Khan Academy.org - Making Studying Change

Khan Academy - A Revolution in Making - Redesigning Learning

Khan academy is a name now synonymous with the generation-i, who are glued to social networking sites like Youtube for most of their time through their computers and mobiles. It has become a viral way of studying at your own pace and at your time.

Khan Academy - Profile

TOGETHER WE KHAN



The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere", the website supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance,physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, macroeconomics and microeconomics, and computer science.

About Salman "Sal" Khan 

Salman Khan 

Khan was born in Louisana, USA, an MBA from HBS, technical BS from MIT, a former hedge funds analyst, who left his job to pursue a dream of free for all education system and went on to get funding from Bill and Melinda gates foundation for "Khan Academy".

Principles of Organisational Management - Its all there in Khan Academy

It all started with a small idea or out of a sheer need of Salman to teach her niece Nadia mathematics lecture using yahoo doodle. It went on to gain popularity as many people got hooked on to the videos that were posted on the youtube. It immediately caught hold of Bill gates who had a belief that this academy has the mettle to improve the education scenario.

with what vision does salman start this? It was initially a private endeavor but the paradigm of implication of such a tool hit him instantly. He started with a vision of "  We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere "

the keywords in this were the changing education goal and the result was the ever sought after "a free world class education", the target audience and beneficiary being any one anywhere in the world. in this world where still many of the children are feared loathed and pushed to one corner in building run schools, where they are not free to ask question due to sheer fact that they can be ridiculed of their stupidity, khan academy provided them with an interactive video based tutorial where they can pose any question of what so level it may be.

He used the technical skills of a manager in making this website and the concept while managing to touch upon the human relations. It was a highly conceptual idea and was fructified into a full grown website.

The Pedagogy - How Students benefit- The Model

Students can make use of its extensive video library, practice exercises, and assessments from any computer with access to the web.

Complete custom self-paced learning tool

A dynamic system for getting help

A custom profile, points, and badges to measure progress

Coaches, parents, and teachers

Coaches, parents, and teachers have unprecedented visibility into what their students are learning and doing on the Khan Academy.

Ability to see any student in detail

A real-time class report for all students

Better intelligence for doing targeted interventions

Its library of videos covers K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even reaches into the humanities with playlists on finance and history. Each video is a digestible chunk, approximately 10 minutes long, and especially purposed for viewing on the computer.

What's Unique in Khan Academy

the need for tutoring arrived to Salman Khan as an opportunity when he was making his niece study through web. It was a good example of creative problem solving where in a need was made viral through the use of web based services. 

The videos are of 10 mins length and not more than that using the scientific principles of retention such that the effectiveness of study is maintained. It has over 3200 video hours of lecture and more watched than MIT Sloan Open Course Ware(OCW).

Its interactive unlike the chalk and teacher videos and children can ask their question to the software, form the youtube videos it has now turned into an interactive software, this is an example of progressive evolution of an organisation. 

The Entrepreneurial Drive

being just a start up , he started getting funding from various beneficial of the videos which prompted him to quit his job and start this enterprise. he has received praise and funding from bill gates too.

Now he employees many developers for the site development and maintenance.

Its a uniquely global model, where in the physical boundaries of nation doesn't matter.

All in All, Khanacademy.org is a great initiative for spreading knowledge.

LE01

The Goal Setting

we started off the lecture with the emphasis on the goal setting procedure that is to be efficiently and effectively followed by each of the employee in any organization. For an effective manager these conceptual managerial that includes goal setting at the numero uno place is of paramount importance. As and when managing of people are involved this becomes a daunting task.

Broadly managerial skills are divided in three categories

1. Conceptual Skills.

2. Human Relations Skills

3. Technical Skills.

The degree of all three is different for managerial level, like for example in TATA Motors an automotive giant, the requirement of skills and hence the evolution of them by training the managers are different. A divisional head needs to exude a greater mix of human relation and technical while a line of business head(LOB) like passenger car unit should profess more of conceptual skills and human skills.

A perfect example of goal setting process is the annual performance management system for appraisal of employees wherein at the start of the year each of the employees is expected to pen down the major performance areas (MPA) of their line of work against each of which there is an expected midyear and final percentage that is to be achieved. These MPA’s are the goals that employee needs to accomplish. There comes the process of goal setting into motion, the characteristics of such goals can be summarized in the following acronym.

S.M.A.R.T

We learned the exact meanings of each of them through the means of a “Tower Challenge”. It is a game in which a tower is to be erected with the help of identical cubes with three participants namely

1.       The Working Executive.

2.       The Middle Manager.

3.       The Top Management


So here were the rules of the game, the participant(Working Executive) was to be blindfolded and has to use the wrong hand while the middle manager shall narrated and help him build the tower and top management shall advise as and when required.

PICTURE OF TOWER

What I learned from this exercise was that the goal setting process was done in this fashion.

Vision:- To be the builder of largest tower.

Mission: - To make a tower at least 17 stories high.

GOALS

Specific: - We have to create the largest tower.

Measurable:- It should be highest, last year it was 17 blocks

Attainable:- The target was taken 18, keeping in view of last year its attainable.

Relevant:- Its relevant to the vision and mission statements.

Time Bound:- It has to be completed within the lecture timings.

Using the last year data of 17 towers it was decided to make at least 18 blocks high tower. At start the goal looked not achievable as it was relevant in the below responses we got from fellow students.

Three students tower height set was = 20, 17, 15 cubes
Last year Tower height was = 17 cubes
Team goal set for tower height was = 17
Team Tower Performance was = 17 cubes

     THE TEAM 

Few of the important take away from the exercise was understated

1. Ergonomics: - it is important that the working executive has his workplace designed in accordance to ergonomics as it was seen fatigue set in during the tower building.

2. Top Management Involvement:- It needs to be done at regular interval for necessary boost of confidence and to keep in track of goals.

3. KISS Principle:- Keep It simple Silly , all the processes and activities should be simple as seen by the instruction set given for building the tower.

4. HR Issues:- Due to fatigue  the working executive gave up once and then he was replaced by other that shows that HR issues needs to be solved ASAP.

5. Customer Voice: - The other students were acting as customers and their feedback was taken at regular interval.

The session was really useful in understanding through practical sense the goal setting process and the effect of all parameters on the vision and mission statement.

THANK YOU AND HAVE A GREAT LIFE

NAVEEN TIWARI
IM19
R No 095
SEC B