "stories" section that also helps improve your reading comprehension. Additionally, they offer audio lessons to build listening comprehension. Even the regular lessons now include longer audio quests where learners have to listen carefully for several sentences and then answer a question about the content they have were hearing.

In total, the various questions type cover three of four main parts of learning languages: reading, writing, listening , and speaking. Speaking, which would probably require a one-on-one conversation tutor, is lacking.

The most important thing is that the variety of types of content makes for the most interesting and entertaining experience. A year ago I was getting tired of translating sentences in and out. When I get tired of the normal lessons, I can switch it around with different types of materials.

It is possible to do this by offering different content types--or making use of a wide range of question types in the creation of your test questions. includes a number of different types of questions like one-choice, multiple-choice (true false), fill-in-the-blank, sorting, matching, as well as essay.

5. Always keep innovating.

If there's one aspect I've never failed to be delighted with about the Duolingo app, it's that in the time I've used it, it's only improved. Each month, it seems they are updating their features in order to provide a more enjoyable learning experience. They've created new challenges, added the characters they've introduced that enhance their narratives as well as expanded their badges. developed additional question formats, as well as launched daily and monthly point challenges, each featuring a unique gamification incentive.

As a user, I am convinced that my use of the app is creating an enjoyable feedback loop that will only increase my appreciation of the application as time goes on. This is a very enthralling impression.

Of course, most educators aren't equipped to pour into a polished app such as Duolingo. On a more modest size, you'll be able to be attentive to the students who provide comments, and look for ways to improve the learning experience for the course. If you're never bored, you won't be taken off-guard by the competition.

It's a lot of work and time to design an enjoyable e-learning experience, but the payoff is immense.

Duolingo has its fans as well as its critics. Personally I am frustrated because the Spanish course keeps getting longer as the Russian courses aren't as well-developed. Some languages, such as Korean do not have sufficient support to learn and writing using the alphabet. In addition, I worry that other languages have been added sloppily--more as a show rather than an actual education experiences.

It can't be disregarded that Duolingo has put more effort into providing a superior experience for its learners than any other course I've seen, and it has achieved this through an intense focus on UX, UI, and user data. This focus hasn't just lead to a more addictive app--but one which actually helps learners reach their goals of learning.

After one year of Duo's Spanish course, in which I've devoted myself to reaching the top level in each ability, I'm only at Checkpoint 2. But the other day, I had a conversation in Spanish with a couple friends--one of whom had completed Duo's Spanish course, one of them is an ESL teacher of primarily Spanish-speaking students. One of my teachers asked me what we planned for the morning, and I talked about the ingredients that I have in my fridge and offered to make breakfast.

It's not a huge win however, nothing beats a win to inspire you to continue.