Khan Academy to Supplement Instruction

By: Nikki Stewart

Although the reviews of Khan Academy as a classroom teaching tool are mixed, my research has found no other free site that supplements daily classroom instruction on the market. There are paid sites that schools can acquire site licences for like Edgenuity and Plato, but they do not cater to grades K-12 like Khan Academy, nor are they free. Having used both of the above mentioned programs, they also take a lot more front end/ student user/curriculum creation on the teacher user side. Commonsensemedia.org claims, “Khan Academy is designed for self-paced learning, and, in general, it's a solid resource to supplement classroom instruction.” This blog will focus on the ease of use, overall structure of Khan Academy and assessment techniques.

1. Ease of set up:First and foremost, Khan Academy allows the teacher user to set up a classroom account and add students with ease. The account is free and using your very own Google or Facebook account (after clicking “Teachers, start here”), you can begin creating your classes within minutes. Once you assign names to your classes and select the “mission”, a.k.a the subject, you can then begin adding students with or without email addresses. Many teacher and parent reviews on the Khan Academy site recommend setting up classes prior to the first lesson in order to “hit the ground running.” According to one teacher user from khanacademy.com, “The email setup is a bit of a cumbersome process and can take an entire class period or two to complete.” In any case, do whatever you are most comfortable with when it comes to setting up your classes. Below you will find a useful guide from edtechreview.in with Khan Academy class set up tips and much more.

“How to Flip Your Classroom using Khan Academy”

2. Rest assured in the hands of the Khan:The outline of the course material is simple and comprehensive. Each topic contains a pre-test to assess the skill level of the individual student, guided videos, practice questions/problems and assessments. Students can watch the videos as needed throughout the lesson and revisit videos and prior lessons for refreshers. Students have to complete each section successfully prior to advancing to the next topic. The best part is the notification of progress and progress tracker. Khan Academy will send updates once students complete tasks, or if they have been on any one task too long. As the teacher, you can keep track of your students as a class and individually on your “Dashboard”. According to consumeraffairs.com, “They make sure everything is clarified and

transparent. They explain and have a visual explanation as well so that everyone is very much aware what is on the screen.”

3. Thought-provoking assessments:As a teacher, who doesn’t want to hear that Khan Academy is one of the best baseline assessment tools, but also a classroom enrichment tool for the “struggling”, or “bored” student? Pcmag.com raves about Khan Academy’s assessments stating, “Khan Academy exceeded my expectations with its open framework and massive bank of automated and continuous assessments. Consider the first quiz of the Enlightenment and revolution program. To pass, users need to answer five questions in a row. Missing one question resets the score, but not the questions, which, despite my best efforts, do not repeat.” To read more, visit: PC Mag Khan Academy.

In summary, my research found Khan Academy has many different qualities that make it a useful classroom tool. Please take a few minutes to read the various student, teacher, parent and individual testimonies found here: Inspirational Stories of Khan Users.

When you are ready to set up your classroom and/or personal Khan Academy account, Click Here.