Digital Media Concepts/Khan Academy Breakthrough

Khan Academy

What Is Khan Academy?

Khan Academy is a not-for-profit widely used online learning platform that offers a variety of educational resources such as instructional videos, study practices, and exercises. This learning platform covers a wide range of subjects, including Art, Math, English, History, and Science, and caters to learners of all ages, from kindergarten to post-secondary education.

Khan Academy aims to improve the traditional learning experience by providing additional resources for teachers and students to use inside and outside the classroom. Its global reach makes it accessible for learners worldwide to enhance their knowledge and skills in various subjects.

Genesis of Khan Academy

Salman Khan is the founder of the Khan Academy. He has degrees from MIT and Harvard University and was a former hedge fund analyst. In August 2004, he began tutoring his cousin Nadia, who had trouble with unit conversions. Even though Nadia was in New Orleans and Sal resided in Boston, he helped her through phone and Yahoo Doodle after work. As Nadia’s performance improved, Sal offered to help his other family members with tutoring. Due to his hectic schedule, Sal considered making video recordings of his teachings and uploading them on YouTube in 2006, encouraging his cousins to watch them at their own pace. However, he could not have foreseen that his academic instructional videos would spark an educational revolution.

Grants and Donations

Khan Academy became a part of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2008. As a result, the majority of their donations were funded by philanthropic organizations. This first significant contribution came from Ann Doerr, who donated $10,000 after being intrigued by observing a friend’s child being helped by Khan Academy-provided videos. Later, she granted an additional $100,00.

In September 2010, Google granted $2,000,000 to the Khan Academy Foundation encouraging them to create more educational videos, translated into multiple languages.

In addition, Bill Gates’ children appeared to excel in their mathematic skills with the help of the Khan Academy’s free course materials. Therefore, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invested $1.5 million in the academy’s development. Soon after this contribution, Gates donated $4 million to support the academy’s expansion efforts.

Technological innovations for online education platform through Khan Academy

Khan Academy organization has 27 tools and technology for educational reform and servicing functions.

• Language & Frameworks - Backbone.js, JavaScript, Python, HTML5, CSS 3, GO, ExpressJS, GraphQL, Handlebars.js
• Libraries - React, Underscore, Redux
• Application Hosting - Google Cloud Platform and Google App Engine
• Data Stores - PostgreSQL, Airflow, Google BigQuery
• Data Stores - Google Cloud Dataflow, Crowdin, Typeform
• Analytics - Google Analytics
• Monitoring - Sentry, Errorception
• Communications - Sendgrid, Mailgun
• Back Office - Gmail
• Marketing and Sales Tool - Qualaroo

Growth in Khan Academy

Initially, the Khan Academy YouTube establishment played a potent role in the organization’s growth from 2006. Due to its well-structured lessons and convenience, it gained millions of users to utilize this user-friendly academic platform to experience new learning features while motivating and encouraging many more to engage with its comprehensible and engaging aspects of materials, structuring a completely new category of learning complimented by the virtual learning experience to the physical learning space.

Impact on the Global Education

Khan Academy has been able to help many students all over the world in education reform. This free-of-cost organization contributes opportunities and advantages to anyone, regardless of financial status to leverage their standard of living and establish a foundation for their children and the upcoming age.