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Khan Academy
Flexible learning environment offers goal-oriented personalized pathways
Subjects & Topics
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Khan Academy
Pros: Lessons auto-adapt for each student, while continuous assessment gives teachers valuable, real-time data. Sequential lessons keep the platform organized.
Cons: Video instruction may be too fast-paced for some learners; some instruction is delivered via text only.
Bottom Line: A robust resource for targeted, individualized instruction in most standardized subject areas.
Khan Academy is great to introduce, practice, and review content. Though math is the most comprehensively covered subject, teachers focusing on science, computing, history, or economics can teach or supplement full courses with Khan Academy. Math and reading content is organized by course and grade level, so it's easy to target students' instruction for a particular level and skill. Plus, you can set a course mastery goal, which will automatically give kids the practice to help them reach that objective. Use Math: Great Ready Courses to help get kids up to grade level. Class setup is simple, and Khan Academy integrates with Google Classroom, too. To make the most of Khan Academy's features, explore the Khan for Educators course located in the teacher dashboard.
Using the site's powerful analytical and adaptive program, you can track students' progress and identify students who may be struggling in certain areas. If students are using Khan Academy during class, take advantage of the real-time reporting. You can stop the class to teach a skill they are all missing, or target students who are struggling with some small-group instruction.
The new AI tool Khanmigo (an add-on paid service at the time of publication), powered by ChatGPT, offers a variety of features to both teachers and students. Khanmigo can generate lesson plans, rubrics, assessments, learning objectives, exit tickets, and more. You can even create themed lessons based on students' interests.
Students can chat with Khanmigo too; the AI won't do the students' work for them, but will give them hints and guide them in a way a teacher might. Khanmigo can answer questions and walk students through detailed steps to problem-solve. It also offers auto-prompts like "Give me a summary," or "Why should I care about learning this?" It even sends encouraging messages to students, redirects them toward the exercises, and offers to talk about other topics to build a relationship with students who are discouraged. However, the text can feel a bit robotic and repetitive at times.
Editor’s note: Never input personal, sensitive, or confidential information into a generative AI model. Any information you put in can become publicly available and used as training data for future iterations of the tool. If there is ever any doubt about whether or not to enter particular information, do not include it. Be aware of privacy settings on your device that might be helpful. Keep in mind that these tools often don’t have their own privacy settings.
Khan Academy, a free website aimed at promoting self-paced instruction, houses thousands of academic videos that are baked into guided, adaptive instruction. With an initial focus on math, the site now offers courses on a variety of topics in science, economics, history, the arts, language arts, computing, and test prep; course offerings are continually updated and expanded. Anyone can create a free Khan Academy account, and teachers who use Khan Academy with their students can access robust features for monitoring and guiding student progress. A new paid AI tool, Khanmigo, serves as a personal tutor for students and a personal assistant for teachers.
Learners participate in courses, which are broken down into units and lessons. The course structure helps narrow focus on a particular skill or topic, but students are never restricted on the site; they can always access any content that interests them. Teachers can assign specific lessons and set mastery goals for each student. Every student works toward mastery at their own pace through adaptive learning software. Teachers can also assign struggling students prerequisite coursework to help them catch up.
Whether students are exploring on their own, using the site in class, or using it as a resource for homework and test prep, Khan Academy can be a very useful supplement to classroom instruction and discussion. If it's used as a primary source of instruction, note that the videos tend to be more procedural than conceptual. Nevertheless, the site's missions aim to promote more conceptual understanding, as they challenge kids to practice and master skills on their own, using hints and videos as support rather than as the main source of instruction. There are some great accessibility features on the site, though it would be nice if built-in text-to-speech were available for the text-only content. Students can also use the Khan Academy app, which provides access to all courses, plus allows downloads for offline learning.
With Khanmigo, Khan Academy has taken a controversial tool (ChatGPT) and created a monitored, education-centric space where teachers and students can explore the benefits of generative AI. You can have a "conversation" with a literary character or historical figure. You can get feedback on a writing sample or engage in an age-appropriate academic debate. Teachers can view all of their students' Khanmigo interactions, and the software automatically flags chats that may be of concern. Khanmigo occasionally offers inaccurate or confusing information, but overall, it can be a useful tool for busy teachers and curious students.
Because its organization and interface are fairly formal and its activities are straightforward, it's unlikely many students will open Khan Academy and be excited to dive in. However, it is truly one of the most comprehensive and targeted free resources available.
Learning Rating
Still one of if not the best online course provider
Still one of the best online learning platforms out there considering the quality of the class and the variety of subjects available on the platform.
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