Thursday, December 22, 2016
How to start your own Khan Academy
APRIL 5TH, 2012 BILL CUSHARD COURSE DEVELOPMENT, EMPLOYEE TRAINING, LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS 3 COMMENTS
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Create Your Own Khan Academy by Building WikisAn emerging trend in learning and development is creating short, specific tutorials that can be created quickly, posted on an internal website, and distributed to employees — who can use them anytime, anywhere, and used as references when needed.
What’s driving that trend? Khan Academy, which has made this form of learning popular (and effective) in public education; and TED videos, which are wildly popular among those looking for short, inspirational bursts of learning. TED is taking it a bit further by offering a new format that’s even shorter than its traditional 18-minute presentations.
Given the popularity of these new formats, trainers and learning professionals should ask themselves what they can learn from these TED-style videos and Khan Academy-style tutorials and how they can better provide learning experiences and relevant content to their employees and students.
Here are a few key takeaways:
When a full class or course isn’t necessary
When you first look at the Khan Academy website, you see a long list of topics that all look like a math nightmare from sophomore year. You might wonder what relevance this has to teaching leadership classes, or product training, or answering CRM questions. But think about all those smaller tasks you teach, or the after-training questions you typically answer. Stuff like, “How do I find my notes from a phone call?” or “What’s the process for submitting a new job requisition for my team?”
Questions like these occur every day in our organization, even if we already have very good training programs. So, to address these questions, why not create short, casual, and fun tutorials that explain these everyday processes? That way, people can watch the tutorials whenever they want, and only watch the ones they need, when they need them. Yes, I know, this sounds a lot like performance support, but I say it’s different in the sense that these tutorials can be casual, fun, and engaging videos rather than boring PDF job aids.
Creating great, short tutorials
There are two things you need to do to prepare for setting up your own self-paced tutorials. First, you need to create a place to host the tutorials. This can be your existing intranet, an LMS, or even a password-protected Wiki or blog. The site does not have to be complicated. In fact, the simpler the better. Take a look at the Khan Academy site, which is nothing more than a list of links to videos that are titled specifically to the topic covered. It’s easy to scroll down the page to find the topic you want.
Secondly, you need to come up with a list of relevant topics. When it comes to selecting topics, be clear about the specific task covered and use language natural to the task. For example, the subject should not be, “How to Use the Notes Tab.” The subject and title of the tutorial should be, “How to Write Effective Notes to Keep Track of Client Communications.” Start with subjects people have a lot of questions about.
Examples of topics that could be useful in many organizations include:
Task-Specific Tutorials:
How to use notes to keep track of client communications?
How to prioritize your opportunities?
How to read the client account screen?
For Managers:
How to run an effective meeting.
Practical time management.
How to prepare for an interview.
Tips for writing a performance-improvement plan.
How to review and approve time sheets.
Industry/Business Knowledge:
Create your own industry tutorials that all employees can take.
What business are we in?
Who are our customers?
CEO on the company’s mission.
This is just a list of ideas to get your started. The point is, people just want to learn what they need to get the job done. Oftentimes, a training class isn’t necessary. However, sometimes a short, targeted tutorial is just what the doctor ordered to get people in your organization off and running on an important task. The beautiful thing about creating self-paced tutorials is that compared to creating traditional e-learning modules, self-paced tutorials can be done quickly, and with steady persistence in a matter of a few weeks, you could you have dozens of useful tutorials on your Intranet that employees can start using. That seems to me a good use of our time and a great way to provide value to the organizations we support.
More: The ‘Wikified’ Future of Employee Training.
Bill Cushard, Director of Training and Development at Allonhill, is a learning leader with more than 12 years of experience in training and performance improvement at companies such as E*TRADE Financial, Accenture, and Time Warner Cable.
Image used under Creative Commons by Flickr user nojhan.
Salman Khan: "The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined" | Talks a...
In 2016, we learned more about how teachers feel about their profession, from the reasons why they started teaching in the first place (#1) to why they leave (#6). We learned that science students do better when teachers share stories about the struggles scientists face instead of portraying them as geniuses (#3). We’re also learning more about why U.S. students are falling behind students in other countries (#12). Here are 15 studies published this year that every educator should know about.
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1. It Turns Out Teaching Really Is a Noble Profession
Altruism drives many people to become teachers, according to this survey of over 3,000 public school teachers. A full 82 percent of teachers say that making a difference in students’ lives is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching. Forty-five percent also said that they wanted to help students reach their full potential.
Rentner, D.S., Kober, N., & Frizzell, M. (2016). Listen to Us: Teacher Views and Voices. Washington, DC: Center on Education Policy.
2. Kindergartners Are Still Not Spending Enough Time on Art, Music, and Play
Are kindergartners spending too much time on academics? A study found that in 2010 kindergarten teachers spent more time on literacy and math, teacher-directed instruction, and assessment than they did in 1998—and less time on art, music, and science. The trend continues despite research suggesting that focusing on academics at an early age can be counterproductive.
Bassok, D., Latham, S., & Rorem, A. (2016). Is Kindergarten the New First Grade? AERA Open, 2(1), 2332858415616358.
3. Learning About the Struggles of Famous Scientists Boosts Student Motivation
It turns out that the idea of genius might intimidate young learners. When students read about the struggles of famous scientists—when the scientists were humanized—the students developed a growth mindset, which boosted motivation and science scores. The performance improvements were most dramatic for low-performing students.
Lin-Siegler, X., Ahn, J. N., Chen, J., Fang, F. F. A., & Luna-Lucero, M. (2016). Even Einstein Struggled: Effects of Learning About Great Scientists’ Struggles on High School Students’ Motivation to Learn Science. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication.
4. Students Have Positive Perceptions of Teachers of Color
In the teaching profession, people of color are underrepresented nationally, and a new study finds a compelling reason to recruit more: Students of all races prefer teachers of color. A survey of over 50,000 middle school students found that black and Latino teachers were generally the highest-rated teachers, performing highly on teaching qualities such as ability to motivate students, classroom management, and relationship building.
Cherng, H. Y. S. & Halpin, P. F. (2016). The Importance of Minority Teachers: Student Perceptions of Minority Versus White Teachers. Educational Researcher, 0013189X16671718.
5. Students Have Difficulty Telling Real News From Fake News
Despite growing up as digital natives, many students have difficulty evaluating the information they find online. More than 80 percent think that sponsored articles are actual articles, and most can’t spot fake accounts on social media. Many are fooled by official-sounding organizations making controversial claims, while others accept photographs as evidence of a claim without verifying their authenticity.
Stanford History Education Group. (2016). Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning. Stanford, CA: Author.
6. 46 Percent of Teachers Report High Daily Stress During the School Year
Teacher stress, now at an all-time high, is linked to poor teacher performance, high turnover rates, and poor student outcomes. But the news isn’t all bad: Many schools have found success with stress-reduction programs, mentoring programs, workplace wellness programs, social and emotional learning programs, and mindfulness/stress-management programs for maxed-out teachers.
Greenberg, M. T., Brown J. L., & Abenavoli, R.M. (2016). Teacher Stress and Health: Effects on Teachers, Students, and Schools. Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University.
7. Meanwhile, Here’s a Simple Way to Address Growing Student Stress
Teachers aren’t the only ones. Last year, we learned that high school students feel stressed 80 percent of the time. This year, we heard about a simple daily reading and writing exercise that helped students cope with stress by promoting a simple idea: People can change. After a week, students who participated were better able to cope with stress and had higher grades, compared with students who didn’t participate.
Yeager, D. S., Lee, H. Y., & Jamieson, J. P. (2016). How to Improve Adolescent Stress Responses: Insights From Integrating Implicit Theories of Personality and Biopsychosocial Models. Psychological Science, 27(8), 1078-1091.
8. Racially Diverse Schools Benefit All Students
In this analysis of racial diversity in U.S. schools, researchers found that students of all races benefit from exposure to students with different backgrounds, since the novel ideas and challenges that such exposure brings lead to improved cognitive skills, including critical thinking and problem solving.
Wells, A. S., Fox, L., & Cordova-Cobo, D. (2016). How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms Can Benefit All Students. The Education Digest, 82(1), 17.
9. Game-Based Learning Works by Tapping Student Competitiveness
Games have a lot of potential to boost student learning, and a new study helps explain why. When students competed against each other in a series of quizzes, they did better than students who studied alone. Neuroscientists scanning brain activity found that competition among students increases their ability to focus and improves their working memory—leading to better performance.
Howard-Jones, P. A., Jay, T., Mason, A., & Jones, H. (2016). Gamification of Learning Deactivates the Default Mode Network. Frontiers in Psychology, 7.
10. Student Homelessness Is Way Up (Plus, Some Ideas to Address the Crisis)
More than 1.3 million students are homeless today, twice as many as in 2007. This report provides insight into how homeless students can be supported, including material support (providing food, clothes, and shelter) and emotional support (providing counseling and a safe place to learn).
Ingram, E. S., Bridgeland, J. M., Reed, B., & Atwell, M. (2016). Hidden in Plain Sight: Homeless Students in America’s Public Schools. Civic Enterprises & Hart Research Associates.
11. Showing Empathy and Respect Cuts Suspension Rates in Half
Despite the prevalence of zero-tolerance policies over the last few decades, research continues to show that they may not be effective. When middle school teachers were encouraged to adopt positive approaches toward discipline, which emphasize trust-building and empathy, teacher-student relationships improved—and suspensions dropped by half.
Okonofua, J. A., Paunesku, D., & Walton, G. M. (2016). Brief Intervention to Encourage Empathic Discipline Cuts Suspension Rates in Half Among Adolescents. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201523698.
12. Lessons Learned From the Best Schools Around the World
The bad news is that the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the world in preparing students for a 21st-century economy. The good news? World-class education systems have a few common elements that we can learn from: a strong early education system, a high-quality professional teacher workforce, robust career and technical education programs, and strong alignment between K-12 and college/career goals.
National Conference of State Legislatures. (2016). No Time to Lose: How to Build a World-Class Education System State by State. Denver, CO: Author.
13. 84 Percent of Parents Believe Computer Science Is Just as Important as Math, Science, and English
Google and Gallup teamed up to explore trends in K-12 computer science across the U.S. While a majority of parents, teachers, and principals value computer science instruction, the survey found that most schools still don’t offer these classes.
Google Inc. & Gallup Inc. (2016). Trends in the State of Computer Science in U.S. K-12 Schools.
14. A Growth Mindset Helps Offset the Effects of Poverty
In one of the largest studies so far on growth mindset, researchers looked at a nationwide survey of 168,000 Chilean high school students to explore the relationship it has with poverty. They found that poor students with a growth mindset performed as well as wealthy students with a fixed mindset.
Claro, S., Paunesku, D., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Growth Mindset Tempers the Effects of Poverty on Academic Achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(31), 8664-8668.
15. One-to-One Laptops Improve Student Scores
Good news for schools interested in starting or expanding a one-to-one program (one laptop per student): A review of 15 years’ worth of studies found that laptop programs significantly boost scores in English, writing, mathematics, and science. Students in these programs also had a modest boost to 21st-century skills such as technological proficiency and problem solving.
Zheng, B., Warschauer, M., Lin, C. H., & Chang, C. (2016). Learning in One-to-One Laptop Environments: A Meta-Analysis and Research Synthesis. Review of Educational Research, 0034654316628645.
Want to catch up on research highlights from 2015? Be sure to check out our list of must-read studies from last year.
Salman Khan, Founder of the Khan Academy
How to create your own Khan Academy with free tools
E-learning will be (for sure) the big next step in education innovation. Last year we all knew about Khan Academy and recently it was nominated to the Crunchies awareness for 2011. Here we will learn more about some tools that can help teachers and educators to build their own Khan Academy with resources for audio, video and presentations.
Record the voice
In order to record voice you can use many tools like Audacity, free tool compatible with many different operating systems and mobile phones. You can export the voice to any sound file format. The output can be shared online or played. For mobile phones and smartphones you can use tools like iTalk Recorder for iPhone or either Tape-a-Talk for Android apps.
Record voice and capture screen
Many tools are available if you want to record voice and capture the screen, for example Screencast-o-matic, Jing y Screenr are just a few. For other lectures using Khan format you can download an online and digital board to write formulas and words including SmoothDraw for Windows or Kolour Paint for Linux. Both applications are free download.
Record lecture class
Lecture Capture is a technique used to capture the professor class, the professor plus the screen or projection, for example if the teacher is running a PowerPoint presentation or using the mouse pointer in a projection screen. The tools used in this case are: Panopto, Echo360, Camtasia Relay, Tegrity, Mediasite by Sonic Foundry, Collaborate y Matterhom
In the last interview to Khan in Reddit they recalled that the methodology and approach to be used is a method that aimed to reduce the overhead time during a class (free time) while focusing in more creative ideas and activities. In the real world the online videos can help the student to understand any topic. The school would be a physical place to interact with other people in a real social environment and explore what they have learned online.
These tools for e-learning can be really helpful if you plan to record your classes (voice and video) in an attempt to simulate Khan approach. The education is maybe the sector that will change so fast during this decade so you can be anticipated to these changes from now.
If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more on Khan presentations, here is a video that shows one of the Algebra classes.
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