Exploring Khan Academy's Impact: A Comprehensive Literature Review

This literature review examines Khan Academy's role and impact in the realm of online education, with a specific focus on its contributions to mathematics education, especially within the United Arab Emirates. It highlights Khan Academy's success in leveraging technology to provide free educational resources and personalized tutoring, making learning engaging and accessible to a global audience. The review discusses both the advantages and disadvantages of online learning, emphasizing Khan Academy's ability to simplify complex subjects like mathematics through interactive and updated digital content. It also acknowledges the platform's credibility and the qualifications of its teaching staff, while pointing out areas for potential improvement, such as expanding its coverage of mathematical topics. The review concludes that Khan Academy has emerged as a market leader in online education, successfully catering to the needs of students and promoting a stress-free learning environment.

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1LITERATURE REVIEW
Khan academy is known as one of the most incredible platforms for children and
adults alike where they can learn from a range of subjects and areas according to their own
necessity. Khan academy is regarded in high esteem due to their successful use of technology
in imparting education to such a huge audience base across the world (Morgan 2014). The
services offered by them are free of charge and it makes the academy one of its kind as it
provides private guidance by expert tutors to those who are in need for help on any subject.
They generally specialize in the field of mathematics (Ruipérez-Valiente et al. 2015). The
online platform for education engages students from high and middle school and makes the
subject interesting for them and hence easier to understand on the interactive platform of
Khan Academy. Khan academy is referred to as a trend setter in the field of online education
and has popularized the idea and notion of home-schooling and private tutorials. The founder
of the Khan Academy is Salman Khan and his enthusiasm in spreading the wave of education
to all corners of the earth is high. The academy has its influence in many countries around the
world. In this project, the discussion will be in respect to its contribution in the educational
sphere of United Arab Emirates.
Nowadays, the web learning ends up being increasingly implemented. Numerous
conventional colleges began to start courses online at free of cost. It aims at a simple and
popular strategy to accomplish information in relatively every field, from law and library, to
human sciences and mathematics for example, biological research and social science or
history. Web based learning is an excellent contrasting option to conventional colleges,
particularly for people who cannot manage the time that is needed and the money required to
take genuine courses. An organization like Khan Academy does the same on the online
platform and has been considered a very popular website for education. It ranks among the
top online educational websites that provide tutorials and back-ups to student who need
assistance on the subject (Khan Academy 2018). There are various advantages and

2LITERATURE REVIEW
disadvantages of the same concept and that has to be kept in mind while a literature review
for Khan Academy is being done.
It is obvious that maximum number of individuals still think about customary colleges
to be the best way to attend degrees and get recognition, internet learning comes out as an
extraordinary option. Pupils have the incredible opportunity to select the time when they wish
to study it depends on their availability. It is an incredible method to consider numerous
fields and to help the extent of self-inspiration. Internet learning is so successful on the
grounds that students can complete their homework quickly, and there is extra amount of
time left for side interests or for finding an occupation (Emanuel 2013). An entrance to all
assets of a customary course enables members to learn wherever they are, abandoning them
the flexibility to pick the ideal prospect for study (Krause et al. 2015). With fundamentally an
Internet connection, a man can go to various courses. Among the benefits of web-based
learning are simply the responsible attitude and self-motivation of the students that allow
them to grow effectively. The disadvantages of the same process remain the fact that online
study cannot create the classroom environment that a student receives in a school or college
(Arkorful and Abaidoo 2015). The proper development of all the skills adheres to the fact that
a proper environment is required to study and involve into discussions. The online platform
does not allow any such interactions and discussion platform and hence leads to problems in
pursuance of various subjects, especially those that require practical classes.
The Khan academy has helped students from UAE in subjects like Mathematics
immensely. Students who were weak in the subject took up the case with Khan academy and
they got excellent results as they saw a substantial jump in their overall grades. The academy
provides learning materials that is very updated with the educational scenario of the country
and hence it makes it possible for the students to take a step ahead of others and score
brilliantly in the examinations. The digital learning process has made the tutorials fun and

3LITERATURE REVIEW
short and this has made the students interested in the learning process that Khan academy
offers to its users. UAE is a country that is oriented towards commerce and hence
mathematics remains the subject of major concern in the place. The complexity of a subject
like mathematics is completely toned down with the help of digital means and it is turned into
an engaging and interactive subject so that students are interested in it and they do not take
any stress while preparing for the subject (Khan Academy 2018).
The credibility of an online source such as Khan academy is subject to evaluation but
in a country like UAE, the results it has generated over the last makes it the first choice for
people who seek guidance on mathematics. The support teaching staff of the academy are
highly qualified and they completely understand the online teaching procedure hence it is
easier for the student to follow what the teacher says and explains. The entire process has
simplified the education system prevalent in the country and has made students to remain
stress free and enjoy the entire process of education. Mathematics is a subject that needs
attention, and it is always seen that most of the students choose to move away from the
subject. However, with its user friendly content the Khan academy has been successful in
bringing students back to study the subject and make sure that they are not stressed and they
enjoy the entire learning procedure (Khan Academy 2018).
The Khan academy is a reputed organization in the field of online tutorials and people
have been resorting to its help from a substantial period of time. The Khan academy has been
established 9 years back and it has much room for improvements yet. The website has catered
to all the needs of the students successfully but it still lacks some of the chapter of
mathematics that are important in the academic pursuance. The Khan academy has managed
to be a market leader and many brands in the online sphere have imitated them and
completely failed. The online platform is vast and has huge demand for the academic sector
and if penetrated with good content then it will lead to its success in the market. The online

4LITERATURE REVIEW
market is filled with opportunities that can grow the business and allow financial growth to
an organization. The emergence of the online market is a new phenomenon, it has lead to
many businesses growing in the market, and it enables the possibility to help grow new
businesses and gain the customer base that is prevalent in the market. The market is always
filled with customers who look for services and it is seen that the Khan academy has
successfully took up the market and has gained the consumer base that look up for education
in the online sphere.

5LITERATURE REVIEW
Reference
Arkorful, V. and Abaidoo, N., 2015. The role of e-learning, advantages and disadvantages of
its adoption in higher education. International Journal of Instructional Technology and
Distance Learning, 12(1), pp.29-42.
Emanuel, E.J., 2013. Online education: MOOCs taken by educated few. Nature, 503(7476),
p.342.
Khan Academy. 2018. Khan Academy. [online] Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/
[Accessed 14 Feb. 2018].
Krause, M., Mogalle, M., Pohl, H. and Williams, J.J., 2015, March. A playful game changer:
Fostering student retention in online education with social gamification. In Proceedings of
the Second (2015) ACM Conference on Learning@ Scale (pp. 95-102). ACM.
Morgan, H., 2014. Focus on Technology: Flip Your Classroom to Increase Academic
Achievement: Hani Morgan, Editor. Childhood Education, 90(3), pp.239-241.
Ruipérez-Valiente, J.A., Muñoz-Merino, P.J., Leony, D. and Kloos, C.D., 2015. ALAS-KA:
A learning analytics extension for better understanding the learning process in the Khan
Academy platform. Computers in Human Behavior, 47, pp.139-148.