1
Read
5–8 minute lessons. Short paragraphs. Runnable code. Every concept explained why-before-how. No filler.
How it works
Read. Practice. Verify.
Three steps, repeated thousands of times, from your first byte to your first board meeting. No theatrics. No shortcuts. Just a loop that compounds.
2
Practice
An interaction every 2–3 minutes: quizzes, fill-in-the-blank, drag-to-solve, live sandbox exercises. You don't read alone — you do.
3
Verify
80% on the module assessment to advance. A timed phase test at the end. Pass and you earn a verifiable certificate with a public URL.
Mastery, not just completion
Most learning platforms track what you watched. DURA tracks what you can do.
After every module, you take a mastery gate: 10–15 randomized questions drawn from that module's pool. Score 80% or higher and the next module unlocks. Fail and the assessment cools down for 24 hours, then you try again with different questions.
At the end of each phase, a longer verification test confirms your grasp of the whole phase. Passing generates a tamper-resistant certificate with a public verification URL you can share on LinkedIn, in a resume, or with a hiring manager.
Remembering, not cramming
Every vocabulary term and missed quiz question becomes a flashcard. DURA uses FSRS-5, the same spaced-repetition algorithm Anki power users swear by, to decide when to show each card next.
The goal is 90% retention. You see a card right before you would have forgotten it — not a day later, not a week earlier. The algorithm learns your rhythm.
About DURA's AI scheduler
DURA uses an AI scheduling algorithm called FSRS-5 to personalize when each flashcard becomes due for review and to decide when new content unlocks based on your demonstrated mastery.
- What it does: picks intervals between reviews and reorders due cards. It does not write content, choose your career path for you, or judge you.
- What it processes: only your local study history (review timestamps, ratings, FSRS state). It does not call any external AI service. Your data does not leave your browser unless you sign in to sync, and even then only the same study history fields are sent over TLS.
- How to override it: the scheduler is advisory — you are never blocked from any card. Open Review from your dashboard to study any due card immediately, regardless of when FSRS would have surfaced it next. You can also change study modes (Standard / Review / Sprint / Challenge) from Settings.
This disclosure satisfies the EU AI Act Article 13 transparency requirement; the override path satisfies Article 14's human-oversight provision. Read more about how DURA makes decisions or our privacy notice.
Generative AI — what you opt into
Optional · BYOKDURA has two AI-backed surfaces — Ask Claude about this lesson (a tutor embedded in the lesson reader) and Code review (paste code, get structured feedback). Both are off by default and supplementary. The 418-lesson curriculum, the sandboxes, FSRS, the dictionary, and certificates stay 100% free without them.
What gets sent
Your question (or the code you paste) + the current lesson’s title, concept tags, and body. Never your name, email, progress, FSRS state, or any other lesson.
BYOK — your key, your bill
You bring your own Anthropic API key, stored only in your browser. Each question costs roughly 1–3 cents on Anthropic’s metered API. Durwood Studios never sees or pays for these requests.
Where it goes
Directly from your browser to api.anthropic.com. No Durwood server is in the path. Anthropic does not train on API calls by default — see their privacy policy.
Turn it on (or off) anytime in Settings → AI Features. Revoking consent also deletes your stored key.
Backed by the standards universities use
Every lesson is tagged with the exact knowledge unit it teaches:
- ACM CS2023 — the computing curriculum used by accredited CS programs
- SWEBOK v4 — the IEEE software engineering body of knowledge
- SFIA 9 — the skills framework used by governments and enterprise HR
- Bloom's taxonomy and Dreyfus stages per question and lesson
Yours on every device, online or not
DURA is a Progressive Web App. First visit loads the shell; after that it runs offline. Your progress, flashcards, goals, and certificates live in your browser's IndexedDB — never on a remote server you don't control.
You can export every byte of it as JSON from the settings page. That's not a GDPR afterthought — it's the point. Your learning is yours.