Thoughts On Khan Academy

For the past 28 months, I have been using online education platforms to learn new skills, and brush up on old ones. This journey has taken me through topics ranging from JavaScript syntax to economic growth factors to statistical analysis of data. Over that time, I’ve used a variety of services, including Udacity, Coursera, Code Academy, and, most recently, Khan Academy.

While I’ve found all of these websites useful at some level, arguably none have drawn as much attention, or gained as much traction in a short time, as Khan Academy, the free online instructional site developed by former hedge fund analyst Salman “Sal” Khan, initially as a series of YouTube videos to help teach his younger cousin math. For that reason, I’ve decided to share my own experiences with Khan Academy, and what this platform means for education more broadly.

Khan Academy works best for quantitative topics.

Khan Academy is most useful when it teaches and tests subjects which are primarily grounded in numbers. I realized this after taking courses in statistics, economics and biology, and finding the lessons in statistics most effective.

Sal offers a clear, comprehensive lesson on a concept like standard deviation, and proceeds to test one’s understanding through a series of multiple choice and free response questions, some portion of which you must answer correctly. After completing a lesson, I had a strong sense that I genuinely understood what I had just learned, and could apply it in the future.

Compare this with biology. Sal offers a useful, albeit long-winded series of lectures on a topic like cell division, which involves a complex series of steps (mitosis and meiosis, if your high school biology is as rusty as mine was). Economics wasn’t much different structurally, with lengthy discussions of GDP, income, and labor markets. Yet, with each of these subjects, at the end of a lesson, there was no assessment to test whether one actually understood a given topic.

While I do feel that I understand cell biology and economics somewhat better after Khan’s lectures, without any sort of assessment, it’s hard to truly know where I stand. Perhaps this lack of testing is a result of such subjects being a series of interlocking issues and processes, without short, discrete answers. In statistics or trigonometry, by contrast, while concepts certainly build on and closely relate to each other, there is normally a clear, brief answer to a problem, however challenging it might be to work through.

The other issue with many of the non-quantitative lessons is their length, or more specifically, the way in which they are structured. More than a few lectures went on for well over 10 minutes, and explored several complex issues in a short period of time. The longer a lecture carries on for, the more challenging it is to distill and break information down into distinct, manageable parts. To add to these challenges, Khan often jumps quickly from concept to concept, sometimes making it hard to keep up. For some reason, Khan’s statistics lessons didn’t have these shortcomings, as they were more effectively structured, and of manageable length.

Though a student can take breaks during these lectures, pausing as he or she sees fit, the reality is that when a lesson is constructed in a particular format, most of us tend to stick with this structure, rather than develop our own approach. As a result, we end up with our minds saturated, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of knowledge that we have been forced to take in, without pause. Khan ought to explore covering the same material in a series of shorter videos.

When trying to grasp a subject initially, Khan Academy’s lack of individualized instruction makes it considerably less effective than if one were taught in a classroom.

Learning new concepts isn’t easy. We have to wrestle with unfamiliar ideas and terms, and really, form a new way of thinking about the world. We must then apply this knowledge practically. This process requires time, effort, repetition and perhaps most of all, guidance. Khan Academy, or for that matter any online education platform, can certainly explain a concept, and to some degree, test one’s understanding of it.

But what about personalized assistance, tailored to the specific needs of each student? Khan Academy offers forums where students can work collaboratively towards a better understanding of a topic. This tool can be useful. Yet, there isn’t an instructor or teaching assistant with whom one can sit down (or communicate with through video chat), and work through a problem, seek feedback and ask questions.

When I worked through those aspects of cell biology which were completely unfamiliar from my prior study, more than once, I felt an urge to raise my hand and say “I don’t understand what’s going on here. Could we discuss it after class?” Right now, Khan Academy doesn’t make this possible, and I suspect it would be quite a useful service for many students.

Research has shown that focused individualized or small group instruction can have a major impact on student learning. Khan Academy, as a non-profit, likely doesn’t have the resources to offer such assistance. What’s more, even a commercial online teaching venture, possibly flush with millions of dollars in venture capital, would find it difficult to offer such help, since the human resources required would render such an undertaking largely unscalable. Barring major innovations in artificial intelligence, this may be an inherent limitation of online learning, and is yet another reason why retaining and supporting effective public school teachers is so crucial.

Khan Academy is a useful supplement for a topic one already has some familiarity with.

There is one role in which Khan Academy truly shines: as an instructional supplement. If you already have some degree of familiarity with a topic, Khan Academy can help deepen that understanding. I took a statistics course in college, and also make use of it in my daily life. Thus, concepts like variance, mean, median and mode are not totally foreign.

What Khan Academy did was strengthen this existing knowledge, by bringing greater clarity to those topics which I had either partially forgotten, or simply had a hard time understanding initially. Sal worked through problems methodically, allowing me to understand exactly how my current approach might be flawed, and provided a blueprint for improving upon it. Completing practice problems also helped test whether my skills had in fact improved.

Through this approach, Khan Academy can function as a powerful tool for educational empowerment. For people who have been away from a subject for years, let’s say, a parent seeking to help a child with homework, or a military veteran who recently returned to school, Khan Academy can tip the balance in favor of subject-matter comprehension.

What’s more, while our public school system benefits from thousands of wonderful teachers, who devote their lives to their students, many other teachers can’t successfully impart knowledge to their students, whether due to overcrowded classes, a lack of support, or a simple absence of skill in their chosen profession. Sadly, students in poorer schools are more likely to be taught by such teachers.

In other instances, perhaps a teacher isn’t objectively “bad”, but rather, a student simply might not connect with an instructor’s teaching style, or might just need more practice and supplemental instruction, in order to truly master a topic. The reasons for pupil failure are varied and complex.

Khan Academy can help close this gap, by providing a fresh source of instruction, to improve one’s grasp of a topic. Anyone with access to a computer, or for that matter, a mobile device, can use these tools to develop their skills in a particular subject. I, and thousands of others, have done exactly this.

This isn’t to suggest that Khan Academy is any sort of replacement for effective teachers, who are pivotal to a student’s future growth and success, both in terms of conveying the intricacies of calculus or English literature, and in motivating students to succeed. Yet, when something is fundamentally broken in a student’s learning process, Khan Academy might well be able to help.

More and more school districts have recognized Khan Academy’s promise, and embraced it’s role as an instructional supplement. In 2011 and 2012, schools in Oakland and Los Altos launched pilot programs which made use of Khan Academy, and more districts around the nation have followed suit since. Many teachers and students who use Khan Academy in a school setting have expressed satisfaction with what Khan Academy offers, and the platform’s use as a tool for supplemental instruction seems likely to continue well into the future.

The criticisms of Khan Academy by some educators are largely accurate

Khan Academy has received praise and backing from many influential individuals and organizations, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan and First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as non-profit powerhouses like the Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation. Sal Khan’s creation also enjoys support from boldface Silicon Valley names like Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Google chairman Eric Schmidt.

Yet, not everyone is sold on this platform. In 2012, David Coffey and John Golden, two math professors at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, put together a video critique of Khan Academy, and announced that they would offer a cash prize to those who put together the best commentary which addressed problems with Khan’s videos. In their comments, Coffey and Golden, noted some inconsistencies and flaws in Khan’s approach to teaching math, and contemplated how these issues might either confuse students, or ultimately lead to a weaker understanding of a subject. Their comments garnered considerable attention, leading to Khan Academy ultimately removing the video in question.

Other takedowns of Khan Academy, most notably one published by Christopher Danielson and Michael Goldenberg in the Washington Post, argue that Khan seems to lack pedagogical content knowledge; that is, of how students are likely to learn and understand (or misunderstand) a topic, and how a teacher ought to account for these dynamics in teaching a subject. As a result, his instructional strategy optimally effective.

Danielson and Goldenberg note that a teacher’s pedagogical approach can have a significant impact on student learning, and proceed to detail how Khan’s approach to aspects of elementary mathematics, such as decimal comparison, can confuse and weaken a student’s comprehension of a topic, by using examples which fail to anticipate and address common student misconceptions. What’s more, the authors argue that the lack of practice exercises in some of Khan’s lectures are less than optimal for truly mastering a topic (I share this view).

Through observation of the comment pages which accompany Khan Academy lessons, the authors also argue that for those students who are truly “lost”, using Khan Academy often won’t leave them any better off than when they began using this website. Danielson and Goldenberg suggest that Khan seek outside input and collaboration, particularly from highly talented educators, in formulating his lessons.

While I am not an expert in the merits of various teaching methods, it is clear that there is room for Khan Academy to improve it’s teaching, as well as testing. If student success is the primary goal of Khan Academy, then Sal and his team should make use of the most effective practices possible. Doing so will make Khan Academy’s work that much more powerful, and relevant, for years to come. Hopefully, Khan is open to drawing on the knowledge and experiences of others who have successfully taught these subjects for years, and incorporating the things that they do best.

Conclusion

Sal Khan’s quest to help his cousin learn math, has transformed into a movement to facilitate access to education for all. Given his professional and educational background, there’s little doubt that Sal could have pursued far more lucrative opportunities, rather than devoting his life to helping others learn. For this, he is to be commended.

What’s more, Khan Academy holds considerable value as a supplement to classroom instruction, when applied to a subject one is already somewhat familiar with. For the motivated learner, who is returning to studying a topic after many years away, or a high school student who isn’t fully comprehending what he or she is being taught, Khan Academy can be a powerful resource. This exemplifies the best of what online education can do for society.

Unfortunately, when it comes to non-math topics, or pretty much any subject which one is working through for the first time, Khan Academy isn’t quite so useful. As noted earlier, Khan’s teaching and explanations, while sometimes excellent, also offer room for considerable improvement. What’s more, the lack of assessment and feedback in some of Khan Academy’s content, is a notable shortcoming of Sal Khan’s approach. If he implements some changes here, his platform will both gain more users, and serve them more effectively.

Yet, beyond anything Khan Academy can accomplish, there is no replacement for impactful, interactive classroom and afterschool instruction, which allows students to obtain the personalized guidance that is so critical to truly understanding a subject. These activities might someday be brought online on a mass scale, but until that time arrives, there is no substitute for well-planned investments in both hiring the best teachers, and supporting their efforts. Of course, in today’s political climate, how to actually implement such policies, is often mired in polarizing debate, with consensus hard to come by.

Ultimately, Khan Academy is a useful tool, and one which I hope continues to grow and improve in the coming years, eventually fulfilling it’s full potential. However, beyond the efforts of Sal Khan, and other agents of change, to dramatically improve educational outcomes, we need a commitment by all Americans, students and parents, teachers and policymakers, to embrace, celebrate and facilitate education and learning, both in spirit and through action.