New Listening Skills mode now in Beta

Welcome to the Forum! Memrise Announcements
#1

Hi everyone!

As the next stage of rebuilding the learning sessions, we are about to move Listening Skills from Alpha to Beta. This means everyone will get the new mode, unless they opt out.

Instructions on what Beta means, and how to opt out of it if there are issues for you: https://memrise.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015889157-What-is-Memrise-Beta-and-how-do-I-turn-it-on-off-on-web-

Description of Listening Skills when it went into Alpha mode: Launching: Listening Skills alpha

Please do ask questions, or post if you have any problems in this thread!

Best wishes,

Francis

4 Likes
Launching: Listening Skills alpha
#2

Hi Francis,

Reposting from what I put in the alpha thread earlier. Basically Iā€™m having two issues. The first is that unchecking the ā€œThe new Memrise experience (Beta)ā€ box still brings me to the beta version of listening skills (although it says alpha).

The second, and the reason I was trying to disable the new version for the time-being, is that it really slows me down since I get to those that do not allow me to type answers and force me to click on words. I can use the number row on they keyboard to select words, but this is cumbersome, especially with long sentences, the number pad doesnā€™t work, and even if do select everything using the keyboard, I still have to move my hand over to the mouse because the enter key will not enter the answer until I click somewhere else on the page (it will only replay the audio).

Capture
Capture1068Ɨ461 23.5 KB

This is the only issue Iā€™ve seen with the alpha/beta version of the new listening tests. I actually like these types of tests on the mobile version, just not the web version. If I could disable this specific part of the listening skills so that it is only multiple choice and typing (more similar to the old version) it would work out much better for me.

#3

Apologies for the slow reply Sean!

There are separate settings for the Beta and Alpha (it is a bit confusing, not your fault!). If you go to the Learning tab in your settings, turn off Memrise Labs and you will know longer get the Alpha modes. Hopefully you can get the old mode back now!

The new test types mix is a bit different, now aligned with the mix on mobile. This means there is less typing, replaced with tapping for long phrases, and with more multiple choice.

Weā€™re reviewing what to do about this, as different users have different needs.

Thanks for your feedback!

3 Likes
#4

That big yellow blob is kinda distractingā€¦

Is there a way you could make it slightly more subtle?

image
image711Ɨ319 15.7 KB

1 Like
#5

Thanks Vikestart for your feedback.

We like it, and it also creates a big hit area to play/replay the audio!

Understood that it does feel new and this is jarring in a product you use a lot, perhaps try it for a week or two and see if you get used to it?

Is it the animation or just the colour/size that draw your eye from the words to the right?

2 Likes
#6

Thank you!

Iā€™ve opted out of labs for now, which has put the listening tests back to normal.

I totally understand different users will have different needs, and different methods will work better for different languages also. I hope in the final version there are some configuration options to allow the user to tailor it to their preferences and needs.

I do like tapping when using the app since my typing on a smartphone is slow, especially using Hangul, but on the computer, for me at least, it is the opposite. I also like to get a bit of practice actually typing in Korean.

1 Like
#7

Hi Francis,
Iā€™d like to stress one thing Sean has already said: the number pad does not work in beta. Iā€™ll be glad if something could be done with it.
Thanks,

#8

Hi!

I really like the new Beta, but I hope we will be able to play around with the configurations since, for example, the questions where you have to spell a word you hear donā€™t make sense for me personally. And this is just because of the fact that I use memrise to learn what the words mean, not to only learn how to spell!

1 Like
#9

I like the listening skills mode in general but I think the questions where you type what you hear need more context. In particular:

  • Itā€™s not clear whether you are supposed to type the answer in the target language or the translation in English (or whatever your base language is). For Mandarin I can guess based on whether the letters provided include numbers (to indicate a tone) but you shouldnā€™t have to guess - there should be instructions in the question.

  • For languages with a lot of homophones (like Mandarin, Japanese) itā€™s often unclear what word you are listening to if you just hear it in isolation. You can sometimes guess the answer from the letters provided but again you shouldnā€™t have to guess. Currently (in Mandarin) for example Iā€™m being tested on both ā€˜Tenā€™ (shi2) and ā€˜Timeā€™ (shi2).

1 Like