[GonzoVeritas]

Bill Gates calls this the future of education. I think he is correct. I am doing a project involving corporate training and this method has vast implications for my work. I also have three school age children, and they will be "attending" Khan tonight. This is the very first post I've read on HN and I'm overwhelmed by its significance. Thanks!

[aik]

That's great. When you say "this method", could you explain what you mean? How does it have vast implications for your work?

In addition, I agree that it will make a great impact in the future. However isn't labeling it as "THE future" is going a little too far for now anyway? I would like to see a study on the type of person this type of study works for. If I'm not mistaken, it's not everyone?

[evilduck]

I think "this method" is letting people absorb the main lecture/explanation at their own pace, freeing up teachers to focus on one on one assistance, identifying people who are struggling, focusing classes on mastery instead of minimum level competence (C students pass, but obviously have knowledge gaps), etc.

[aik]

Cool. I'm curious how you'll implement it? Recently I took an Agile course at work where they had a similar method -- there was a 3 hour video that everyone was supposed to watch before the course. I'd say about 10% of people watched it.

[evilduck]

It's not my method and I don't have any plans to implement it, I'm just parroting stuff I've heard about Khan Academy in use.

I think in your case the problem was multifaceted. First, it was a 3 hour video on Agile. Excessively long, probably boring, probably unnecessary (in my own experience, the agile methods are mostly to get managers to see the light, not the programmers). Second, there was probably little penalty for not watching it either. I've been through Scrum training, it was boring and "successful completion" mostly meant sitting in a room and not doing my actual job for a few days. Failing the course would have required more effort than completing it.

For schools, obviously they'll still be grading your work and ensuring mastery of the subject where not watching the lectures would probably reflect on homework and test scores pretty quickly as you advanced, they're also much shorter than 3 hours, where your attention is less likely to wander.

[aik]

I definitely agree the problem was multifaceted. I also believe the problem runs very deep at the same time.

Even if the courses were 10 minutes each like Khan, I doubt the view rate would be increased by much in this case.

Also, it is true that there are no immediate and visible penalties for not watching it, though at the same time, being penalized through completely artificial means (chasing artificial targets, aka what happens in school) isn't healthy for anyone and I believe contributes to one of the major problems we're having.

Thirdly, I never was ensured mastery (or even pushed towards it) in any class I ever took. I was ensured a good grade if I jumped through the right hoops just how the teacher wanted it.