All big concepts start from small ideas in the heads of prominent people, and Khan Academy is not an exception. It was founded in 2006 by Salman Khan, a passionate teacher and educator who first tutored his cousins using Internet and filming short videos for YouTube, and when the demand grew exponentially, created a nonprofit learning platform.
As for the free math tutoring, Khan Academy has probably the biggest database of video lessons and practicing exercises among other e-learning websites. The courses include different levels starting from the kindergarten math and ending with differential equations. This means that the lessons can be used not only by students, but by teachers and parents as well.
Khan Academy doesn’t position itself like a main source of education. It’s more like a supplement to school or college with interactive videos and material presented in an interesting way. And in order to get the most out of these free online lessons, you need to know several hacks.
Have Relevant Expectations
Make sure you understand that these online classes will not make you a Math prodigy or explain all the topics you can’t understand. They are additional resources that are aimed at strengthening your knowledge gained during lessons. So, set proper expectations before enrolling in one of the online courses.
Choose Courses That Are Related to Your Class Topics
If you want to really learn something, you need to practice acquired skills in different environments because knowledge is a very contextual phenomenon. In other words, if you analyze linear equations during classes at school/college, but, then, coming home, take a Khan Academy course at statistics, you will hardly see any progress in both topics.
On the contrary, if you go through Calculus during the lesson and do some exercises at home to back up your knowledge on this very subject, the progress will be not long in coming.
Consult with Your Professor
It is always a good idea to ask your professor for advice because if you choose an additional course in Khan Academy by yourself, there may be some information that you haven’t covered in classes yet – so, online lessons may puzzle you and do you more harm than good.
Limit the Time Spent Online
Khan Academy courses are very interesting and engaging, and that can be a problem sometimes because you can become too involved and spend all your time on Math while you have other tasks to complete. So, try to distribute your hours between different assignments wisely not to fail at other disciplines.
Create a Commitment
Another problem of online lessons is that they don’t bind you with any credits, deadlines and grades. If you are a person who can easily commit to taking a course without any limited timeframes, that shouldn’t be an issue for you. However, if you get distracted all the time and drop out of an online course only after a week, then you need to create this commitment – reward yourself for completing classes, tell as many people as possible that you’re taking a Math course at Khan Academy, report your progress to your professor, etc.
These hacks will boost your productivity and progress, so make sure you use them if you want to get the most out of free Khan Academy Math education.