Khan Academy

Say you need to brush up on your understanding of microeconomics (crazier things have happened, I assure you), or you're preparing for the GMAT exam, and the run-of-the-mill study guides aren't working for you. Or say your date has a burning interest in modern art, but you don't get what all those soup cans are about. Khan Academy should be your first stop in any of these learning endeavors.

Khan Academy (free) is a website that everyone?yes, everyone?should visit at least once. In terms of its importance in the digital world, it shows potential to match Wikipedia. As a place where you can learn, or simply refresh your learning, in dozens of subjects, from algebra to economics to art history, it's easily one of the most useful, educational, and eye-opening places online to learn. And everything is free.

Khan Academy is an example of content conquering all. Most of the videos that teach the subject matter aren't flashy or even edited (though some are) and aren't voiced by actors. They're all taught by real experts. The instruction is genuine, straightforward, and presented in a style that makes you feel like someone cares whether you get it.

The History of Khan Academy started when a former hedge fund analyst, Sal Khan, began tutoring his cousins, who lived in different cities, in mathematics using Yahoo Doodle and a telephone. Tight on time and with other scheduling concerns, the MIT-educated Khan began recording screencasts of his help sessions so he could post them to YouTube, where his cousin could watch them at their own pace. Before long, other YouTube viewers were watching the videos, too, praising the material for finally helping them understand a concept they had been struggling to learn. Sal Khan told this story at a TED conference?in early 2011, which has since led to increased recognition of his online Academy, as well as a lot of growth.

Now, Khan Academy has more videos, a better overall structure than it did a year ago, more guest instructors who are experts in their field, additional learning modules?such as quizzes, practice exercises, and learning "coaches"?and several other incredible features.

What's Taught and What Isn't
The subject matter taught at Khan Academy varies widely and is expanding all the time. When the site started, it focused on economics, math, and some of the sciences. But now you'll find prep material for standardized, art history courses, content to learn how to computer animation, as well as explanations of current affairs, like a thorough explanation of the Greek debt crisis or the Geithner Plan.

For the most part, the content is aimed at upper grade school and college-level students. But the beauty of free online learning is that anyone can attempt to learn, and indeed nothing restricts a user of any age or background from working through any of the material.

What you won't find are very basic how-to lessons for learning things like setting up a blog or using Twitter, although you can find answers to that question and other similar ones on another site called Grovo).

Features
Anyone can use Khan Academy, and you don't even have to sign up, although there are some benefits to creating a username and password. For starters, the site will remember which videos you've watched, reward you with badges for making progress, and help you track your learning. Additionally, it can point you toward practice exercises that test your knowledge of things you've learned.

Enrolled users can also access a "coaching" feature. Coaches are guides for learners, whether a parent, teacher, tutor, or study buddy. A coach can see a learner's progress and suggest other lessons the learner should watch. Coaches and learners must mutually agree to the relationship, so there's no worry that some unknown person will be able to see what you're learning.

Another neat feature is goal-setting, although it's still in beta. Both learners and coaches can set up goals for a learner, such as watch five consecutive videos or learn five new skills. Establishing custom goals, however, is by far the most interesting option, not because of the goals themselves (you basically just pick specific videos or video series you want to complete), but due to the way the selections are displayed. The possible options look like stars on a star map, with lines drawn between them to show relationships, giving you greater visibility into how subjects connect. For example, the mathematical topic "variance" branches down into "standard deviation" and "exploring standard deviation," which also both connect to two more topics: "Z scores" and "empirical rule." You can pan around the star map and zoom in and out to explore all the topics in a much more engaging way than scrolling through a bullet list. Because the goal feature is still in beta, custom goal content comprises math only. I can't wait for this area to expand.

Non-native English speakers and hard-of-hearing or deaf learners will be happy to know that you can turn on English transcriptions or subtitles with one click. Subtitles in other languages also appear, but their completeness and quality varies video to video and language to language?it's all supported by YouTube and Amara, which relies on crowd-sourced contributions to improve. And leveraging those existing technologies is the right approach to take, especially for a non-profit organization. It lets the people who run Khan Academy focus on what matters: content.

Effective Online Learning
What makes video-based learning unique is that the learner can go at his or her own pace, re-watch videos or pause them to think through an idea, and fit it in when it's most convenient. Khan Academy just gets it, keeping the actual videos frills-free and the material approachable. If you are a student, parent, or just a life-long learner, Khan Academy will become a household name. The site has been expanding rapidly, but has shown vast improvements in the last year alone.? Khan's content is phenomenal, and that is what matters.

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