I have chosen to analyze the ‘Language testing and certification’ product of Duolingo because academic testing is presently my field of work and of great interest to me. The recent pandemic has significantly changed the dynamics of every walk of life, and we were no exception. We had to move all testing online. Given the sudden need for taking testing online we switched to Duolingo for sometime to serve our internal needs of admissions testing. The present standardized tests that exist presently like TOEFL, IELTS and CELPIP require on site presence of the test taker. This gap revealed to me the glaring need to find right tools for testing. And, this aroused my curiosity to look deeply into the existing products in the market. Hence this analysis!
My Analyst Report : https://sites.google.com/view/etec522analystreport-vj/home
Hi, Vijaya,
I had no idea Duolinguo has a proficiency test that compares to IELTS and TOEFL iBT with results accepted at McGill University, Concordia, Dalhousie, and other institutions.
There are some obvious concerns though aside from the scoring. The main reason for in-person testing is to prevent cheating, and while Duolingo has AI and ID verification to ensure test-takers are who they say they are, I wonder how effective this is. I’m also curious to know how test-takers fare at the institutions that accept them based on the Duolingo results.
I’ll definitely follow how this test develops and expands its clientbase.