The Khan Academy website is a nonprofit endeavour with the goal of providing a “free world‐class education”. The website contains a library of free video tutorials on the subjects of math, science, computer science, finance and economics, test preparation and some humanities. The site's content level is for K‐12 learners, but teachers, principals, or someone needing a refresher can use the material.
Salman Khan, the site's founder, first started creating video tutorials when tutoring his young cousins and then decided to host them on YouTube for other relatives that needed assistance. Once on YouTube, the popularity of the videos grew, and this prompted Khan to quit his full‐time job and create the Khan Academy website. The site now has a small team of accomplished professionals creating and maintaining the web infrastructure, web presence, usability and most importantly, the content. Khan Academy is funded by donations, with significant contributions from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Google.
The homepage includes a prominent search box, a small selection of recently added or promoted videos, and the browsing library. The browsing library is first organized by main heading, and then subheadings. Content can be viewed without an account; however, users who wish to create an account can use their already established Google or Facebook credentials or choose to create an account directly with Khan Academy. Once an account is created, the user can track their skills progress, keep a log of viewed tutorials, share their progress with friends and have access to a community of learners and coaches. There is additional material for teachers to use with suggestions of how to incorporate the videos into the classroom setting.
All videos are hosted by YouTube and available through the site. The videos showcase the lessons and the delivery of information is as if you are watching a problem being solved on a blackboard in front of you. The lecturer never appears before the camera, unlike many other capture lectures, such as MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative. Videos range in length from 5 to 20 minutes. Below each video is a discussion board where learners ask and answer questions. Learners can also choose to search the community site directly for answers to questions. In addition to recorded lessons, the site also provides interactive practice problems, where the learner can test out their new knowledge. An effort is being made to merge the lesson content with the practice problems, with embedded practice problems on the same page as the lesson. Once a lesson or practice problem is completed, additional content is then suggested by the site.
Khan Academy is growing in popularity with over two million viewed videos and approximately half‐a‐million registered subscribers. The videos have been distributed in offline modes to developing countries in Asia, Latin American and Africa. As the site continues to grow, Khan has plans to add additional content developers and team with schools to create summer learning camps around the videos.
This is a wonderful resource for learners in all stages of ability. There is a rich library of lessons and practice examples with a knowledgeable community of users to make connections.
