Khan Academy

I have not reviewed the Phoenix University category. They have been around for awhile. And although they may own the title to being one of the first in the trend, they were not the straw that broke the back of conventional education.  Khan academy my have done that.

For review, edx has $30 million from Harvard and MIT, Coursera has $16 Million from VCs, Udacity  has $16 million from VCs, -both Udacity and Coursera are loosely connected to Stanford.

Khan Academy is the real story. Khan has received $2 million from Google and I understand the Gates foundation has kicked in a few $million too.  Khan is a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School and has created more than 3,000 10 minute video lessons on his own. I understand they have delivered more than 200 million lessons. They are located in Mountain View, California not far from Coursera and Udacity. Silicon Valley success stories again.  In Khan's case, he may be a genuine manifestation of the old line about how many good teachers do you need with the Internet? Maybe just him.

Students that I talk too about Khan's video lessons tell me that they learn more in 10 minutes from him than in a 60 minute lecture from their own teacher. Video does have the advantage of pause/playback and you can watch when a person is in the learning mood. Nothing new here. Most of us can remember the 2 or 3 good teachers we had and the rest of the teachers are cast into oblivion with their subject material. And there were times of the day that I was more tuned into learning. e.g. I am not a morning class person. Video meets these challenges in 10 minute snippets. 

Apparently there are studies that show the 10 minute snippet of knowledge is an ideal educational morsel to digest. And when a single 10 minute snippet is digested, a person can take another education bite. Who came up with the idea that  a 60 minute class lecture was the ideal educational morsel anyway? Not me.

The next step is when these course are recognized for credit or for admission to a testing program that when passed the credit is earned.  Either way. It is going to happen sooner than most people think. Now if Khan, edx and coursera could just field a football team? Never, I hope.  

We may all be amazed how much a teacher can teach and a student can learn when the focus is on education.