Datasheet

EdX is an ambitious and exciting enterprise, backed by many prestigious universities

but it is by far not the only eLearning service out there. MOOC-list is a reference web-

site that lists the all of the MOOC-courses offered by the best universities and entities

and Coursera.org is a similar enterprise to EdX. It offers over 341 courses from 62 uni-

versities around the world. [9] [10]

2.2 Khan Academy

Khan Academy is an excellent example of how one person can start a revolution in the

way people think about learning, and eLearning plays an important role in his organisa-

tions take on education. The general concept of the Khan Academy is, as Adriana Lee

from TechnoBuffalo.com phrases it “…-to take the process of teaching in school and

doing homework offsite and turns it on its head, proposing that students view lectures

at home (via online video, at their own pace) and do ‘homework’ in school.”. This con-

cept of learning emphasises peer-teaching, where kids and students are encouraged to

tutor each other and to ask help from a teacher, when it is most needed: during the

time when putting what they have learned into practice. [11]

The founder of Khan Academy, Salman Khan, began his educational system revolution

by publishing math-tutorials on Youtube. As his popularity grew he started publishing

material on different topics, branching out to chemistry and physics, before deciding to

create a non-profit organization that strives to revolutionize the conventional method of

education. [12]

Khan’s video tutorials are created using a simple format; capturing footage from a

computer, usually of a program such as paint, and his voice is recorded over the foot-

age, explaining every step as it unfolds on the screen. His tutorials are short and to the

point ranging from 5-20 minutes depending on the topic. Yet the main reason as to why

he is so popular is his style of teaching, keeping his examples simple and incrementally

adding more complex equations to his tutorials.

The other definite reason is that as the material is available online on Youtube, a “stu-

dent” can pick up the lecture anytime they want and continue from where they left off

previously, increasing the “enjoyment factor” of learning by allowing students to study