Nonprofit education platform, free lessons, mastery learning, math practice, science, humanities, SAT prep, Khanmigo, school districts, Sal Khan, and online learning
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a nonprofit online learning platform that offers free lessons, practice exercises, videos, and teacher tools across math, science, reading, humanities, test prep, and other subjects. Founded by Sal Khan, it became one of the best-known examples of free educational technology on the web.
What Khan Academy is
Khan Academy is a nonprofit education website and learning platform. On KhanAcademy.org, learners can watch short lessons, practice skills, review explanations, prepare for tests, and track progress across subjects such as math, science, computing, reading, economics, history, and test prep.
Mastery learning
Khan Academy is built around mastery learning: learners practice a skill, get feedback, try again, and move forward when they understand it well enough. That approach is especially visible in math, where exercises, hints, progress indicators, and review loops help students build foundations step by step.
Videos and practice
The platform became famous through short explanatory videos, but its product is broader than video. A lesson can combine instruction, worked examples, quizzes, unit tests, practice problems, articles, and teacher dashboards. The goal is not only to explain a topic once, but to give learners repeated chances to use it.
Classroom and district use
Many students use Khan Academy independently, while schools and districts use it as a classroom support tool. Teachers can assign skills, monitor progress, identify gaps, and use practice data to guide instruction. Khan Academy's district work focuses especially on reaching students who need stronger learning support.
Free nonprofit model
Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by philanthropy and individual donations. That matters because the site is designed around broad access rather than selling course subscriptions to learners. The nonprofit model also creates a constant challenge: keeping high-quality content, technology, support, and research funded over time.
AI tutor and teacher assistant
Khan Academy has moved into AI through Khanmigo, an AI tutor and teaching assistant. The goal is to give students guided help without simply handing over answers, while also helping teachers plan, explain, and support learning. The hard part is making AI useful, safe, accurate, and aligned with real classroom needs.
Why it matters
Khan Academy matters because it helped prove that serious educational resources could be free, online, and useful at global scale. It also shaped how people think about flipped classrooms, self-paced practice, learning analytics, and the role of technology in making education more accessible without replacing teachers.