When Salman Khan started teaching maths over the phone, little did he think it would expand into an academy instructing more than six million students a month.
The one-time hedge-fund analyst began the Khan Academy as a side project to help family members. Now it has become a respected source of learning for everyone from primary school students to what Khan describes as "curious adults".
When his phone tutoring grew too big to manage effectively, a friend suggested Khan use the power of the internet - and YouTube specifically – to keep up with his family maths lessons.
“At first I thought it was a silly idea – YouTube is for cats playing piano, not serious mathematics – but I gave it a shot,” he said.
The videos went viral. The academy has since spread worldwide. Online the Khan Academy has more than 4,000 video tutorials online, covering a range of subjects from maths and science to economics and computer programming.
A couple of years ago, it turned from a side project to a full-time occupation.
“The social return was pretty large. I quit my job in the autumn of 2009. Like a lot stories like this, you start from a fairly naïve point of view, but it takes longer than you expect it to find that kind of support,” he said.
“When we did find the support, it was fairly significant.”
The academy has attracted some well-known figures in the tech world.
Virtual world
The not-for-profit academy is funded by donations, with companies such as Google backing the firm, and a hefty donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation helping it to develop further.
"To go from getting a lot of rejections to all of a sudden Bill Gates and Google reaching out and asking, 'How can we support you?' – that was pretty incredible," Khan said.
It has moved out of the virtual world into the classroom. That began with a pilot project in schools in Los Altos, California, to more than 30,000 classrooms worldwide.
The move has changed how children are learning, both in the classroom and outside.
“In order for people to learn something, they need to be able to go at their own pace. They need to do a lot of problem sets; videos are nice but it’s even more important to be able to do as many exercises as you can, get as much feedback, get the explanation exercises if you get them wrong,” Khan said.
“If you’re a teacher it’s important to be able to see what your students are doing, what questions they are having trouble with, how much time they are spending – all sorts of data that we could give. [Google and the Gates Foundation] thought it was worth a shot; that’s what they believed in.”
Experiment
Khan continues to look after the bulk of the science and maths content, but the academy has branched out to bring in two art historians, and even a medical lecturer.
A series on the financial crisis a couple of years ago attracted the attention of a lot of those “curious adults” he refers to.
Points and badges on the site are used to motivate users to learn more
“In the gaming world, badges are a very powerful tool,” he said. “That had a major impact on behaviour. Even when we introduce a certain type of badge to encourage a particular behaviour, we immediately see that behaviour increasing on the site.
“What’s fun about what we’re doing is that we can really experiment in how do we keep students engage? How do we motivate them, make sure they retain the knowledge?
“It’s fun to see if we can use the addictive nature of gaming to get kids more addicted to learning.”
Fuelling the boom in online education is, in part, the growth in popularity of tablets and other mobile devices.
The new generation of devices is empowering younger children in learning, Khan says, and over the next 18 months, the academy is going to expand its apps to include the interactive exercises.
“We already have apps but they’re not the full experience. You want the exercises along with the video, which is the meat of what we’re doing.”
Khan hasn’t ruled out working with Irish schools to help kickstart a classroom transformation here, saying there are “very preliminary conversations” around the topic.
One of the academy’s biggest supporters is Irish investor and engineer Sean O’Sullivan, whose foundation donated $5 million (€3.75m) to the academy to extend its content and faculty.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if something happens there,” Khan said.
MORE ONLINE LESSONS From computer programming to medicine
ALISON
Galway-based Alison has something of a name in the e-learning area.
The Unesco award-winning social enterprise offers interactive courses in a range of topics from the arts and languages to health and safety and computer programming.
The videos come from a variety of sources, including the Khan Academy, so format varies. Some are straightforward lectures filmed with speakers, others demonstrate concepts, particularly in the more practical subjects, such as learning how to write computer programs. See alison.com
COURSERA
Coursera teams up with colleges and organisations around the world to offer a wide range of courses, covering everything from the history of the internet to computer science and medicine.
The class format usually teams video lectures by the course leaders released on a phased basis with regular quizzes and assignments.
The courses run for a specified length of time, but once you are enrolled in he site, you can go back and revisit the material and quizzes – you just won’t receive credit for doing so.
Finish all the required material and you could earn a qualification from it.
See Coursera.org
E-LEARNING FOR KIDS
This site is aimed at a younger audience – children from five to 12 years old – but it covers a wide range of material from maths and science to health and environmental skills.
The courses are taught through short animated videos and games to help children pick up and retain the information. Some of it is a little cheesy, but it gets the job done.
See e-learningforkids.org
