What is this Academy ??
The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. This organisation supplies online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, computer science and etc.
How it has evolved ??
In 2006, Khan was in Boston and tutoring his cousins through videos posting in YouTube, just like a supplement for his cousins. Then something interesting has happened. The feedback he got from his cousins is that they preferred him on YouTube than in person. He was surprised with such feedback but it makes sense from their point of view. Because a video can be paused and repeated many times. This gives flexibility to beginners who are perplexed with class room teaching. May be they could not catch the teacher's pace or they could caught up with some other stuff in class rooms. So this gives great advantage to YouTube video lessons.
Mission : providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere
How Organizations Evolve ??
Innovative ideas take birth at any time. It could generate within you or in conversation with friends and folks or in suggestion from elders or just like that. Here in our case study ( Khan Academy ), idea has born from the conversation between Mr Khan and his cousins. He was interested in posting videos which teach lessons to school children. After launching in YouTube it has got viral effect unknowingly. Students found these are easy to deal and learn concepts. Even people who tried every possible tutorial, home tuition, school education and finally flunked trying everything, found these video lessons pretty interesting. Organization has started like a start-up company with customers as school students. Eventually the organisation has grown up substantially. Even teachers in schools are asking students to do problems in Khan Academy website as home work. It has even covered lesson for most prestigious engineering exam in India i,e, IIT-JEE( click here ). Below you can see sample IIT JEE problem
Theory X and Y
Managers or people in general, can be classified as Theory X or Theory Y type. People associated with Theory X tend to view the world in a pessimistic way. Consider the case of Theory X managers who would view their employees as lazy and attempt to enforce their authority in order to set employees right either by means of punishment or by constant guidance and feedback even if not desired. Proponents of Theory Y, on the other hand, are of the view that people often tend to seek and accept responsibility and often take initiatives themselves to reach their goals. This brings us to the question of which side would the teachers in the current education system, especially in India, belong to? As a teacher, one of the primary roles is to take lectures, correct examination papers and inculcate discipline. Students are often taught under pressure and made to stick to books and conventions. Hence, the system requires a change of mindset from being Theory X oriented to one oriented towards Theory Y. How better would it be if the students can teach the basic concepts themselves and then, the teachers could use their time in the class to cater to specific needs of each student? It is a win-win situation for both students and teachers when it comes to the learning experience. This is exactly how the Khan Academy has set about its mission of changing education for the better. Teachers can focus on the learning curves of individual students and apprise themselves of topics which the students are finding difficult to understand. Basically then, the teachers can read an individual student’s mind through progress graphs like the ones below which is quite breathtaking when you come to look at it.
Managers or people in general, can be classified as Theory X or Theory Y type. People associated with Theory X tend to view the world in a pessimistic way. Consider the case of Theory X managers who would view their employees as lazy and attempt to enforce their authority in order to set employees right either by means of punishment or by constant guidance and feedback even if not desired. Proponents of Theory Y, on the other hand, are of the view that people often tend to seek and accept responsibility and often take initiatives themselves to reach their goals. This brings us to the question of which side would the teachers in the current education system, especially in India, belong to? As a teacher, one of the primary roles is to take lectures, correct examination papers and inculcate discipline. Students are often taught under pressure and made to stick to books and conventions. Hence, the system requires a change of mindset from being Theory X oriented to one oriented towards Theory Y. How better would it be if the students can teach the basic concepts themselves and then, the teachers could use their time in the class to cater to specific needs of each student? It is a win-win situation for both students and teachers when it comes to the learning experience. This is exactly how the Khan Academy has set about its mission of changing education for the better. Teachers can focus on the learning curves of individual students and apprise themselves of topics which the students are finding difficult to understand. Basically then, the teachers can read an individual student’s mind through progress graphs like the ones below which is quite breathtaking when you come to look at it.
Entrepreneur Ship
How can an entrepreneur carve out a niche opportunity and differentiate himself? The answer perhaps lies in fundamental aspects like awareness of an opportunity presenting itself from something taken for granted or quite mundane to developing a vision in mind and realizing itself. Either way, there is always an opportunity to improve anything in the world from its current state, however rapidly things may change. The key lies in boarding the bus! As they say, ideas are dime a dozen, it is the execution which matters!
Company Policies
Organization has adopted policies to protect the data and information of its members and visitors. As it provides online services, it becomes more crucial to protect the information of its visitors. Academy values the privacy of its members and others who visit and use the Website and make it a priority to personally protect identifiable information that is obtained from individuals both online and off-line. To protect the privacy, especially of young children, Khan Academy puts in place certain features designed to help protect the personally identifiable information of children less than 13 years of age. Registration of children below 13 years of age is provided only on consent of their parents.
How this is Inspiration to others
Organizations should try to rethink and transform the way they carry out different processes using technological innovations. Things are changing at a very fast pace and customers are asking for more personalized products and services. Khan Academy’s success has showed to the world how educational processes can be revolutionised using technology. Organizations should also try to improve or may be replace old processes with the help of technology.
Your blog is good. You are consistent across three blogs to be GOOD. That is nice thing. I have seen your Khan blog earlier. Felt good. But left no comment. Hence, I am posting this..
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