Khan Academy facts for kids
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Type of site
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501(c)(3) |
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| Available in | Multiple languages |
| Owner | Khan Academy, Inc. |
| Founder(s) | Sal Khan |
| Launched | 2008 |
Khan Academy is a special online learning place. It's a non-profit group started in 2006 by Sal Khan. Their main goal is to make awesome online tools to help students learn.
This organization creates short video lessons. Their website also has extra practice exercises. It even has materials for teachers to use. Khan Academy has made over 10,000 video lessons. These videos teach many school subjects. You can learn about mathematics, sciences, literature, history, and computer science. All these learning tools are free for everyone to use. You can find them on their website and app.
Contents
How Khan Academy Started
The story of Khan Academy began in 2004. A person named Salman "Sal" Khan started helping one of his cousins. He tutored her in math online. He used a service called Yahoo! Doodle Images. Soon, other cousins wanted his help too.
Because so many people wanted tutoring, Sal Khan decided to put his videos online. He started publishing his lessons on YouTube. At first, he used a drawing app called SmoothDraw. Now, he uses a Wacom tablet to draw. He uses a program called ArtRage. He recorded all his video lessons on his computer.
People started reading good things about his work in USA Today. This made Sal Khan decide to create Khan Academy in 2008. He quit his job that same year. He wanted to spend all his time making educational videos. These videos were then released under the name Khan Academy.
A school connected to Khan Academy opened on September 15, 2014. It is called Khan Lab School. Sal Khan founded this school. It is located in Mountain View, California.
How Khan Academy Gets Money
Khan Academy is a non-profit organization. This means it doesn't try to make money for itself. It mostly gets money from donations. These donations come from groups that want to help others.
In 2010, Google gave Khan Academy $2 million. This money helped create new courses. It also helped translate content into other languages. This was part of Google's Project 10100 program. In 2013, Carlos Slim from Mexico also made a donation. This helped create Spanish versions of the videos.
In 2015, AT&T gave $2.25 million to Khan Academy. This money helped make mobile versions of the content. You can access these through apps. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has also donated $1.5 million. On January 11, 2021, Elon Musk donated $5 million. He gave this money through his Musk Foundation.
What You Can Learn
Khan Academy offers classes with educational videos. These videos are hosted on YouTube. The website is designed to be used with the videos. It has cool features like tracking your progress. It also has practice exercises and tools for teachers. You can also get the learning materials through mobile apps.
The videos let students learn at their own speed. This idea is called mastery learning. Teachers also use these videos. They use them to teach using a method called Flipped Classroom. This means students watch lessons at home. Then they do practice and projects in class.
The videos show drawings on an electronic blackboard. It looks like a teacher is giving a lecture. The person speaking explains each drawing. They also show how the drawings relate to the lesson. As you learn, you can earn badges and energy points. You can show these on your profile.
Groups that help others have shared offline versions of the videos. They shared them in rural areas. These areas are in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The videos cover all school subjects. They are for all grades, from kindergarten through high school.
The Khan Academy website also has content from other educational YouTube channels. These include Crash Course. It also has content from organizations like the Museum of Modern Art. Khan Academy also offers online courses to help you get ready for important tests. These include the SAT, AP Chemistry, Praxis Core, and MCAT. They also released LSAT preparation lessons in 2018.
Khan Academy has worked with Code.org's Hour of Code. They provide coding lessons on their website. In July 2017, Khan Academy became the official practice partner for the College Board's Advanced Placement.
Khanmigo: Your AI Learning Helper
Khanmigo is a special chatbot. It helps users with questions about math, science, history, and coding. It also helps you learn these subjects. Khan Academy launched Khanmigo on March 14, 2023. It was first built using GPT-4. This is a powerful AI model from OpenAI.
You can get access to Khanmigo for a small monthly fee. Users who want to sign up must be over 18. A test program gave access to about 65,000 students. These students were in 53 different school districts. In November 2023, Khanmigo Writing Coach was added. It helps students with writing essays. It also gives teachers helpful information. In August 2024, Khanmigo for Teachers was announced. These are free AI tools for teachers. They were made with Microsoft. In December 2024, Khanmigo was shown on the TV show 60 Minutes. The host, Anderson Cooper, tried the Writing Coach. He used it on one of his old middle school essays.
Learning in Many Languages
Khan Academy videos have been translated into many languages. There are almost 20,000 subtitle translations available. Volunteers do most of these translations. They also get help from international partners.
The Khan Academy platform is fully available in many languages. These include English, Bangla, Bulgarian, Chinese, French, German, Georgian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Serbian, Turkish, and Uzbek. It is also partly available in 28 other languages.
Getting Ready for the SAT
Since 2015, Khan Academy has been one of the official websites to prepare for the SAT test. Reports show that studying for the SAT for at least 20 hours on Khan Academy can help. It is linked to an average score increase of 115 points.
Pixar in a Box
In 2015, Khan Academy worked with Pixar. They created a new course called Pixar in a Box. This course teaches how skills you learn in school help the creators at Pixar.
Other Test Preparations
Khan Academy also offers free test preparation for other exams. These include the PSAT/NMSQT, LSAT, Praxis Core, and MCAT.
Khan Academy Kids App
In 2018, Khan Academy launched an app called Khan Academy Kids. This app is for children aged two to seven. It helps them learn basic math, reading, and social skills.
For Teachers
Teachers can set up a classroom inside Khan Academy. This classroom lets teachers give courses to their students. These courses come from Khan Academy's huge collection. Teachers can also see how their students are doing. They can track their progress as they work through the lessons.
Awards and Recognition
- In 2012, Khan Academy won a Webby Award. This was in the Websites and Mobile Sites, Education category.
- In 2016, Khan Academy won a Shorty Award for Best in Education.
See also
In Spanish: Khan Academy para niños
- FutureLearn
- Pluralsight
- EdX
- Coursera
- Udemy
- Udacity
- LinkedIn Learning
