Khan Academy - Math Tutorials

Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization created in 2006 by educator Salman Khan with a goal of creating an accessible place for people to be educated. The organization produces short lectures in the form of YouTube videos. Its website also includes supplementary practice exercises and tools for educators. All resources are available to users of the website. The website and its content are provided mainly in English, but are also available in other languages like Bengali, Hindi and Spanish.

History

The organization started in 2004 when Sal Khan tutored one of his cousins on the Internet using a service called Yahoo Doodle Images. After a while, Khan's other cousins began to use his tutoring service. Because of the demand, Khan decided to make his videos watchable on the Internet, so he published his content on YouTube. Later, he used a drawing application called SmoothDraw, and now uses a Wacom tablet to draw using ArtRage. Tutorials are recorded on the computer using screen capture software called Camtasia Studio.

The critical acclaim and the positive responses of students prompted Khan to quit his job in finance as a hedge fund analyst at Connective Capital Management in 2009, and focus on the tutorials (Then released under the moniker "Khan Academy") full-time.

Khan was born in New Orleans to immigrant parents from Bangladesh and India. After earning three degrees from MIT (a BS in mathematics, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and an MEng in electrical engineering and computer science), he pursued an MBA from Harvard Business School.

The Khan Academy started out by creating videos that focused on teaching mathematics. Since then, the organization has hired more staff members and uploaded material in other subjects including history, business, science, the arts, and computer science. As of 2015, learning materials were created for over 5,000 different topics. It has content specialists which work with faculty members to write learning materials.

The organization's content has been translated to other languages for accessibility. The first official version was Spanish, in September 2013. There are also translations to the content contributed by volunteers. As of November 2016, Khan Academy has seven official websites in other languages, and 20,000 closed-captioned translations on videos.

In addition, Khan Lab School, a school owned by Khan Academy, was opened on September 15, 2014 in Mountain View, California.

Funding

Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, mostly funded by donations coming from philanthropic organizations.

In 2010, Google donated $2 million for creating new courses and translating content into other languages, as part of their Project 10¹⁰⁰. program. In 2013, Carlos Slim from the Carlos Slim Foundation in Mexico made a donation for creating Spanish versions of videos. In 2015, AT&T contributed $2.25 million to Khan Academy for mobile versions of the content accessible through apps.

According to Khan Academy's filings with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Salman Khan has received over $350,000 in annual compensation from Khan Academy since 2011. In 2015 it was raised to $556,000. In 2013, President and COO Shantanu Sinha also received over $350,000 in compensation. In total, 29 employees of Khan Academy make more than $100,000 per year.

Services

Khan Academy provides:

• a website that provides videos, learning material, and games to make education accessible These videos are licensed under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) 3.0 license.
• content on topics including math, science, history, and literature
• progress reports to help people track what they have learned and recommend what they can do next
• software for doing exercises with feedback and continued assessment, available as an open source project under the MIT License.

Content

Khan Academy's website (khanacademy.org) is a wrapper for videos which are hosted on YouTube. The website is meant to be used as a supplement to its videos, because it includes other features such as progress tracking, practice exercises, and teaching tools. The material can also be accessed through mobile applications.

The videos show a recording of drawings on an electronic blackboard, which are similar to the style of a teacher gives a lecture. The narrator describes each drawing and how they relate to the material being taught. Nonprofit groups have distributed offline versions of the videos to rural areas in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Website

The website generates problems based on skill level and performance to go along with the content. Khan believes his academy presents an opportunity to overhaul the traditional classroom by using software to create tests, grade assignments, highlight the challenges of certain students, and encourage those doing well to help struggling classmates. The tutorials are touted as helpful because, among other factors, they can be paused by students while classroom lectures can not.

In 2010, it introduced badges as part of a program to promote gamification of learning. There are currently 6 main levels of badges, with hundreds of different badges in total.

Criticism

Khan Academy has been criticized because Salman Khan does not have a background in pedagogy. Statements made in some videos have also been questioned. In response to these criticisms, the organization has fixed errors in its videos, expanded its faculty and built a network of content specialists. Others have presented data showing Khan videos are less effective than those of other publishers and that the concept of chalk on a blackboard is less engaging for students than other styles of video, such as cartoons.

In an interview from January 2016, Khan defended the value of Khan Academy online lectures while acknowledging their limitations: "I think they're valuable, but I'd never say they somehow constitute a complete education."

Recognition

Khan Academy has gained recognition both nationally and internationally:

• Bill Gates spoke about Khan Academy at the Aspen Ideas festival.
• In 2010, Google's Project 10¹⁰⁰ provided $2 million to support the creation of more courses, to allow for translation of the Khan Academy's content, and to allow for the hiring of additional staff.
• In November 2011, the Khan Academy received a $5 million grant from the Ireland-based O'Sullivan Foundation.
• In April 2012, the founder and executive director of Khan Academy, Salman Khan, was listed among the Time 100 Most Influential People for 2012.
• In 2013, the Mexico-based Carlos Slim Foundation made a donation to Khan Academy to expand its Spanish library of videos.
• Khan was one of five winners of the 2014 Heinz Award. His award was in the area of "Human Condition."
• In July 2014, the U.S. Department of Education launched a $2.2 million randomized-control trial to gauge the effectiveness of Khan Academy. The trial will focus on mathematics and will take place during the 2015â€"2016 school year.
• In June 2015, the SAT and the College Board partnered with Khan Academy for creating content specific to preparing for the SAT standardized test. The College Board's goal, in preparation for the New SAT, was to make SAT resources more affordable and to have more people plan to go to college.
• In August 2015, Khan Academy partnered with Disney & Pixar Animation Studios to launch Pixar in a Box on Khan Academy. The goal is to show how academic concepts students learn in school are used to solve creative challenges in the making of Pixar films.

References

External links

• Khan Academy website
• In the Media: Khan Academy-Related Talks and Interviews, Khan academy 
• Khan Academy on YouTube
• Khan Academy on Facebook
• Khan Academy on Twitter