In conversation with: Salman Khan, Founder and Executive Director of Khan Academy

Khan Academy specializes in a personalized learning dashboard that empowers learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. Their subjects include math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. In our conversation with Salman Khan, Founder and Executive Director of Khan Academy, where he speaks about his journey of building digital classrooms and his vision.

How Khan Academy started (on background)

In 2004, Salman Khan started tutoring his cousin Nadia in math via telephone. To help her practice, he created software on KhanAcademy.org to give her practice problems and feedback.

As Nadia improved, Salman started tutoring more and more cousins. Scheduling became a challenge, so Salman began recording his lessons and posting them on YouTube in 2006. That way, his cousins could watch the lessons whenever they needed to.

Salman’s approach to making videos

“When I make a video, I talk to students just like I’d talk to Nadia – not like I’m giving a lecture. Also, instead of asking students to memorize formulas, I try to explain why, just like a friendly tutor would. I think students appreciate that.”

Salman’s thoughts on how Khan Academy has grown

“When I first started putting practice problems and video lessons online, I never expected that so many people would use them. I wasn’t the first person to put math videos online – I was probably the 500th. But I think people appreciated the conversational tone, which they don’t normally associate with mathematics or science, and the focus on drawing conceptual connections between ideas. It seems like that’s what learners were hungry for.”

Salman’s thoughts on the feedback Khan Academy has received

“After I started posting video lessons on YouTube, I started to get letters from people who told me how much Khan Academy had impacted their lives – that it was the reason they passed algebra, or the reason they were able to go to to college. It was really these testimonials that convinced me to quit my job and work on Khan Academy full-time.”