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- This bad glitch needs to be c…
This bad glitch needs to be corrected immediately!
I became aware of this glitch two years ago when one of my students used it to rack up undeserved XP and skills. It is very grave, and I am really surprised that in two years the DL tech team has not fixed it. It's so bad that I don't really even want to explain it here, but I guess it doesn't really matter, because apparently there are even videos on YouTube explaining how to take advantage of the glitch.
Basically, users can start a lesson, turn off their wi-fi connection, and type any few letters into each prompt. Before completing the lesson (which now can be done in a few seconds) they turn the wi-fi back on. DL gives credit for the whole lesson having been done correctly.
Obviously, this is very dangerous for teachers like myself who are using DL in the classroom and who are making graded assignments with it. It seems that there should be an easy fix... the platform should simply recognize as wrong any answers that were submitted while internet connection was not active. The current default is that it accepts anything as correct.
Please refer this complaint to the appropriate DL employee.
19 Comments
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Hi! This is a known bug and it will be fixed. Thank you for reporting again. Sorry for any inconveniences this may have caused, and let's hope students see the value in learning a new language more than points and cheats. :\
Thank you vivisaurus! They generally do. This was a little boy who found the glitch and did not reflect on what he was doing at all (when he sat there for hours accumulating XP and skills)!
I hope your students appreciate Duolingo for the learning, not a free high grade. If Duo doesn't update for a while may I suggest doing handwritten lessons? You can do lessons your students are at and write down the questions on paper. Your students can work on accent marks and spelling. Or, for Elementary and Jr. High, you can play a game (examples- Spanish tic-tac-toe, hangman, the like.) If your students like that enough you can make a tournament out of it. As you can see I have lots of ideas! :) Thanks for posting your concerns, I was completely unaware that people were doing this and feel sooo bad that people just cheat their way to the top D:
In this case it was just a really immature and naive boy, who even bragged about his find. He somehow didn't quite realize that it was cheating! He got a zero for the assignment, and had to make a new account so he's back to the basics. Also, admin and all the teachers know what happened. We are a small school and keep tight reins on everybody. It's wonderful.
I sometimes do make up written exercises or quizzes using Duolingo material. Now I am going to sit next to my students once a week and help them through a lesson (monitoring also their difficulties and how long it takes them to complete a lesson, so I can compare this to the stats in dashboard).
The laddie didn't even know he was cheatin', aye? It's good you heard about this, I hope a rally or something of the sorts comes up against this glitch. Also, are you in a Public School?
Hi Owly, I work in a small private school. I have worked in public high schools before and used DL in that context. Why?
But how do you use DL in a public school? Did those schools not use common-core? I'm just curious.
It was 2012; common core was on its way in. But why should encouraging them to do DL be contrary to CC? I hadn't yet worked out the grading rubric, so I'm not sure if I actually assessed them or not. There was no dashboard either.
This is a known glitch, not sure if it's staff's priority to fix it.
Duolingo is really to help improve yourself and language skills. Cheating and gaming the system won't really affect the community because you're really only cheating yourself.
I do understand your complaint and how this 'glitch' can be abused, but as long as it's been around, I'm not sure if this will be fixed any time soon.
True... I've posted it on the Educator's forum to see if it gets any more sympathy there. Thanks for your comment and for the lingot. :)
If you are letting a bit of free software on the internet do your marking for you...
You make it sound like I base grading entirely on DL. This is not the case at all. However, 20% of their grade does depend on their use and progress in DL. Generally, kids like it, but if it were not linked to their grade I would have one student doing it for every fifty who don't. Literally. Been there, done that.
Also, for the record, it takes a lot of time to analyze students' progress in DL and convert it to a grade. I invented a rubric for this which I shared here in the forums. If learning a language is a mountain, there are many paths to the top. Introducing students to DL is a path they can follow during the summer, after they graduate, and whenever they might choose to learn a new language in the future.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IdhinxYpwFg9Nt7pjJDIsvtGxV047pRYGnpr9vLayUI/edit?usp=sharing
It's too complicated. I find it humorous in fact. It is what I invented like six years ago. Now you can use Duolingo for Schools.
Hey! You should post this on the Troubleshooting Forum, where it might get more attention.
