As a Duolingo user who has refused to upgrade, if they roll the two into one it might entice me, but not for another higher tier above what they've got. But I guess there's a subset of super-users who may be keen.
I'm very curious about Max though ... the explain your answer is something I'm really interested in to help me understand the sentences I'm constructing (which is where I make most of my blunders!).
I did a trial and I noticed I spend more time with the App when I had unlimited hearts, so I got through more lessons a day. Less attention to a single question, but a lot more time spent on the app.
And that when it comes to actual recall, the mistakes don't count when it comes to learning. I don't really learn by recalling information, I learn by having stuff shoved into my brain with Spaced repetition.
The unlimited hearts thing fed the repetition cycle a lot more.
I try to spend 10-20 mins a day on it (learning Spanish) and actually do a lot of the "review" lessons which are good at drilling words. I am often surprised by my recall at phrases that I haven't seen in a while -- pretty sure they use the spaced repetition type algorithms.
My challenges now aren't so much on vocab/recall, but on verb conjugation and sentence construction / structure. I kind of know what to say but have trouble putting it together.
What I need to do is practice more actually speaking Spanish and interacting with Spanish speakers -- I had planned to spend a few months living somewhere in Hispanic America, but the 3 day-a-week RTO at my job has trashed that. I'll probably just have to settle for Skype-based chats/lessons.
Works far better for me without the hearts. Less time staring at sentences trying to make them perfect - more quick failing, learning why, iterating and drilling it into my head.
Also much more likely to spend longer in the app, maybe a couple of times a week.
I do occasionally get through some french youtube with subs and I'm getting better at roughly following - I'm not just relying on Duo. (I also have a grammar book to hand as well)
In the times I have had SuperDuolingo for free Have been annoyed that I can just keep plowing through mistakes (really: lack of knowledge), and don't have to really learn things before moving on with them... I just have to guess right once for each question.
But I do agree that DuoLingo is all about learning by making mistakes. I wish they had a bit more focused teaching for grammar, at least it would help me with the Hungarian. For a few items I have had to go outside the app for lessons on what I am just not getting by repetition.
Amen
They used to have an army of native-speaking volunteers to do this for free in the comments. I guess this is why they turned those off.
In education technology, many seem to hope to get that from AI: the helpfulness of a forum of volunteers without the abuse. The rise of the "unsocial network".
You can configure Ankidroid to require you to spell the words properly.