ESL Ecosystem · 4 min read

This Week in the ESL Ecosystem – October 2025

Weekly progress update: Template system updates on english-exercises, community building on Firstly Academy, and launching automated social content with the Story Creator stack.

#progress-update #community #automation #social-media

Busy week. Shipped 50 exercises, added voice context to Firstly, and launched an automated content pipeline that’s beating my manual posts 2.3x on engagement.

📚 english-exercises.org

Shipped: 50 New Exercises

Used the template system to add:

  • 20x Present Perfect (A2-B2)
  • 15x Passive Voice (B1-C1)
  • 15x Conditionals (B2-C1)

10 hours vs 35-40 hours manually. Template system still paying off.

In Progress: Difficulty Voting

Adding community ratings after each exercise:

  • 😊 Too easy
  • ✅ Just right
  • 😰 Too hard

Why:

  1. Calibrate CEFR levels using real data
  2. Catch exercises that confuse students
  3. Build adaptive paths later

Ships: Next Tuesday

🎤 Firstly Academy

Shipped: Voice Context Awareness

AI tutor now remembers conversation history. No more asking the same questions twice.

Impact:

  • Repeat questions: 32% → 4%
  • Session length: 3.2min → 7.8min
  • 7-day retention: 38% → 61%

Full technical writeup

In Progress: Community Discord

Launching private Discord for Firstly students:

  • FCE prep tips
  • Peer speaking practice
  • Weekly live feedback from me

Target: 50-100 serious students

First time doing community building. Following Lenny’s playbook.

Ships: Friday (soft launch to first 20)

🤖 Story Creator Stack (NEW!)

Built an automated content pipeline for ESL social media.

Pipeline:

  1. Input grammar topic (“Present Perfect for experiences”)
  2. GPT-4 generates 150-200 word story showcasing the pattern
  3. DALL-E 3 creates illustration
  4. Auto-format for Twitter/LinkedIn/Instagram
  5. Buffer API schedules for peak times

Stack:

  • GPT-4 (pedagogical prompts)
  • DALL-E 3
  • Buffer API
  • PostgreSQL + S3

Results:

  • Posts/week: 2-3 → 7
  • Engagement: 2.3x higher than manual
  • Time saved: 8 hours/week

The AI stories are better than my manual ones. They’re tighter and don’t ramble.

Next: Open-source it once the code is clean.

💡 What I Learned

1. Automation Compounds

Every hour building templates/pipelines saves 10-20 hours later. Hard to justify upfront, but always worth it.

2. Community > Content

Been focused on building features. But students who stay longest are the ones who connect with each other. Discord might beat any feature.

3. AI Content Can Be Better

Was skeptical about AI social content. Data says otherwise: 2.3x engagement. AI stories are tighter and more focused.

📊 Metrics

english-exercises.org

  • Traffic: 14,200 monthly visits (+18% from last month)
  • Exercises completed: 47,300 (+22%)
  • SEO: 47 keywords in top 10 (Google)

Firstly Academy

  • Active students: 183 (+12%)
  • 7-day retention: 61% (+23 percentage points!)
  • Average session length: 7.8 minutes

Overall Ecosystem

  • Shared database size: 2.3 GB
  • Total users: 3,847
  • Cross-app usage: 23% of users have used 2+ apps

🎯 Next Week

  1. Launch Discord (Firstly)
  2. Ship difficulty voting (english-exercises)
  3. 5 automated social posts (Story Creator)
  4. Port voice context to WhatsEnglish

Daily updates on X @charliecrowley

Questions? [email protected]