Khan Academy

Khan Academy is an American educational nonprofit group started in 2008 by Sal Khan. It gives free online learning tools for students and teachers everywhere.

The Khan Academy website has videos to watch, exercises to practice, tools for teaching, and tests to check learning. You can learn about many topics like mathematics, sciences, history, literature, economics, and computer science. The lessons are short videos with activities to help you understand.

Khan Academy is kept going by gifts from kind people and groups. Because of this help, all of its learning materials are free. Anyone with the internet can use them to learn and improve.

History

The Khan Academy began in 2004 when Sal Khan started teaching math online to his cousin using Yahoo! Doodle Images. As more family members used these lessons, he began making videos and sharing them on YouTube. He made these early videos on his computer with simple drawing tools like SmoothDraw and ArtRage, sometimes using a Wacom tablet.

Many people liked these videos, and they were even featured in USA Today. In 2008, Khan officially started Khan Academy as a nonprofit group. He left his job to help students learn for free.

Khan Academy uses short videos and practice exercises to help students. In 2014, a school called Khan Lab School opened in Mountain View, California. In 2026, Khan Academy worked with Google to use AI for better learning tools that help teachers. They also added Google’s Gemini AI to help students with reading.

Funding

Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization supported by donations from many helpful groups.

Big companies and people have helped too. In 2010, Google gave money to make new courses and translate videos. In 2013, Carlos Slim helped create Spanish versions of the videos. In 2015, AT&T gave money so people could watch the videos on phones and tablets using apps. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave money, and in 2021, Elon Musk gave money through his Musk Foundation.

Content

Khan Academy provides educational videos on YouTube and a website with tools to help students learn. The website has practice exercises, progress tracking, and teaching tools. Students can learn at their own pace and earn badges and points to show their progress. Teachers can use Khan Academy to support their lessons in a Flipped Classroom style.

The videos show drawings similar to a teacher’s lecture and cover many school subjects for all grades. Khan Academy also offers courses to help students prepare for tests like the SAT, AP Chemistry, and more. In 2017, Khan Academy became a practice partner for the College Board's Advanced Placement exams.

Khan Academy has a tool called Khanmigo, a chatbot that helps with math, science, humanities, and coding. It was introduced in March 2023 and uses advanced technology to support learning. There are also free tools for teachers and a special app for young children aged two to seven.

The videos are available in many languages, thanks to volunteers and international partners. Khan Academy works with groups to bring these lessons to areas without easy access to the internet. The platform is fully available in several languages, including English, Spanish, French, and Chinese, among others.

Criticism

Some people have said that Sal Khan, who started Khan Academy, isn’t a trained teacher. They also wondered if some videos about math and science were correct. In response, Khan Academy fixed mistakes, added more teachers, and worked with experts to check the content.

Khan said that online videos are helpful but not enough for a full education. Khan Academy aims to support classroom learning by letting teachers spend less time on lectures and more time helping students.

In February 2024, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal tested Khan Academy’s AI tool for math help and found that it sometimes made simple math mistakes.

Recognition

In 2012, Khan Academy won a Webby Award for being a great educational website or app. In 2016, it received a Shorty Award for being the best in education.