Khan Academy Review
May 27, 2020
A bird's-eye view
Overview
This Khan Academy review is one of many in a qualitative analysis comparing popular 'Learn to Code' platforms using 6 categories, each with 5 distinct grades. This is a bird's-eye view, rather than a comprehensive dissection of Khan Academy.
Table of Contents
Who is Khan Academy Great for?
- Beginners who want slower progression through milestones.
- Beginners who enjoy learning within a rigid structure.
- Beginners who enjoy learning within interactive, yet artificially safe coding challenges.
- Beginners who enjoy very active discussion forums.
- Beginners interested in front-end development.
- Beginners interested in building games (their more advanced courses are specializations in games and visualizations).
Cost
| 5 | All courses are free. |
|---|---|
| Cost category and grading details | |
Khan Academy is 100% free.
Teacher Feedback
| 3 | Projects are graded by other students. |
|---|---|
| Teacher Feedback category and grading details | |
Khan Academy's courses contain small projects (completed within beginner-friendly environments) which are evaluated by other students. It's a valuable feature surprisingly available for free -- but wait times are long.
Range of Tools
| 1 | Only one or two tools from the basket of tools was covered. |
|---|---|
| Range of Tools category and grading details | |
Khan Academy's range of content is limited as it's designed for the freshest beginners out there. Only HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are covered.
Computer Science
| 5 | Many computer science specializations exist. |
|---|---|
| Computer Science category and grading details | |
Khan Academy's dozen or so short courses touch on the major sorting algorithms, complex data structures (only graph), cryptography, and Big-O Notation.
Real-World Projects
| 1 | Real-world projects are not available. |
|---|---|
| Real-World Projects category and grading details | |
Projects are always completed within beginner-friendly web coding environment. They are accompanied with only written guides, and much of the code is already written. At the end of Khan Academy's courses, you're presented with ideas for continuing to learn and Treehouse is one of their suggestions.
Beginner Environments
| 5 | Beginner-friendly coding environment available providing artificially helpful error messages as you type. |
|---|---|
| Beginner Environments category and grading details | |
Khan Academy's interactive coding challenges are very beginner-friendly with very helpful hints when a learner makes a mistake. Their hints also detect incorrect syntax in real-time as you type.
Final Words
Khan Academy's target audience is secondary school students and lower, so the pace is very slow compared to other platforms. Their courses are great for any age, but they're only suitable for beginners because of the interactive, yet artificial coding challenges.