School feature: A user guide
Some small changes are coming. This guide will be updated to reflect those. ^_^
Updated August 26, 2015
Official Dashboard Help page. If the answer isn't there, try the information below.
- Get started, Enter Schools! :D
- Invite students, create sections, view progress on the Dashboard
Don't use + or / in your section names for now.
To Dashboard from Home tab instructions
Student Privacy Settings Instructions and Announcement
- Invite teacher (or yourself) to view your progress! Settings > Progress Sharing
Instructions
To Dashboard from Settings Instructions - Track progress by individual Skill and Timed Practice
Instructions
Quick view and detailed view buttons Instructions - Classroom Practice Button
- Other handy stuff you might not realize was clickable
- Subscribe to the Educator Forum
- Educator Wish List Enter
Have a suggestion? Put it on the list! :)
NOTE Website Guidelines.
And please remember not to post your private contact info on Duolingo. Thank you. ^_^
Official announcements at release and pre-release, export data, course content explorer, hiding mature words, Assignments.
Eventually information from this tutorial will be available on the Wiki.
Feature Summary
1. Notice something above your tree?
2. It all started here!
3. Name section, get Invite link
4. First email!
5. Dashboard
6. Dashboard from Home
7. Dashboard from Settings
8. Settings > Progress Sharing
9. Educator forum
81 Comments This discussion is locked.
I really hope my school adopts this system! Are you going to add this page to your FAQ directory, Usagi?
This is a userscript that will allow you to see almost all of your students trees. For some reason it doesn't work on some accounts. You install it on your browser using the instructions on the page.
Note: as Usagi stated this is a user made script that runs in your browser when you open duolingo. It is not an official duolingo feature.
So I would like to use Duolingo as a supplement to my curriculum in Spanish I. I am wondering if there is a way to assign specific assignments or sections, or if the students will automatically start from the beginning. Thank you!
I'm using this in my Spanish classrooms and it's so great! I like the information you have available for teachers, and would also like to have the students' word counts accessible for tracking vocabulary growth. Also, when students work on Duolingo and are not able to pass a lesson, it would be nice if their participation with practice could be tracked. Sometimes students tell me they were practicing at home, but since they didn't pass a lesson, and didn't earn XP it does not show that they were active at all.
I like all these points, and would love to see "time on site" (as a measure of activity) as a metric teachers can see for each of their students.
I can spent between 2 and 14 hours on the website. But, most of that is not spent learning a language. I would encourage doing an assessment with a more reliable measure such as new skills completed. :)
True. It would be nice if there were a way to record active time on the site. Many of my students require multiple attempts to pass lessons and it does not show any indication of their work until they complete a skill. I would like to be able to verify their practice even before they complete a lesson. For example, I watched a student work on their lessons for 15 minutes yesterday, but since they didn't complete the skill my dashboard does not show any activity for their practice time.
I'm glad you found the Educator Wish List. I will add a direct link in the main post up top. :)
Thank you for providing the link to the dashboard from the home tab and settings! That is fantastic! I left that recommendation just a few weeks ago and you guys have already made that change--I wish all websites adapted so quickly! Thanks, guys!
This guide has now been updated to reflect changes in the School feature: March 31, 2015!
Thought I'd let you know that it seems that a user can only be added to one person's dashboard at a time. I was added to my fiancé's but then I wanted to test to see if I could be added to his and add myself to my own dashboard and it seems it isn't possible as I disappeared off his student dashboard, and then when I re-added him as the person I'm sharing progress with, it removed me off my own dashboard. Hopefully Duo can make it that you can be in two dashboards for classes, say one for one language class, and another dashboard for another language class from a different teacher.
Hi JaneEmily, will you share this comment in the [Official Announcement] (https://www.duolingo.com/comment/6318291) discussion? Thanks! ^_^
Super - I already have 4 students in one section and 3 in another - and I started yesterday! QUESTION/ISSUE: it shows on my dashboard what the students have accomplished this week - Basics 1, Food, etc. It does NOT show the LEVEL, nor am I able to click on the name of the student and it shows me their level. In theory, they could do the same level over and over and I will never know. I am trying to chart their progress and cannot do so without knowing their Level. Help?
Level is just a mark of how many experience points the user earns, not how much knowledge of the language they have. A user could repeat Basics 1 to level 25. A student cannot "do the same level over and over", as nearly all their activity earns them the xp which inexorably moves them closer to the next level.
The mark of their progress is how many new skills they can do, and you'll notice if your students keep repeating Basics 1.
Thanks for replying! So what should I be looking for to see their progress? Their XP points? Also, I thought the Level was the Level you are on. For example, I am on Level 11 -thinking I have passed 10 levels to get here. I just completed Basics 1 and Basics 2 - they are on my dashboard. My student - who just started - also just finished Basics 1. I cannot tell that my Basics 1 is more advanced than her Basics 1. How can I tell the difference? How can I know that one student is at a higher level than another? Thanks!
Level is Experience points. (Basically, how often you successfully practice something.)
Their level, (determined by experience points) See here for chart, will show as the number next to the language badge. Yours is 11. To see this, go to their profile. You can pair http://www.duolingo.com/theirusername
Keel an eye on the skill. If you are enrolled in the same tree/course, you can look on yours and see what skill is where. Basics 1 and Phrases are examples of skills. Lessons are what you'll find inside of the skill. This is how you can make sure they are progressing down the tree. Once a person completes the skill Basics 1 (All lessons inside will have a green checkmark), the next skill opens.
Inside of your dashboard, where you are tracking your student's progress, keep an eye on their progress in skills. You can see when they've moved to the next when the name of the skill starts showing up on your dashboard. This makes progress through skills + XP earned within a skill a good combination marker. There is not a way to tell what lessons in a skill a person has been practicing. That will be up to student accountability. If, once they complete all lessons in a skill they only practice the easiest among those to fulfill an xp requirement, they will have a lot of difficulty later. They will hurt their own progress and ultimately make it harder for themselves. There is only so much you can do for them. If they really want to learn the language, not just get a grade, they will do better here. :)
EDIT: If you haven't check out the WIKI or the Website Guidelines, they are two things I most recommend for new Duolingo users. The wiki is pretty big and can be overwhelming. I recommend just doing a walk through to get familiar with what kinds of things yo umight find there, and then using Google to search the wiki for something specific in the future. Just type into Google Duolingo Wikia followed by what you want to find, such as Lingot or Streak or XP. Only search for one thing at a time though.
I hope this helps ^_^
Yes!! the light bulb went on! Thank you and I really understand now. I got it - the level is not each tree - it is where you are on the tree - how much of the tree you have accomplished. I was thinking you get a new tree with each level (I haven't played in a while and am coming back to it and forgot what the tree looked like when I started). Thanks so much. I really get it. However, I CANNOT see the students' profiles - http://www.duolingo.com/theirusername doesn't work :( (it says "error" - and a picture of the cute owl in a sling) I did the Wiki yesterday and it helped some. Thanks!
The level is not even where you are on the tree; it's how much practice you've done. A person can get to the highest level by grinding through Basics 1 over and over, it would just be terribly dull.
I don't know why you can't see profiles -- I just went to yours with no trouble.
Totally understand the level thing and can now see their profiles. It would be easier if I could just click the student's icon in my dashboard as a hyperlink or have dashboard show me their levels. Hopefully that is coming soon - but at least I Now know how to get around that. Many many Thanks!!.
Woops - One student's profile I cannot see. It shows her profile name as Riya, but when I put in https://www.duolingo.com/riya I get a woman in Warsaw, not a middle school girl in Northern Virginia. It didn't work with any part of her email address either. So How do I access her profile if I don't have her profile name?
I just went to my own profile and fiddled around with it to see if I could figure out why you're having trouble with your student Riya. It appears that you're seeing her Fullname, not her Username, on your Dashboard. (Forex, your Username is costick while your Fullname is Catherine Ostick.)
Ask Riya what her Username is, write it down somewhere so that you have it every time you want to check her profile, and hope that when more features come to Dashboard you'll able to click on her name at the Dashboard to go to her profile.
As I said, level is a mark of activity, not of progress. If you are at level 11 and have only done Basics 1 and 2, I can only assume that you have done more activity. Perhaps you translated documents in Immersion? Or did a lot of Strengthening?
As to how to tell that your Basics 1 is more advanced than your student's, I can only say Coming Soon! I hope. Right now the Dashboard is incomplete, but, from the Schools announcement post:
In the near future, The Dashboard will help teachers understand each student’s learning needs at a level of detail previously impossible. By tracking patterns across incorrect answers and moments of hesitation, Duolingo can provide insight into each student’s areas of difficulty and provide immediate feedback in order to maximize in-class productivity. The goal is to provide a personalized learning experience to each student and free up teachers’ time to concentrate on difficult concepts, answer questions, and assist students falling behind.
Hopefully, when Luis says this is coming in the near future, that really does mean that it's coming soon.
Once these patterns of incorrect answers and moments of hesitation are available to teachers, you'll find that you, knowing what you're doing, go through lessons quickly and without making mistakes. You'll also see which words/grammar your students are making mistakes on, or getting correct but taking a while to do.
And don't forget that you have the students in a classroom. Until the rest of Dashboard is available, you can give quizzes on paper based on the Duolingo skills, and see exactly what the kids are making mistakes on, and make note of which kids put down their pens early and which use more of the allotted quiz time.
EDIT: The script that zakblak linked to earlier in this very discussion might be another useful tool to see their progress. I haven't used it, so I can't comment, but check it out and see if it's helpful.
I've created a section, but I haven't been able to create another one since then... could you help me with it?
Has anyone else figured out how students can see their total XP points? I can easily see them from my teacher dashboard, but I gave students an assignment to earn a certain amount of XP points... and I can't see a place for them to see a total of what they have earned. (Other than the notification at the end of each lesson.)
They can use the DuoCheck. It is not an official feature, but you'll find it in blue text HERE :)
EDIT, if they go to their Home tab, then scroll down and look at their leaderboard, they will have three tabs there for Week, Month, All Time or something similar to that. Have them click on All Time for total XP they've earned.
A student can share progress with him/herself, then go to dashboard.duolingo.com and see the same info you see on your dashboard. I have tested this with my own account, and it allowed me to share with myself and with another account. There is a comment elsewhere in this thread about being unable to share with more than one person, so I assume they have fixed this since that comment was made.
Hi. I'm experiencing a problem with the school/dashboard feature. I have been using Duolingo in my Spanish class for a while so most of my students are already users, but when I generate a link for them to join my group on my dashboard they get a 404 Error message. I have tried three times now and I can't figure out what's wrong, since judging from the comments here, it seems to work for everyone else.
Hi marianneleirvik,
I'm not part of tech. But, they almost always will want to know the browser and operating system are you using.(For example, I'm using Chrome and Windows7.) If you would edit your post and add that information, that would be great!
Also, I just tested generating the link to my Class On The Moon section. Using it worked smoothly for me. Yesterday, however, I did have some problems with the whole website going down for a 1-4 minutes, producing 404 errors no matter what I tried on Duolingo, including schools.
Try signing out and then signing back in again and generating a new link from your dashboard.
If it doesn't work, try switching to a new browser and generating a link from that one. (Not sure why it would be a browser issue, but it's worth a try.
If none of this works, hopefully bchan is still subscribed to this discussion and will stop by and lend a hand. If we don't see bchan today, I recommend making a post for this in the Troubleshooting forum. Include your browser and operating system, as well as any steps you've previously taken to troubleshoot the issue.
I hope this helps!
Marianne - I had a similar issue. I just went back to my dashboard and generated a new invite link. Worked fine. I wonder if invite links expire after a while.
How do you change or see different classes. I have classes at different levels and want to be able to see their progress but not as one big sheet when I log in I only get the last class that was logged in and do not have the other classes. Is there something I need to set in my profile to see these classes.
Hi, I am very excited to start using this site as part of my Spanish 1/2 class! I sent a link to all 10 of my students, and most of them got on, but only 3 showed up on my dashboard. Can they still add me as their teacher under share settings? Also, I wanted to set up two sections, and I received 2 links, but I don't see sections on my dashboard... I'm still new here, so I'll poke around a little more.. Is there a tutorial for teachers to watch?
What I had my kids do is make their own profiles and then go to Profile> Progress sharing> then they had to type in my school email and the section code I wanted them to join. When they type in a code it will actually create a new section. So you dont exactly have to worry about creating a section because they will essentially do that for you. So for example, I have 7 sections so I gave the following codes: Spanish2A, Spanish2B, Span1A, Span1B, Span1C. Span8A, Span8B. I told my kids to type it in exactly (including capitalization). This creates a new section on my dashboard when they do it. If they dont type it in correctly then they will make their own group but you can go in and change it for them.
Also, on a side note, if they dont share their progress with you then they wont pop up on your dashboard and you can see what they have been doing. Also, if they say that they "followed" you that's a different feature and doesn't count toward the progress sharing
How can students see their own XP point total? I'm giving them credit for reaching a certain number of points, and I can see their points on my dashboard but they can't see their total anywhere.
Their total XP is visible if they go to the Home tab (in the blue bar up at the top of the screen). Scroll down to the Leaderboard (where they can see people they are following, and how they are ranking in XP compared with one another.). There are some tabs at the top of the Leaderboard called "This week" "Month" and "Total." Have them click Total. :)
I introduced this today and have several students cheat the system by using the Internet to test out of everything and get a ridiculous amount of points. I caught them and told them that wouldn't count toward their classroom points on Duolingo but now we can't figure out how to reset their accounts to zero. They want to do it right now--how do we get them back to zero so they can start over? Can I do it as a teacher or can they do it with their account on Duolingo?
Ah-ha, I found the little grey sentence under the language features! Thank you!
Is there a way to add students to an existing section - seems like it should be simple
Two ways: Dashboard (for teachers to invite students) and "Share Progress" (for students to invite teachers) See Images Gallery via guide up top for examples. :)
Thanks. So inviting them and indicating an existing section will work? It seems to indicate that they will then start from the beginning, but a couple of these students already have established accounts.
It won´t restart them. I have invited friends who are long time community members and they have invited me. None of our accounts were reset. :)
I am hoping my students (grade 1-2) can get an easier code (instead of a long complicated link) to add me as a coach, so I can watch their progress - something like what Khan Academy does for coach codes (short, alphanumeric - like "JK123") ... is this possible?
I have my students signed up and they are in multiple sections. I can't figure out how to change the section names on the new system though. How do I do that?
Has there been any thought to allowing setting up the system so that teachers can award "badges" that would display on their dashboard and student accounts?
I am using this feature with my classes. I really like the recent upgrades, and I hope more features will be on the way. What I think would be useful would be to be able to change the name of a class (for example from one school year into the next: Year 8 French will become Year 9 French, yet it's the same group of students) or even delete classes, in case I wanted to compare all of my students, and there are still students on my dashboard from the previous school year. Is there a way of deleting or renaming classes already?
I love being able to see who's working on what! A couple of my students got added to the wrong section, though. Is there any way to change which section they're in from my end?
Dudes,
You guys are changing the world! Thanks.
I've been needing the Dashboard since 2 years ago when I discovered your magnificent work/ideas. First glance suggestions:
more data, better prizes, and more plugged'in-edness
WhatsApp, Twitter, Skype, Bill Gates's new live-translating refrigerator.
Wiki-classrooma, I dunno, something to liven it up with the people.
And Fatalities, of course.
I would imagine you just open the page to the summary, so it's visible, and then print the page. On a Windows machine, right click and select print. I'm not sure what you would do on a mac though.
Today's updates include switching Progress between quick view and detailed view, as well as how to control student Privacy Settings and which duolingo features students can interact with from their school accounts. Pravacy feature announcement available here https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8317620
Is there a way to unsubscribe from the weekly update emails during the summer months and then re-subscribe once the school year starts again in the fall? I really appreciate the weekly update emails during the year (they are very helpful!) but I don't need to get them all summer.
Scratch my former instructions. I'm not sure how to do what you're asking yet or if it's possible.
Is there a way teachers can leave comments on their students' progress? I assign the entire French skill tree as summer homework for my incoming AP students, so that they review grammar while they are out of school and we can focus on more AP topics during the school year. Since I don't see them over the summer, it would be nice to be able to comment on their progress. I imagine this would be helpful during the school year, as well.
Perhaps you could get a list of all your students' username and then you could post comments on their profile page.
I have tried to invite students with the link provided and through posting on Classroom and neither work. Is there any live human help for DuoLingo?
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Sure thing, Sasha! Can you give us some more information? Do the students have email addresses and/or a Duolingo account?
Thanks for getting back to me so fast. After trying to use the link I posted in classroom and the link that went to students emails, I finally just logged in as a student and pasted the join link from their accounts and logged in with Google and it worked. I'm really confused why the other methods didn't work but at least copying and pasting the link does work. Thanks again, Sasha
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I'm glad it worked! If it happens again, consider showing us a screenshot or adding more details (like sharing your link with me) and we'd look into to it to figure out what's going on. I hope everything is working for you now. :]
Hi, am I able to add students to a class if they already have a duolingo account? Or do they have to sign up using the class link? Thanks!
Yes, if they already have an account that is fine. In the future, the best place to ask questions appears to be the main Welcome post. :)
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Hey! Glad to see you around here Usagiboy7! :D
Actually, the best place to ask questions would be to first search for an existing question, and posting a new thread if no answer is found. That welcome post is getting a little long and the questions asked there may not be easy to find (and thus be helpful to new people). Thanks for popping in here, too ♥
i want to create chinese class, but i can't choice language, how can i start?
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If I invite my teacher to view my progress, can I just invite her to see my progress in one language (ie the one she's teaching me) and not the one I'm just learning in my spare time for fun?
