Khan Academy is an online learning website created by Salman Khan. The aim of Khan Academy is to offer free, high-quality education for anyone, anywhere.
The platform offers over 3,400 video lessons in math, science, computer programming and test preparation which are all hosted on YouTube
But is khan academy accredited? Let’s find out in this article.
It allows students to learn independently at their own pace without having to fork out lots of money for coursework or tutoring classes. It also allows people who may not have the resources or access to gain proper educational knowledge.
In this article, we’re going to be outlining what Khan Academy is, if it’s accredited and whether this is the online platform for you.
What Is Khan Academy?
Khan Academy is an online educational website that has more than 3,000 free instructional videos to learn about a range of topics.
The person who created it, Salman Khan, wanted to offer the world, particularly those in developing countries, access to educational resources wherever and whenever and at no cost.
These videos enable you to broaden or develop your knowledge within a subject area, and each lesson consists of readings, videos and other interactive elements.
They’re useful as they’re sequenced, so you can start right from the beginning and go right to the end, and you can go back and watch a video you feel you need more practice in.
Khan Academy aims to provide a free, hands-on, educational learning experience that revolves mostly around videos.
It can be accessed on a mobile phone or computer, and the videos display drawings on a virtual blackboard, mimicking an authentic educational experience.
The narrator then describes the writings on the blackboard and their significance to the topic.
How Does Khan Academy Work?
Khan Academy is pretty much similar to other online learning platforms, you’ll be able to watch video lectures and participate in interactive quizzes to test your knowledge of the subject.
Each course is broken down into several distinctive sections. These sections each contain lessons and each lesson contains anything from quizzes and videos to readings and assignments, it depends on the course you’ve chosen to learn.
It allows you to learn at your own pace and go back to lessons you feel you need more work on.
There are other built-in features too, we’ll be discussing those in the next section.
Features Of Khan Academy
Even though Khan Academy was designed primarily for American students, it can be accessed anywhere and everywhere and it is available in multiple languages.
There’s A Wide Selection Of Topics Covered
As we mentioned, Khan Academy tends to cater more to American students, so it follows the K-12 curriculum, and thus covers a wide range of topics:
- Mathematics
- Finance
- Science and Engineering
- Test and College Prep
- English Language Arts
- Computing
- Economics
- Arts and Humanities
It’s not limited to these topics, there are broader categories that include separate topics and courses within each category.
There are even some courses that are geared towards students in lower education, such as elementary school. More specifically, there are topics like English and Mathematics catered toward students at the first, second and third-grade levels.
AP Courses
You can even take Advanced Placement courses through Khan Academy, but you won’t receive any credit like you would if you were taking AP classes through your school.
But you can still use this to help you get ready for college, as they’re great classes and they’re free!
Practice Questions
The platform boasts thousands of practice questions to allow you to master the subject you are learning about. There are also test prep questions and modules you can use to help you gear up for the SAT, ACT and MCAT.
Virtual Blackboards
Khan Academy differs from most online learning platforms through its use of virtual blackboards.
This offers an authentic experience that you’d find in a lot of in-person classes, you can see what the lecturer is doing and what the thought process is as they work through problems, allowing you a greater insight into the lessons.
If you’re a visual learner, this feature will be a blessing for you, as you’ll be able to master the content in no time.
Sequential Lessons
Another unique feature of Khan Academy is its lessons are sequential. Each lesson will build upon the next and increase in difficulty, the previous lesson will give you the skills and training that you need in order to master the next lesson.
This is an important feature for this platform, as it provides more of a structure than other learning platforms have. You won’t be able to skip around as much as you would be able to on other platforms, as everything is related to one another.
Feel free to skip around if you feel you already have a good understanding of a lesson in a certain section, but if you’re just beginning, it’s probably best to just stick to the sections outlined to you.
Is It Accredited?
Whilst it’s an excellent source for learning tons of information related to a variety of topics, unfortunately, Khan Academy is not accredited yet.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t use it, after all, it is completely free, and you can gain a lot of knowledge on different topics that you might not have had before.
This knowledge can even get you ready for a different online platform that does offer accreditation, allowing you to complete it much quicker.
Final Thoughts
Whilst Khan Academy isn’t accredited, it’s still an excellent platform to develop or expand knowledge or skills in a certain subject.
The best part is that it’s completely free, so you can learn as much as you want about the thousands of different topics that Khan Academy has.
It has a range of different features that you’ll find useful, including practice questions, lessons that are sequenced and AP courses.
These allow you to get the most out of the educational courses and allow you to put the knowledge you have just learned into practice.
