https://techmoran.com/ceo-weekends-khan-academy-offers-free-coding-techniques/

As part of the requirement for assignment 1 of the LRNT526 course, we developed a team called Khan Artists and we selected an introduction course to HTML and CSS coding which is offered through Khan Academy (KA) to focus on. KA is a non-profit online educational source. The KA mission statement is: “Our mission is to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere” (Meet the Team, 2018).

Even though KA online courses may have weaknesses, I will be concentrating on their strengths for my individual assignment. In order to be able to determine the characteristics of the offered courses, I personally completed the Basic HTML course and so far, this is what I have learned: The basic HTML course was simple to follow and had enough breakdown of topics to make it easy to complete. Using simple language that makes sense toward the students can help them understand the challenging context of any online course (Kooy and Chiu, 1998). I had time to practice myself on the screen and if I made a mistake, there was a pop-up to let me know what mistake I was making and what the correct way of doing it was.

There were many quizzes and challenges from the beginning of the course to the end, which was a great way of making sure I understood each concept before moving on to the next topic. A good online training course should assess the understanding of the learners frequently throughout the training session, not just at the end. This aids the learners to preserve information, and will also them to better comprehend the educational ideas and the learning process (Trout, 2016). The course offered the chance to chat with others and add comments which gave me the opportunity to collaborate with others if I needed to. As stated by Seay (2006), online education can be more effective when virtual study groups or discussion forums are provided in the classes. When adults are given virtual group activities with others in their class, they can overcome challenges such as a lack of confidence and/or knowledge of technology.

These are only some of the strengths of KA I have found so far and I will be exploring more on their websites and will be going through other people’s experiences with KA and reading some of their reviews to see what other qualities I can find.

Have you ever taken a course through KA, and what were some of your positive experiences with using the KA online learning sessions you took?

 

References:

Kooy, M. and Chiu, A. (1998) Language, Literature, and Learning in the ESL Classroom, National Council of Teachers of English, 88(2), pp. 78–84. doi: 10.2307/821694.

Meet the Team. (2018). Retrieved from Khan Acadamy: https://www.khanacademy.org/about/the-team

Seay, S. (2006). Strategies for success: Improving the academic performance of low-income adult and first-generation students in online general education courses. The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 54(3), 22-35. doi:10.1080/07377366.2006.10401222

Trout, G. (2016). E-Learning & online training. Professional Safety, 61(6), 34-36.