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I teach a Grade 11 Functions class, but this relates to basically all grade levels.

Khan Academy (discussed in Is Khan academy really good?) is a resource often being used by students as extra help, catchup for missed work, etc. etc. Would it be a good policy for me to post links to each topic on Khan Academy on my class webpage, so that students will use it to help them review and catchup, or will this encourage students to pay less attention in class and/or miss classes and extra help, since they know that they have a teacher-sanctioned backup?

(Please help me with the tagging/formatting, as this is my first ME.SE question.)

J W
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רבות מחשבות
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    I think it is fine. If you are worried, just put some caveat up there about it being the suspenders in belt and suspenders. It is also more valuable if you do some curation or the like.

    All that said, if you have a decent text and instruction, it shouldn't be needed. I think there is a false idea that students aren't learning because of lacking magic light bulb. But the vast majority of the problem is lack of progression or inadequate drill. In other words, Kahn Academy is really only needed for most kids if they have some Paul Dirac instructor...or they don't do enough practice.

     – guest Mar 22 '18 at 01:18
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    @guest Please answer in an answer. – Tommi Mar 22 '18 at 07:52
  • We have had other responses here about Khan Academy. "We used Khan Academy with 5th graders, it was great." vs. "Too shallow for college-level math" – Gerald Edgar Apr 26 '18 at 12:08
  • My students benefit from Kahn Academy. I use it as a supplement to my instruction. – Tara T Kegley May 02 '18 at 16:16
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    If only I had a nickel for each time I've heard from a student: "But I don't understand why I did so poorly on the test -- I watched so many videos". – zipirovich May 09 '18 at 05:03

1 Answers1

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In my experience, the videos can be quite shallow, but then the textbook I use for A-level (16-18 year olds) has a very prescriptive approach. I can assist with the understanding, making-links aspect of their learning. I think providing links is fine and probably a good idea. I would expect students to soon realise that attending classes, and particularly extra help, is a much more effective use of their time than sitting through the videos, albeit ones that form part of a great resource.

I do have students that would enjoy learning from Khan Acadamy but these are the ones who spend time watching Vsauce and similar. As they are so motivated, they would be unlikely to replace classes should they be given the choice whether to attend.

J W
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John Mould
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