Salman Khan and the Khan Academy
Salman Khan, Founder of the Khan Academy
Salman (Sal) Khan is the Founder and Executive Director of the Khan Academy, an online personalized learning site that began with mathematics and has spread to sciences and humanities. The Khan Academy is a non-profit organization with the fundamental goal of providing “free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere”. Students, parents, and teachers are all welcome to join and the site offers over 3200 tutorial videos, instant and adaptive assessment and statistics for individual students or classes. The idea for the site was conceived after Sal had been tutoring some of his relatives in mathematics. As the relatives lived in different states, logistics became difficult and Sal uploaded tutorial videos of himself onto YouTube. The YouTube videos became popular and Sal founded the non-profit organization in 2008. In 2009, Sal quit his day job and started working on the Academy full time, living off of savings. In 2010, the Khan Academy received its first large donations and since then has grown to include approximately 30 staff members.
Salman Khan’s background includes three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard. He purposely chose to make the Khan Academy a non-profit organization as he felt that he wanted to provide the opportunity for free, quality education. The two large donations in 2010, totalling $3.5 million, moved the venture from small business to large. Sal has surrounded himself with team-members who are highly educated, well-qualified and experienced. Sal started small, took notice when his small venture (tutorial videos for his relatives) became popular, took the risk of following through on his idea and capitalized on funding money when it became available by building a well-rounded team of experts to assist him. I believe these are attributes of a successful entrepreneur.
As public, private and corporate education continue to look further at personalized learning environments, ventures like the Khan Academy have the potential to flourish. In the words of the Khan Academy:
“…if you are a social venture capitalist and are looking to deploy capital with the highest possible social return per dollar invested, we should talk. We think you’ll find that there is no more measurable, scalable and high impact way to educate the world. ” (The Khan Academy)
References:
The Khan Academy Website – http://www.khanacademy.org/
Picture of Salman Khan taken from Khan Academy PressKit available at the Khan Academy Press Room
Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Dave Horn 8:12 pm on May 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Janet,
Well I definitely feel like a bit of slacker compared to Sal, I’ve only got two and half degrees and no MBA. I do really like the mantra behind Khan Academy and I do have several students who make use of the videos. The videos can be a bit dry, but I think they can serve as useful tool for creating flipped classrooms, which will engage students better than sending them home to read notes.
Dave
vawells 1:24 am on June 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Janet
The Khan Academy is an interesting study. It truly illustrates how entrepreneurs need to be able to recognize the the market for their idea. What started out as helping a relative has turned into a venture with growth potential.
Thanks for sharing
Valerie
Allan 3:42 pm on June 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great person to examine and profile, Janet. I have followed Salman Khan’s academy for a while now. I’m really impressed by the resume Salman has; more impressed, however, with his acumen and foresight for open education. He is certainly one of the people who is trying to make a push for revolutionizing education through the social web.
Allan
Bridget 4:36 am on June 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Janet,
I use Khan Academy frequently with my grade 7 students, especially for practicing operations with fractions and integers. We watched with excitement when we heard about the donations by both Google and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. It was interesting what happened post-donation. The format for earning badges changed and it lost what students thought was one of the most challenging and fun aspects…the streak bar. With streak bar challenged students to answer as many questions as they can in a row (speed earned badges). I wonder if it will get too big too fast and lose its focus. I certainly hope that it does not become only a repository for videos since it was on its way to becoming more powerful than that. I have (and still have) students addicted to it and learning well above their years.
Bridget
janetb 12:33 pm on June 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Bridget,
It certainly has grown quickly. I have used it a few times – often for students who have been away or who need extra help/instruction beyond what I can provide. Some like it, some don’t, but it is a great resource. I haven’t had students sign up, specifically, so I am not familiar with the “streak bar”, but I share your concern. A repository for videos isn’t a bad thing in itself, but certainly nothing like what the site has the potential to become.
Janet
gillian 10:25 am on June 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Janet,
I have used the Khan Academy videos as additional links when appropriate for my courses. I agree with Dave that they can be a bit on the dry side, but they do hit the salient points for review puposes. I certainly respect the goals of the company and like Bridget, I hope it stays true to its original values.
gillian
mackenzie 1:16 pm on June 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Janet,
Very engaging and well written post! Thanks for the introduction into Khan academy, I wish I had heard about them earlier. I like how you recognized the qualities of a great venture capitalist, one that takes opportunities when they arise and surrounds themselves with great team members. Sal’s humble beginnings are inspiration to all of us as potential venture capitalists. I will be looking into this venture to gain further insight into his success and look for ways to leverage the affordances of his videos in my classroom. Presently my students are doing review and this may prove to be a great resource for them.
Thanks, Steve
janetb 2:00 pm on June 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks, Steve. And yes, the videos can be very helpful for review – if students are willing to take the time and watch them. They are also great for enrichment. I have a very gifted student in Calculus 12 and he watches them for fun!
Janet
Dennis Pratt 1:45 pm on June 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Janet;
Thanks for bring up the Khan Academy as it is one resource that I have recently started using in my classes. I plan to model some of my teachings after the setup of the Khan Academy. Free, quality education is something that we should strive for. I know some people fight desperately to protect what they have developed which leads to it never being shared beyond a certain small and qualified audience. With modern technology I think we can do better at sharing ideas and teachings than we currently do. I see the infrastructure in place and a tipping point close at hand for even more open sharing of resources.
Dennis
dubiend 6:13 pm on June 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Janet,
Great description of Khan Academy! I didn’t know that he was living off his savings for a while to focus on this project. I wonder whether he had any plans for financing at that point or whether he knew how big this would become. When a product is good enough and fills a great need, sometimes the project speaks for itself!
Denise 4:06 am on June 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
HI,
it is an amazing site and all based on donations and some vounteers.
Denise