While a more limited
experience than the website,
it’s a great learning resourcePerformance
Design
Value
»specification
Designed for:Phone and tablet
Requires Android:4.1 and upPriceFree
» verdict
Mighty oaks from little
acorns grow, so the
saying goes and they
often expand at an
astonishing rate in the world of
technology.Nowahugeonline
learning resource with thousands of
global volunteers – possibly the most
popular educational site in the world- has gone mobile. The Khan
Academy’s origins stem from when
founder, Salman Khan, offered to
help his young niece with her maths
homework. This soon snowballed
into creating YouTube videos for her
friends and the rest is history. The
Khan Academy website (www.
khanacademy.org) is now home to
over ten thousand educational
videos and text tutorials on subjects
ranging from maths to medieval art.
What is more, as all the content is
completely free it’s little wonder that
theKhanAcademywebsiteisso
popular and visited by around ten
million users every month.
Following the release of an official
iPad release at the start of 2015, the
Khan Academy has finally arrived on
Android. While you don’t have to sign
in (via Facebook, Google or an
existing account) to browse the
app’s large library of videos, this
does enable you to track your
progress and accrue more energy
points to earn new achievement
badges and unlock avatars.
The main menu is very simple and
easy to navigate with each main
discipline offering a row of subjects
toswipeleftorrightbetween.It’sfun
to browse, but to make it even easier
to find exactly what you’re after,
there’salsoasearchoptionatthe
topalongwithsomefeaturedtopics
to pique your interest.
Tapping a subject, such as
physics, brings up a new screen
showing relevant topics and their
modules or individual
tutorials; this is mostly
videos along with some
text resources. Videos
can be viewed in
portrait or landscape
mode with an
interactive transcript
below. Just tap
on a line to
skip to that
pointinthevideo. While this may prove very
useful, there’s also the option of
full-screen video. A typical video
involves images with text notes and
annotations being handwritten by
thenarrator,whoisnevershown.
Crucially, there’s an option (tap the +
sign)todownloadvideosforoffline
viewing when you don’t have an
internet connection. One thing
missing here is the ability to alter the
playback speed as can be done on
thewebsite,butneitheristherean
option for subtitles in a different
language. Another thing missing is
the ability to view users’ questions
and answers, or even ask your own.
So it’s a bit limited compared to the
great website experience.
Undoubtedly the biggest omission
is the current lack of any interactive
exercises in the app. While this is
perhaps understandable in the case
of Android phones, it would have
beenaniceoptionforthetablet
version, particularly given that the
iPad app offers this functionality.
Still, as a companion app to the
website, it’s still well worthwhile,
enabling students to learn while on
the move – particularly with the
offline video viewing option.Khan Academy
The free online learning
resource goes mobile
Subjects are organised into topics, modules,
stepsvideosortextarticlesBy default, videos feature an interactive
transcript – tap it to skip to that pointWant your money back?
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2 hour wonder
»0-40 minutes
A huge library of content
spanning many subjects40
12080!»40-80 minutes
It’s great to download videos
for offline viewing40
12080!»80-120 minutes^
Unlike the website, there are
no interactive exercises40
12080!UDEMY ONLINE COURSES » A wider range of subjects with over
32,000 courses, though most of these cost money.»like this?
try this!Just swipe the row under each heading
to see relevant subjects and topicsApps