We have just made another update to the site, including some exciting changes!
Tutor Rating System
We have now added the functionality to rate tutors on LingQ. We hope this will not only make it easier for students to select a reputable tutor, but also inspire tutors to keep doing an excellent job. You can now able to rate tutors for both discussions and writing corrections. Simply open up a conversation report or writing report and submit your ratings on the right-hand side of the page.
Active Lesson
To make it easier to resume a lesson that you were studying, we have now added the “Active Lesson” button at the top-right of the page. Simply click this button to return to your most recent active lesson in that language. Now it will be much easier to navigate away from a lesson and return back to it with just one simple click. We hope this adds some motivation to keep you LingQing!
Updated Friends Search
We have now redesigned the Friends search page to make it easier to search for both friends and tutors. The filters have been moved to the right and some additional options have also been added. You will also notice that ratings now appear on this page, so selecting a writing corrector or a tutor will also be much easier.
We hope you all enjoy these new changes! As always, we welcome your feedback.
After all the criticisms, LingQ seems to be moving in that direction. Personally, I would pay for very good content. Anyway, I noticed a new “exercises” tab has been added as a lesson’s resource.
James, we are in discussion with text book publishers and audio book publishers about offering their content on our site. At the same time, if some of our existing content providers want to charge for their lessons, they will be able to do so. I suspect that most lessons will remain free, and most providers will choose to continue to be reimbursed based on usage, from confiscated points, as we do now.
That opens up a wonderful mental image of being able to take points off students for being disruptive in discussions, or turning up late without doing their homework…
When will we be able to give out detentions?
Mind you, given the reciprocal nature of LingQ, you would also give the students the chance to confiscate points from tutors for providing discussions that are boring or at unsuitable times.
@skyblueteapot
“confiscated points” = the points I lost every month (earned by working for LingQ, but not spent due to no suitable tutors, e.g. in Chinese). Solution: I don’t tutor any more. I hope that something will improve or change in this area - we will see.
@hape
I understand your frustration about the lack of Chinese tutors, but could you not use up your points by doing submitting writing in French? You provide such interesting material on your French blog, you must have something to write about? I tend to use the looming deadline as a motivational tool…
No suitable tutors in a certain time frame, 3-month points expiration – I am tired to discuss this again and again.
If I have earned points by tutoring or creating lessons, why is it not possible that I decide when to spend them?
And I am not willing to get up at 3 a.m. to talk to a Chinese tutor.
Hape,As has been explained we are not going to change the 3 month rule.We are going to make it possible for learners to connect more easily at any time with tutors who make themselves “available”. We are also looking at enabling tipping. These things might help you to avoid losing your points.
@adalberto - It’s an RSS feed of your “My Lessons” page I probably ought to write up a post on LingQ Central about this, as I’m sure a lot of RSS users will find it handy!
@Adalberto, I must say that I gave up on OCR as simply too much work. I just focused on content in our Library plus what I could easily import from the web and then treat book reading as a separate activity. To each his own.
Here’s a list of all the minor improvements uploaded in the last update some of which were much requested:
Delete writing drafts - You can now delete your writing drafts and the writing list has a pager.
Add Collection button - You can add a collection all at once in the Library on the Collection page or popup
HTML editor for Notes, Translations etc - Format your Notes, Translations etc with bolding, underlining, italics and hyperlinks
View Private Collections - The collection page for private lessons is now accessible
Share private lessons to LingQ friends - Share private lessons with other LingQ friends by sharing the link using the Share button at the bottom of the lesson
My Lessons RSS feed - An RSS feed which allows you to subscribe to your own My Lessons page so you can automatically download all of your audio
Some of these features are sure to make life easier on LingQ! Let us know how you like them all.
Mark, the changes are awesome! Thanks! I sent a couple of my private lessons to friends, but it’s been reported to me that the link does not work. Oh, well, perhaps time will sort things out. Thanks again…
I have just begun my first german graded reader. Surprisingly, I found it extremely easy. I guess that by the end of July I’ll be able to listen to audiobook versions of classics (such as those from www.audible.de) and import the texts from wikisource or the gutenberg project. And I’ll also have a look at the library.
Perhaps an on-hover menu could be added to each of the stars you use to rate tutors, to give the learner a clue on what they mean. Example:
first star on-hover menu: “Terrible”
second star on-hover menu: “Not bad”
third star on-hover menu: “Average”
fourth star on-hover menu: “Good”
fifth star on-hover menu: “Awesome”
@Yvette - The URLs for private lessons will be sent in the email alert announcing someone has shared a link on your wall. There does appear to be an error with the URLs in these emails, but we should have this fixed very soon!
I probably ought to write up a post on LingQ Central about this, as I’m sure a lot of RSS users will find it handy!
Oh, well, perhaps time will sort things out. Thanks again…