Site Name: Khan Academy
Type of Resource
Watch: Educational videos about Math, Science, History, Finance, and Test Prep. A large amount of content within each subject.
Practice: Math exercises on a variety of content. You are able to see a knowledge map of your success and what subject comes next. Also able to see statistics on your performance and knowledge base.
Coach: A teacher or parent could sign up students or kids and monitor their progress through the exercises.
Description
The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization looking to provide education to anyone. With a primary focus on mathematics currently there is major expansion into other subject areas on the way. There are videos of a variety of subject areas that are insightful and can help anyone learn, or refresh on a variety of subjects. Math exercises are also available which can be used by an individual or a group of people monitored by an adult. Individual progress is tracked, badges are awarded and there is a giant knowledge map to help look ahead and the next goal.
Registration is needed for using the exercises or being a coach to track student progress.
Uses
These videos and exercises are provided in English and are directed at learners of any age. Some of the videos (but none of the exercises) are being translated into spanish. The videos are 10 to 20 minutes in length and are all made by Salman Khan, who plans on making the videos 'until he dies,' which should help him get to the subjects other than math.
Usefulness
As a seventh grade math teacher, I find this website invaluable. Salman Khan at least touches on every math topic we teach during the year as well as pre-requisite topics our kids should already know. Should there be gaps or loss of school time, this is another resource for students to go to and learn about whatever subject they like. The ability to set up a classroom monitoring for the math exercises could bring in another way of learning math in the computer lab and at home. Progress could be tracked and students could bounce around to any math subject they like. All the while strengthening their mathematics knowledge base.
For math, content it is set up for K-12. The other subjects are a bit behind and have no exercises at this point so its usefulness in other areas would depend on the content offered.
Quality
The quality is quite high for one individual who is using no curriculum and producing all the videos. He uses some high end products to make his videos and has an extensive math, computer science, and investment management. The videos are meant to be watched at a computer as a hope to fill in any gaps in their learning they may have. The newer videos are higher quality than some of the older ones, and while production does not rival that of other more high end sites, the videos are more than manageable and do not detract from the purpose of the website.
One blogger is deeply upset at Khan's financial knowledge and states that "[The fact that Khan] remains in this state of ignorance and go teach students about his ideas is a danger to the progress of knowledge and the general welfare of society."
Authorship
Salman Kahn is the author of all the videos and the rest of his staff helps to maintain the website, design the website, and translate the content.
Point of View or Bias
This page is very biased to Salman Kahn's point of view. In his own words "The concepts are conveyed as they are understood by me, not as they are written in a textbook developed by an educational bureaucracy" (FAQ) While personal bias might not show up in many of the subjects, he defiantly could sway people to a non-partisan point of view or lead someone down the wrong path if the information he gives is incorrect.
Referral to Other Sources
Little to None.
Currency
Updated very frequently.
Alexa
Traffic Rank is 6,619 in the World
1,775 Sites Link into Khan Academy.
In the last 3 months there has been a +47% change in visitors visiting Khan Academy.
The load time for Khan Academy is 1.285 seconds, which is an average speed.
Relative to the general internet population Khan Academy is most popular with 18-24 year old Males with a graduate degree.
Etre
There is 1 'should fix' accessibility issue for Khan Academy. That accessibility issue is that Nested tables are used.
WAVE
There are 49 accessibility errors. Most of the errors are empty links, which is actually part of the jump to ability of the web page.
(Jumping down to certain sections of the front page)
The alerts are for invisible content and problematic link text.
Website Grader
Khan Academy has a grade of a 90/100
There are 5,270 indexed pages.
Khan Academy does not have a Blog
The readability level is Advanced/Doctoral Degree.
On the 10 point MOZ scale of link authority and popularity Khan Academy has a 6.1
There are 5,333 linking domains.
There is no Twitter account associated with Khan Academy
Khan Academy has had their website for 5 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and it is set to expire in 8 months, 1 week.
Google Page Rank
8/10
Common Sense Media Review
Appropriate age is 12 or older.
Educational Value is a 5/5
Positive Messages is ranked 4/5
There is no applicable Violence
There is no applicable Sex
There is no applicable Language
Consumerism got a 1/5
There is no applicable Drinking, drugs, or smoking.
Privacy and Safety got a 4/5
Wikipedia
Slogan: "It is our mission to accelerate learning for students of all ages."
Commercial?No
Type of site: Educational Video Website
Registration: Required for some services
Available language(s): American English
Content license: Creative Commons(by-nc-sa).
Owner: Salman Khan
Created by: Salman Khan, Founder and Executive Director; Shantanu Sinha, President and COO
Launched: Sep 2006
Revenue: NA
Current status: Official
References:
Accessibility Check - Etre. (n.d.). Etre - Get Results.. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://www.etre.com/tools/accessibilitycheck/
Alexa Internet - Website Information. (n.d.). Alexa the Web Information Company. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo
Google PageRank Checker - Check Google page rank instantly. (n.d.). Google PageRank Checker - Check Google page rank of any web pages. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
Twitter Grader | Get Your Twitter Ranking. (n.d.). Twitter Grader | Get Your Twitter Ranking. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://tweet.grader.com/
WAVE - Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. (n.d.). WAVE - Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://wave.webaim.org/
Website SEO Tool | Website Grader. (n.d.). Website SEO Tool | Website Grader. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://websitegrader.com/
Type of Resource
Watch: Educational videos about Math, Science, History, Finance, and Test Prep. A large amount of content within each subject.
Practice: Math exercises on a variety of content. You are able to see a knowledge map of your success and what subject comes next. Also able to see statistics on your performance and knowledge base.
Coach: A teacher or parent could sign up students or kids and monitor their progress through the exercises.
Description
The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization looking to provide education to anyone. With a primary focus on mathematics currently there is major expansion into other subject areas on the way. There are videos of a variety of subject areas that are insightful and can help anyone learn, or refresh on a variety of subjects. Math exercises are also available which can be used by an individual or a group of people monitored by an adult. Individual progress is tracked, badges are awarded and there is a giant knowledge map to help look ahead and the next goal.
Registration is needed for using the exercises or being a coach to track student progress.
Uses
These videos and exercises are provided in English and are directed at learners of any age. Some of the videos (but none of the exercises) are being translated into spanish. The videos are 10 to 20 minutes in length and are all made by Salman Khan, who plans on making the videos 'until he dies,' which should help him get to the subjects other than math.
Usefulness
As a seventh grade math teacher, I find this website invaluable. Salman Khan at least touches on every math topic we teach during the year as well as pre-requisite topics our kids should already know. Should there be gaps or loss of school time, this is another resource for students to go to and learn about whatever subject they like. The ability to set up a classroom monitoring for the math exercises could bring in another way of learning math in the computer lab and at home. Progress could be tracked and students could bounce around to any math subject they like. All the while strengthening their mathematics knowledge base.
For math, content it is set up for K-12. The other subjects are a bit behind and have no exercises at this point so its usefulness in other areas would depend on the content offered.
Quality
The quality is quite high for one individual who is using no curriculum and producing all the videos. He uses some high end products to make his videos and has an extensive math, computer science, and investment management. The videos are meant to be watched at a computer as a hope to fill in any gaps in their learning they may have. The newer videos are higher quality than some of the older ones, and while production does not rival that of other more high end sites, the videos are more than manageable and do not detract from the purpose of the website.
One blogger is deeply upset at Khan's financial knowledge and states that "[The fact that Khan] remains in this state of ignorance and go teach students about his ideas is a danger to the progress of knowledge and the general welfare of society."
Authorship
Salman Kahn is the author of all the videos and the rest of his staff helps to maintain the website, design the website, and translate the content.
Point of View or Bias
This page is very biased to Salman Kahn's point of view. In his own words "The concepts are conveyed as they are understood by me, not as they are written in a textbook developed by an educational bureaucracy" (FAQ) While personal bias might not show up in many of the subjects, he defiantly could sway people to a non-partisan point of view or lead someone down the wrong path if the information he gives is incorrect.
Referral to Other Sources
Little to None.
Currency
Updated very frequently.
Alexa
Traffic Rank is 6,619 in the World
1,775 Sites Link into Khan Academy.
In the last 3 months there has been a +47% change in visitors visiting Khan Academy.
The load time for Khan Academy is 1.285 seconds, which is an average speed.
Relative to the general internet population Khan Academy is most popular with 18-24 year old Males with a graduate degree.
Etre
There is 1 'should fix' accessibility issue for Khan Academy. That accessibility issue is that Nested tables are used.
WAVE
There are 49 accessibility errors. Most of the errors are empty links, which is actually part of the jump to ability of the web page.
(Jumping down to certain sections of the front page)
The alerts are for invisible content and problematic link text.
Website Grader
Khan Academy has a grade of a 90/100
There are 5,270 indexed pages.
Khan Academy does not have a Blog
The readability level is Advanced/Doctoral Degree.
On the 10 point MOZ scale of link authority and popularity Khan Academy has a 6.1
There are 5,333 linking domains.
There is no Twitter account associated with Khan Academy
Khan Academy has had their website for 5 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and it is set to expire in 8 months, 1 week.
Google Page Rank
8/10
Common Sense Media Review
Appropriate age is 12 or older.
Educational Value is a 5/5
Positive Messages is ranked 4/5
There is no applicable Violence
There is no applicable Sex
There is no applicable Language
Consumerism got a 1/5
There is no applicable Drinking, drugs, or smoking.
Privacy and Safety got a 4/5
Wikipedia
Slogan: "It is our mission to accelerate learning for students of all ages."
Commercial?No
Type of site: Educational Video Website
Registration: Required for some services
Available language(s): American English
Content license: Creative Commons(by-nc-sa).
Owner: Salman Khan
Created by: Salman Khan, Founder and Executive Director; Shantanu Sinha, President and COO
Launched: Sep 2006
Revenue: NA
Current status: Official
References:
Accessibility Check - Etre. (n.d.). Etre - Get Results.. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://www.etre.com/tools/accessibilitycheck/
Alexa Internet - Website Information. (n.d.). Alexa the Web Information Company. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo
Google PageRank Checker - Check Google page rank instantly. (n.d.). Google PageRank Checker - Check Google page rank of any web pages. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
Twitter Grader | Get Your Twitter Ranking. (n.d.). Twitter Grader | Get Your Twitter Ranking. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://tweet.grader.com/
WAVE - Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. (n.d.). WAVE - Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://wave.webaim.org/
Website SEO Tool | Website Grader. (n.d.). Website SEO Tool | Website Grader. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://websitegrader.com/
