The Filthiest Form of Cheating: When It Happens in This Situation

Duolingo, the world’s most popular educational app that boasts over 500 million followers, has become embroiled in a cheating scandal. The app is designed to teach languages through a series of gamified exercises in word association, listening, speaking, and writing. It offers over 40 languages, all available for free, with additional benefits for subscribers who pay for premium membership.

Duolingo also features “leagues” which rank players according to the number of drills they complete in a week, offering a competitive aspect to the app’s learning experience. But according to an investigation by Kotaku, suspicions have arisen regarding the scores of certain players at the top of the leaderboard who appear to have unattainable scores – even when playing for extended periods of time.

Cheating in learning contexts where competition isn’t the primary focus, such as in Duolingo, is an unwelcome occurrence. With the app’s leagues in place, players may feel pressured to cheat in order to climb the leaderboard and earn a better ranking. While games can prove to be effective motivational tools, when incentivized to win, players may become so focused on winning that they cheat in order to do so.

Duolingo, however, maintains that cheating goes against their core values. Cheating can prevent players from retaining information about the language they’re learning, and it ultimately undermines the purpose of the app. While it’s easy to be drawn into the competition, Duolingo emphasizes the importance of staying true to the spirit of the game and learning for learning’s sake.

So let’s all strive to maintain integrity and honesty in our learning, whether on Duolingo or any other educational platform. At the end of the day, the real prize is the knowledge and skills acquired through studying, not the number on a leaderboard.