Khan Academy and the Effectiveness of Science Videos

Confusion is the sweat of learning

Khan academy helped me catch up in math and gave me the confidence in it to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering. I owe that guy a lot.

YouTube algorithm be like: hey this is 10 years old, you should watch it.

9 years of math and 6 years of physics learned in 7 months thanks to Khan Academy and my dedication. I wouldnt be where I am if not for Khan.

Thanks Derek, this video was clear, concise, and easy to understand. I feel more confident now!

The voice XD

Important note: Khan Academy is way different now than they were 10 year ago when this was made. They have tons of useful practice problems for people to engage with the material

Khan is to study towards a goal: the viewer wants to know the stuff to to pass exam and thus solve problems. It's not for casual edutainment, where you first have to awake the desire to know.

Khan academy got me in flightschool, i learnt 4 year worth of maths in 2 months

I really like veritasium, though I must disagree here. Khan academy's videos may not be effective for some ''casual youtube watcher'' (for lack of a better term) who doesn't have any intention of actually gaining knowledge, but those videos are clearly not directed at them. They are there to reach people who want to actively study a subject like mathematics for example. Those videos are not meant to be used as casual public science education. I've been using these videos for the past year and a half or so while studying engineering and I've been making enormous progress with linear algebra, integral calculus, multi-variable calculus and even thermodynamics. Khan academy has even helped me study in advance some subjects in my mechanics of materials classes because of the advances I had taken with partial derivatives compared to my class and the only thing I can say about them is that their work is really effective for those who actually want to learn. The idea to talk about ''wrong ideas first'' is really not that helpful when you're trying to actually teach the right thing, especially in mathematics (though they usually talk about possible errors that might happen while calculating), and the idea of ''dumbing down'' their videos to help the general public would really be counter-productive for their purpose to teach in-depth mathematical concepts and others.

Here we go fellas...10 years...it took 10 years to get to me👏👏👏

I don't know how Khan Academy teaches Physics (would love if someone would point it out in reply), but in terms of Mathematics, firstly, as pointed out by many other people, the learning audience is completely different. They aren't watching the videos as pop-sci edutainment, like most are on YouTube. They're doing it for academic purposes which forces them to either understand the lessons or fail the exercises and go back to rewatch the videos to understand where they went wrong. More over, while watching Khan Academy videos, you're encouraged to do the lesson examples before you proceed into the lesson, which is when you're exposed to your own misconceptions. You will then compare both the procedure and the answer with Khan. Also, Khan very commonly starts a new concept that you might have a misconception in with "well, at first you might think... Or otherwise try this... But as we can see...". How is that different to you going around in the streets asking people what they think. I think the difference is only that asking random strangers stuff might seem more fun. But then again, who's learning? A person seeking pop-sci edutainment or a person seeking acamedic advancement? Finally, how really useful is gathering misconceptions from random pedestrians that have their education long diminished and forgotten? Knowing my own personal bias, I might dismiss their misconceptions as soon as I hear something like "dinosaurs and humans lived together". I mean, I get it, people watch the Flintstones, but if I'm learning, I think I want to re-evaluate misconceptions that I have with people that are also learning. Random pedestrians have no interest in learning, and when you explain something to them, they only react "wow, cool, I didn't know that". This isn't helpful, at least to me personally. My bias makes me assume "if those are the common misconceptions, then surely I have it down much better". In Khan Academy, Sal Khan starts pointing out misconceptions as "at first you might think...", as I mentioned. This basically tries to mimick the logical thought process that you might have when you lack information. That's how, at least I personally, would be the most alert to re-evaluate my own misconceptions or see a slippery path that I would take a mental note in to watch out when solving problems. My two cents.

Khan academy helped me in math more than school

It's amazing how many people in these comments appearantly also have a PhD in this exact same topic.

Believe me I've been sitting in classrooms all my life and have never understood anything coming out of my teacher's mouths but these simple YouTube videos from Khan Academy or Organic Chemistry tutor have helped me alot in these recent years. Let's not forget the almighty "Math and Science tutor" these people are providing students with free content and great explanations in a short amount of time. If a student wants to dive deeper into a subject they can do more research or read more books.

I personally learnt calculus (all of calc one and most of two) through channels like 3blue1brown for the intuition and blackpenredpen for the method. I think it's important to use multiple resources and see different perspectives on similar problems. Learning this earlier than my peers gave me a huge advantage this year, where we were only just formally introduced to the derivative. Although, at least in my country, I wasn't satisfied with how we were introduced to such concepts. I feel like the education system here lacks the variety in method and motive that one can get through online resources, building a fuller understanding of concepts which otherwise would be seen as memorisation.

The issue I have with veritasium's argument, is that he assumes the videos he showed are as equally informative or easy to understand as Khan's videos. I don't know about the science, but I've been going through the math modules, and he actually goes through practice problems. I follow along, pause the video, and try and get the answer before he completely works it out. It's active learning. Then I go on to the individual practice problems that test my knowlege. It's been working for me so far.

One of my college professors once said it would be really interesting if when he died, God was there, and he could ask any question he ever wanted to know. He would ask, "How many things do I know are true are actually wrong?" Consider it, we once knew that the Earth was flat; we once knew that time was universal and consistent; we once knew that mass and energy were not conserved. I live life knowing that what I "know" is actually just a best guess, really, based on the information I have available. I don't know how other people feel about this, but I really enjoy it when I learn something that blows my mind, especially when it was something I "knew" to be different.

Khan Academy helped me get my first job for usps as maintenance being an electrician technician! Later on, it helped me be in university, brushing up on math, helping me get my aerospace degree!

I remember watching this video years ago and the algorithm decided to revisit me today. I joined Khan Academy about 10 years ago. My life was going nowhere, I had no structured learning in science and math. I loved the maths curriculum at KA. Eventually I ended up sitting for medical school entrance (for a publicly-funded spot, I was broke and have no inherited money to go to medschool like a lot of people these days). Anyway, I started working as a Doctor this year. It would never have been possible without Khan Academy. I make it a point to donate to Khan Academy every year.