Khan Academy App Review
App Info
Price: Free
Overview
Khan Academy’s app opens the door to the Khan Academy library of instructional videos and practice activities for thousands of skills from early childhood through collegiate level. The activities are organized by grade and subject matter, and the search function will pull up specific skills based on keywords you type in.
Features include:
- Dozens of subjects and topics
- Thousands of interactive exercises
- Instructional videos and in-depth readings
- Progress tracking system on website
- Built-in scratch pad for working out solutions or writing thoughts
Quality
Khan Academy’s app is just as high quality as you have probably come to expect from the online version of Khan Academy. The app presents a searchable, well-organized list of subjects and topics, and users are free to explore them in any order. Instructional videos, detailed readings, interactive exercises, and hints are available for the topics. The interactive exercises and scratch pad recognize handwriting, so input is easy and intuitive.
Education
Khan Academy includes hundreds of sequential lessons ranging from early elementary math through high school and college topics, as well as test prep and more. Each topic includes some instructional material in the form of short videos and/or reading, as well as interactive exercises that will help students practice. There are hints available for most topics and students can access the instructional information from the exercises page, as well.
Students who get the first interactive problem correct are passed to the next concept. If they make an error, they are passed to the next section after getting five items correct in a row. The app also notes when hints or instructional information has been accessed. All of these records are kept in the student’s account on the Khan Academy website.
The instructional videos that I checked were well-constructed, using voice over and a combination of photos, illustrations, animations and screen captures. The narrator for each did a good job with inflections and tonal variation, so the videos are easy to listen to. The skills have at least two different types of interactions for the activities and directions are clear and intuitive, and often demonstrated in the instructional video.
Entertainment
Though this app is not really meant to be entertaining, it is engaging and will keep students coming back for more practice. After each correct response, a little bit of digital confetti explodes from the counter in the lower right of the screen, and when five in a row are correct, there is a slightly bigger display with a congratulatory note. The app reminds students periodically that extra practice is the key to mastering skills, and keeps record of the time the program has been accessed and what has been accomplished, so users can see tangible results.
Value
The Khan Academy app is completely free and connects with the Khan Academy website to keep student records easily accessible. It can be used without an account, however, but doesn’t keep records then. This is a nice option if you want students to practice but want to preserve their anonymity. With hundreds of topics and lessons, the app can provide appropriate practice for students at nearly any level, and would make a great remedial system as well.
Child Friendliness
Khan Academy is fairly child friendly, but does require registration and logging in to their website in order to keep records of student performance and progress. Log in can be accomplished with social media accounts or with a separate password. Students can also access information intended for adults such as coaches, parents and tutors. The device does need to be connected to the internet for the app to function.
- NO social media
- NO in-app purchase
- NO 3rd party ads
- YES Khan Account required to keep records
