#Course Evolution

[capsulelabs08]

Art and Science of Crafting Effective College Courses

In today’s dynamic educational landscape, the traditional methods of teaching and assessing are undergoing significant transformation. The tectonic shifts in technology and pedagogical research are compelling educators worldwide to rethink course designs, especially in higher education. At the heart of this transformation lies the quest to understand how students genuinely perceive and interact…

[allinllachuteruteru]

Duolingo is NOT what it used to be.

“Duolingo is ‘sunsetting the development of the Welsh course’ (and many others)”.

I’ve used Duolingo since 2013. It used to be about genuinely learning languages and preserving endangered ones. It used to have a vibrant community and forum where users were listened to. It used to have volunteers that dedicated countless hours and even years to making the best courses they could while also trying to explain extremely nuanced and complex grammar in simple terms.

In the past two years it feels like Von Ahn let the money talk instead of focusing on the original goal.

No one truly had a humongous problem with the subscription tier for SuperDuolingo. We understood it: if you can afford to pay, help keep Duolingo free for those who couldn’t.

It started when the company went public. Volunteers were leaving courses they created because they warned of differing longterm goals compared to Duolingo’s as a company; not long after it was announced that the incubator (how volunteers were able to make courses in the first place) would be shut down. A year goes by and the forums—the voice of the users and the way people were able to share tips and explanations—is discontinued. A year or two later, Duolingo gets a completely new makeover—the Tree is gone and you don’t control what lesson you start with. With the disappearance of the Tree, all grammar notes and explanations for courses not in the Big 8 (consisting of the courses made before the incubator like Spanish/French/German/etc. and of the most popular courses like Japanese/Korean/Chinese/etc.) are removed with it. Were you learning Vietnamese and have no idea how honorifics work without the grammar notes? Shit outta luck bud. Were you learning Polish and have absolutely no clue how one of the declensions newly thrown at you functions? Suck it up. In a Reddit AMA, Von Ahn claims that the new design resulted in more users utilizing the app/site. How he claims that statistic? By counting how many people log into their Duolingo account, as if an entire app renovation wouldn’t cause an uptick in numbers to even see what the fuck just happened to the courses.

Von Ahn announces next in a Reddit AMA that no more language courses will be added from what there already is available. His reasoning? No one uses the unpopular language courses — along with how Duolingo will now be doing upkeep with the courses already in place. And here I am, currently looking on the Duolingo website how there are 1.8 million active learners for Irish, 284 thousand active learners for Navajo, and even 934 thousand active learners for fucking High Valyrian. But yea, no one uses them. Not like the entire Navajo Nation population is 399k members or anything, or like 1.8 million people isn’t 36% of the entire population of Ireland or anything.

And now this. What happened to the upkeep of current courses? Oh, Von Ahn only meant the popular ones that already have infinite resources. Got it. Duolingo used to be a serious foundational resource for languages with little resources while also adding the relief of gamification.

It pisses me off. It really does. This was not what Duolingo started out as. And yea, maybe I shouldn’t get invested in a dingy little app. But as someone who spent most of her adolescence immersed in language learning to the point where it was literally keeping me alive at one point, to the point where languages felt like my only friend as a tween, and to the point where friendships on the Duolingo forums with likeminded individuals my age and other enthusiasts who even sent me books in other languages for free because they wanted people to learn it, the evolution of Duolingo hits a bitter nerve within me.

~End rant.

[wistfulwatcher]

[popfizzles]

Scientists and professors have begun documenting wild Eevee with little to no human socialization that are becoming reclusive, feral, harder to capture, and eventually growing to undocumented sizes.

It's a well known fact that Eevee's normally unpredictable and Volatile DNA stabilizes after evolving. However that seems untrue for Eeon, as it retains a largely diverse moveset, embracing its constantly changing genetic structure.

This instability and lack of human interaction makes Eeon threatening to stumble across in the wild, and caution is advised.

[hoofpeet]

Modern Unicorn (left) next to extinct megafauna ancestor (right).. Based partially off of the extinct Kyptoceras + cave painting horses*

[hauntingsunshine14]

so like kevin day right?

I need kevin to be like the green brothers of the exy-verse. Like people know him either from the prolific history yt channel he runs (he saves people taking any hist class, is worshipped by apush students during exam szn) OR from being the best exy striker to ever play the game.

then I need all the tweets going 'wtf is kevin day doing teaching on yt in my apush class?? I thought he was an exy player??'

or

' why does my cousin have a poster of kevin day in exy gear? I see that guy every time my hist prof has a hangover and puts on youtube??'

anyways,

kevin day wins a kids choice award or a streamy or something and he receives some very confused calls from the foxes.

[bitsbug]

In my sleep I dream of phylogenetic trees

[andmineisyellow]

✨Two very unserious people✨

[the-physicality]

thinking this labor day about all the athletes in women's sports who didn't have a stable league, who were only making decent money from a spot on their national team, who had to fight to get even a fraction of what they deserve. who spent their prime without a club league or the infrastructure to propel the sport. who came of age after title 9 in the usa [forcing schools to fund women/girls’ sports], the ones who fought for cbas and are only seeing big change at the end of their careers or after their careers concluded. who didn't have the media attention before, but are now showing just how much they can sell out stadiums and arenas. the players who played year round because overseas teams paid athletes what they were worth. athletes who endured and reported harassment but the league never took appropriate action. athletes who never had the media attention or ability to monetize their talent but who had careers that were just as impressive as the stars of today. who did it without the help of the science, technology, and medicine we have today. who set records with less support and fewer games in a season, which will be broken by kids who have had personal trainers since high school. athletes who played great games that are no long available to view, their talent no longer archived and accessible for young or new fans. athletes who still don't have a league or are just getting one in 2024. athletes who took it upon themselves to create change for which they will never reap the full rewards.

[front-facing-pokemon]

[lollytea]

All he wants to do is collect symbols that are important to him as a means of building an identity for himself and stitch them onto his clothes where everyone can see, so they know exactly what he's about!!! That's all he wants!!!!!

[g1ngerbeer]

extremely erin ruunaser comicaurora coded post ( @comicaurora )

[thelolarahaii]

If it was dangerous, would you want to know? If it involved my kids or was a threat to my life, then, yeah, absolutely.

CRIMINAL MINDS 17.03 | "Homesick"

[thegreatyin]

giggling kicking my feet blushing madly

[nokey99]

JILL GIDEON NATION ARISEEEE!!!! (meme by @sslightly-madd)

[x-mensirens]

"How sweet, girlfriend to the rescue."

"You got that right, lady!"