Community Review of Khan Academy | Common Sense Education

My Rating

Engagement

Pedagogy

Supports

My Take

SELF PACED
some students learn quickly, others more slowly, according to their ability, time, and desire to learn; videos can be paused, rewound, and re-watched
students have to put in consistent daily effort, which is focused, and at the edge of their ability, to continue to improve!
how do teachers encourage students to put in the effort in math??

MASTERY-BASED
students (potentially) achieve 100% mastery of many math topics
to confirm mastery, students/teachers/parents could ask students questions on that topic, to see if they really do have it nailed down
teachers need to follow student progress, and provide small-group lessons to those at the same level / content

CUMULATIVE
a record of student mastery in the “world of math” is visible in their profiles
want to know what they know and don’t know in math? it’s all there!
excellent metrics for teachers, to track progress, and identify “gaps” in learning, to signal need for remediation
if several students have same gap, small-group instruction

IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK
students know whether questions are right or wrong right away
unlike pencil/paper assessment, which may be returned much later
step-by-step hints, or instructional videos, are provided below every question

SPIRALING
students are doing work from number sense, measurement, geometry, algebra, and data & probability … all “strands” of math … on rotation → no need to plan a complicated spiraled curriculum, it’s all done for you.
less planning for teachers, and more time to focus one-on-one attention to students
teachers don’t have to say “textbook page 121, numbers 1-3, 5a-f anymore!
math class starts … “OK everyone, open Khan, and pick up where you left off!”

POINTS! COLOUR CODED!
kids enjoy the motivation of the points they accumulate, badges, avatars, etc
it’s easy to follow the steps, b/c videos AND exercises are colour coded for understanding

FIND MISTAKES
some exercises include “find the mistake”, and students have to go through and check the work to find mistakes … sometimes there are none! Very smart.

Next step - kids make up their OWN questions, and solve them!
easy to get parents on board → KA is helpful from pre-K through university … and life!
if students learn to use KA well, it can be helpful to them today, high school, university, and more (mortgages, interest rates, history, etc)
getting to know ONE TOOL WELL
instead of introducing students to many different platforms, learning to use one, high quality, platform well could be beneficial to their learning

NO cost, NO ads, mission “to provide a FREE, world class education, to anyone anywhere”
the content is high quality - good descriptions, easy to listen to and follow
the platform is well-funded, and not likely going anywhere anytime soon
students can continue to use this for the rest of their lives

PRIVACY is top notch.

How I Use It

Khan Academy is my main math education app for grade 5, 6, 7, 8 math. Grade 5 students start from kindergarten content (counting, one-digit addition) and go from there. They fill gaps in their learning K-5, then continue to advance. Many middle-school students struggle with grade 2-3 content (skip-counting, factors, subtraction, etc), while others get to grade level with consistent effort, and a few go beyond. The most helpful aspect of this self-paced, mastery-based program is that ALL STUDENTS are working exactly at they ability level, and pushing forward, at all times. They are challenged, and learn to learn on their own.

More community reviews for Khan Academy

Abdul G. student of school

April 29, 2023

this made my lesson start over.

This bring a video of math in the middle of a lesson

Johnathan B.

April 17, 2023

Do not recommend

One of the main issues with Khan Academy is that it does not provide an adequate learning experience for students. The videos are cookie-cutter, impersonal, and lack any sort of teacher interaction. While the videos do provide an explanation of content, this is far from the whole teaching experience. With Khan Academy, students don’t experience the nuances and complexities of a classroom environment. They don’t receive feedback from the teacher or fellow students, nor do they get any personalized guidance. Another issue with Khan Academy is that it often does not align with the curriculum of a given school. While Khan Academy does offer some tutorials on more traditional topics such as math and science, it greatly favors more modern topics such as coding and technology. This makes it difficult for teachers to use Khan Academy as an effective supplement to their usual lesson plan. And even when they do use Khan Academy, they are still responsible for making sure that their students understand the material. The lack of alignment with the curriculum isn't the only problem. Khan Academy's assessment system is also based on multiple choice questions, which often do not accurately test a student's true knowledge. Multiple choice assessments are prone to guessing, and therefore give a false sense of understanding of the material. Finally, Khan Academy often encourages students to use it as a shortcut to learning material. While this does give students a leg-up on the material, it can often lead to cheating in class as students might submit answers from the Khan Academy assessment system. Overall, Khan Academy is a great resource for students who want to learn more about a certain subject, but it is far from an ideal learning environment for those attending formal classes. It fails to provide an adequate learning experience for students and often does not align with the curriculum. Additionally, Khan Academy has recently been deemed one of the most damaging educational products to ever be created in the eyes of many teachers. The company markets its services as a solution to support teaching and learning, but in practice, teachers have reported significant and lasting negative effects. For this reason, teachers should carefully consider the repercussions of using Khan Academy in the classroom, as there are a number of serious implications that may have a lasting effect on students.

1 person found this helpful.

TAYLOR T. College Nursing Student

December 13, 2022

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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