We break down what Duolingo gets right when it comes to eLearning to help inspire your strategy for your own LMS.
When you think of eLearning, you might think of language learning platform Duolingo. And we wouldn’t blame you.
The platform has over 575 million users worldwide, 56.5m of those being monthly active users.
Duolingo took cues from the world of gaming, opting for a focus on user experience rather than formalised learning paths.
Add a sassy owl mascot, and you’ve got a recipe for learning success.
But what is it about Duolingo that keeps users coming back, and what can L&D professionals in a more structured setting take from it for their own learning solutions?
That’s what we’re here to pull apart.
What is Duolingo?
Duolingo is a popular language-learning platform that offers a fun and interactive way to acquire new language skills.
Used by millions of users worldwide, Duolingo provides a diverse range of languages to learn, from Spanish and French to less commonly studied languages like Swahili and Navajo.
Its user-friendly interface and gamified approach make learning languages accessible to individuals of all ages and proficiency levels.
With features such as bite-sized lessons, personalised learning paths, and interactive exercises, Duolingo enables users to practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in their target language.
Whether you’re a professional looking to enhance your global communication skills or simply passionate about learning new languages, Duolingo offers a convenient and engaging platform to achieve your linguistic goals.
What is the crossover for LMS admins?
We understand any hesitance from L&D professionals managing learning content for more rigid sectors like healthcare or financial services.
But while you might not want to adopt all of the aspects of Duolingo, there are a number of features and aspects of the app that are key to learning success.
Break the mould of how you’re creating learning content and solutions.
These features could help you improve engagement, retention and general enjoyment.
7 things Duolingo gets right with eLearning
Duolingo is a fantastic way to brush up on your language skills.
But for those working in learning and development sector, it’s also a great tool to look at for inspiration.
The biggest way Duolingo changed the industry was by introducing more gamification into its learning style.
We’ll come onto that shortly, but there are a whole host of other ways to improve your learning strategy.
Let’s look at them:
Learning path previews
One thing Duolingo does well is simply displaying the learning path that users will be undertaking.
Each unit is colour-coded, and each unit is one stepping stone towards the next unit.
This is super simple, and so visually the learner knows what it takes to progress and how much learning they need to get through.
This could be something you might consider in your own LMS to give users a more visual understanding of the module components.
Totara offers solid course management where you can list out course details and individual topics and activities.
But, to go one step further, you can turn this into a more interactive, visual feature.
Find your level testing
When you begin a new course on Duolingo, you’ll be prompted to specify how much you already know in that language.
But a great feature that the app also offers is the ‘Find your level’ testing option.
This is a responsive, AI-managed tool that allows you to test users on their current knowledge.
As they get questions right, the difficulty increases.
What’s left is a better understanding of the user’s current comprehension of the language.
This could be a really useful tool in a professional LMS too.
When you consider compliance training, you could adopt a similar approach and test users first.
Where they fall short, they will have to relearn and then retest.
This would encourage better learning retention, and ultimately will be a huge timesaver for both the learner, as well as your organisation. It will guarantee better compliance ratings as your users will be able to use their existing knowledge to cover the gaps.
This could also be used for new learning topics to better gauge where users are at, and set them off at the right point.
Positive reinforcement
Many LMSs adopt a very flat approach to learning content.
The learner reads or watches learning material and then completes a quiz at the end.
Duolingo meanwhile teaches via a quiz format. And in that process, it uses positive feedback to reinforce learning.
It sounds simple, but quizzing via every new piece of knowledge allows users to keep their brains switched on.
If they’re just reading content instead, chances are, they aren’t absorbing it. With a quiz format, they’re forced to pay more attention as they want to get them right to avoid retaking them at the end.
Phrases like “That’s 5 in a row!” congratulate learners on their progress, and quantify progress.
Ongoing feedback is positive, even when the user gets an answer wrong.
And then, at the end of the unit, the user is given the opportunity to answer the questions they got wrong again.
Positive language like “Let’s correct the exercises you missed!” helps avoid negative connotations between the user and learning.
When you’re building your learning content, think about your users want to engage with it.
Do they want to passively read through, or silently sit and watch a video? Or, would they prefer a more game-like, quiz-based approach?
Gamification
Duolingo excels at gamification. We believe that it’s how they retain users so well.
There are a number of different gamification features in Duolingo.
First up is the basic stats at the end of a unit.
People are competitive and want to do well.
Adding ‘time to complete’, accuracy, or points to the end screen gives some finality to learning content and quantifies their progress.
Duolingo also offers leaderboards based on a simple XP system.
Users earn points based on how well they do in units, and how many they complete.
This unlocks challenges and quests and it also determines their place on a leaderboard.
This recently evolved to include leagues so now users can be promoted or demoted from leagues like silver and gold.
Tactics like this encourages players to feel competitive and gives them more motivation.
On top of that, users are rewarded.
Not only do they get gratification via points, but they are also offered freebies and achievements.
Users can earn rewards that they can use within the app, such as the streak freezes.
That brings us nicely onto streaks.
This might be the main way Duolingo keeps monthly users so high.
Users can build a streak based on logging in and completely learning every day. As that number grows, users increasingly feel pressure to maintain their streak.
This can be a great way to encourage engagement and repeat visits.
Simplified learning
One of the main benefits of Duolingo is how simple and easy it is to use. Its user experience is of paramount importance and it gives users the option to do learning on their own terms.
Of course, it’s available 24/7 and via an easy-to-use app.
Duolingo also adopts a lot of repetition.
Take the above example of learning Hiragana.
Each one is assigned a bar and the user has to repeat learning until it’s full before Duolingo will say it’s been ‘learned’.
This method is replicated within units and modules.
Users will repeat learning words and phrases to ingrain it. These can then all be viewed within the app.
Having a real understanding of how your learners want to learn is key here.
Look at how Duolingo allows users to bypass learning if they can pass a test.
A user might be learning outside of your learning content, and so their knowledge might progress as they go through their day-to-day job.
As such, you should give them the opportunity to bypass content if it’s no longer necessary.
Engagement
At its core, Duolingo is a game.
And it uses that to its advantage.
Even simple things like applying sound effects to buttons, creating characters that engage with you throughout the unit.
All of this can be used within an LMS.
For example, you could create a learning mascot. Similarly to Duolingo, it could read out key bits of information, or be used to congratulate users when they get questions right.
There’s a whole host of ways that you can add in more engaging features to your LMS and learning content.
Email marketing
Last but not least is Duolingo’s email marketing.
Remember, this is something you can use with Totara too.
They have email notifications available where you can:
- Remind learners who are part way through content
- Alert learners to new relevant content
- Inform managers of relevant content for their teams
Duolingo uses informal tone of voice to get users to click on the email, and encourages a fear of missing out to get users back on the app.
This is something you can incorporate into your L&D strategy too.
Especially if you have gamification elements within your LMS.
Wrapping up
Duolingo has changed the way eLearning is done, and L&D professionals should take note.
Don’t be afraid to break the status quo and try something new.
Keep how users learn at the front of your mind, and remember, it really is as simple as keeping them entertained.
Incentivise your learning and use key hooks to keep them coming back for more.
And remember, we can support you to achieve key learning goals.
We help our customers whether they want to build an LMS from scratch, customise and develop a current LMS, or simply migrate an existing LMS over to Totara or BuildEmpire.
See what our customers have to say about us, or book a demo with us to see our platform in action.