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Khan Academy
Pros: Mastery-focused lessons auto-adapt for each student while continuous assessment gives teachers valuable, real-time data.
Cons: Video instruction may be too fast-paced for some learners; some instruction is delivered only via text.
Bottom Line: A solid, free resource for targeted math and science instruction, test prep, history, and more.
For classroom teachers, Khan Academy is probably best used to introduce, practice, and review content. Though math is the most comprehensively covered subject, teachers focusing on science, history, or economics can teach or supplement full courses with Khan Academy. Math and reading content (in beta as of this review) 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 super 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 the struggling students for some small-group instruction. And if you're working with little kids, you can use Khan Academy Kids to introduce foundational skills and SEL concepts.
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, and computing, as well as prep for tests like the SAT and Praxis Core. Course offerings are continually updated and expanded. In response to the pandemic, Khan Academy has added a lot of support for distance learning and homeschool environments.
Students 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 work lesson by lesson or set a Course Mastery Goal, in which the students work at their own pace to complete a course by a certain date. Students demonstrate mastery on short assessments throughout the course and by completing the course challenge test. Struggling students can work on prerequisites or use the Math: Get Ready Courses while also working to complete any other grade-level content.
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. And nearly every Common Core math standard is addressed at each grade level, making the website a rich resource for standards coverage.
Some great features on the site: You can turn on subtitles within each video, and the full Khan Academy curriculum is available in at least 18 languages. It would be nice, though, if built-in text-to-speech was available for the text-only content. For students with visual impairments, there are a few accessibility options located in account settings. Students can also use the Khan Academy app, which provides access to all courses, plus allows downloads for offline learning. Because its organization and interface is 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 anywhere.
Learning Rating
Community Rating
Great tool for learning math and understanding concepts!
Khan academy is a profound resource for any student who is seeking help in subjects (not limited to) math, science, reading, and even life skills! Khan, the creator, has a very soothing voice that calmly explains concepts as he writes on a black screen, adhering to both auditory and visual learning styles. I only have experience with his math and science videos, both of which have clarified information better than any teacher ever has. Khan Academy also has a section for SAT/ACT prep, which is extremely useful, as it is an online option for students looking to practice without having to go to a class. For teachers, it allows for individual student progress reports that give access to how students are doing in particular topics or what they may be struggling in. This gives teachers the opportunity to create specific plans for each student. A downside of using this platform, is that each topic-teaching does not go past mild to moderate difficulty, so it can be hard for students to learn more complex problems if this site is their only source of teaching.
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