These Khan Academy videos range from education reform to making college affordable

khan-academy-talksKhan Academy is not your traditional brick and mortar school or university with teachers lecturing in the classroom. It is a website of hundreds of education videos narrated by Sal Khan, a former hedge fund analyst and founder of Khan Academy.

What began as a simple tutor lesson in math between cousins has transformed into a massive, international educational platform. As of April 2014, Sal Khan’s Khan Academy YouTube channel received 1.7 million subscribers with over 400 million video views.

But what attributes to the extraordinary rise in popularity of this online learning model and how has it revolutionized higher education?

The answer: A simple user interface which can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection at no cost.

In this article, you’ll find five of the best Khan Academy talks, given within the last couple of years, on topics that range from education reform to making college more affordable.

Know of any great Khan Academy talks on higher education and/or technology? Share your views in the comments section below and by following me on Twitter @Michael_eSM.

(Next page: 5 of the best Khan Academy talks)

1. What is Khan Academy all about? Who is Sal Khan and what is his inspiration for the creation of a free online learning platform?  “I’m not an education radical,” says Khan. “A lot of what I’m doing and we are doing is bringing back old ideas that have been proven but somehow got lost in the fray.”

Watch Khan’s Nightline interview for more background information:

2. In this video, Khan speaks with David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, about collaboration with College Board and Khan Academy to level the playing field by providing free SAT prep tools online.

Coleman states that the SAT should be about “merit and hard work that’s equally available to all” and says that there is no better partner than the Khan Academy to provide free SAT test preparation for the world.

For more on this partnership, watch the clip here:

3. Khan moderates an engaging Google Plus hangout with students, teachers and professors. When Khan asks what the value of a college diploma is today, Associate Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve Neil Mehta replies that the diploma doesn’t guarantee what you want the student to achieve in terms of core competencies.

Watch this conversation here:

4. In an exclusive talk with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Khan asks how Washington will address and solve the rising cost of higher education. Duncan states that because college prices have risen steadily in the past decades, Americans view college as a privilege and not something for the middle class.

Listen to Duncan’s solutions to make college more affordable and accessible:

5. Rethinking Education – Khan at MIT.

Khan speaks to MIT students and notes that while the ultimate vision for the Khan Academy is to build “experiences” and not just “skills,” it is difficult to achieve. For instance, how to do you train an instructor who didn’t work at a hedge fund to think about and demonstrate how a trading floor works?

Watch the discussion in full here:

Michael Sharnoff is Associate Online Editor at eCampus News. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_eSM.

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