Eric.ed.gov – Using Khan Academy in Community College Developmental Math Courses: Results and Lessons Learned from Developmental Math Demonstration Project

The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE), with support from Lumina Foundation, investigated whether the use of Khan Academy could increase community college student success in developmental math coursework, support embedded math content in technical courses, and prepare students to take or retake college placement tests. Khan Academy, an Open Educational Resource (OER), is a nonprofit organization that provides free online educational resources such as practice exercises, instructional videos and a personalized learning dashboard that empowers learners to study at their own pace in and out of the classroom. Pilot community colleges used Khan Academy’s math content as a supplement in various developmental education delivery models, including flipped, blended, self-paced, modular and traditional developmental education classrooms, as well as in some career and technical courses. A number of community colleges also used Khan Academy in Accuplacer math “boot camps.” In New England, nearly all community colleges and four-year public institutions use the College Board’s Accuplacer exam as a placement test. Boot camps were run as short-term (usually three- to six-week) courses to help students prepare for Accuplacer or, in the optimal situation, test out of developmental math. NEBHE supported community college instructors by developing “Developmental Math Demonstration Project” (DMDP) resources on the NEBHE website. The DMDP resources included five training webinars and multiple curriculum maps aligning Accuplacer and developmental math course topics with Khan Academy practice exercises and videos. NEBHE also deployed an implementation coach, who provided live and web-based introductory and advanced trainings to participating instructors. This brief reports on the effectiveness of the pilot efforts, student and faculty perceptions regarding using Khan Academy, and the challenges encountered during the project. Several types of data were collected during the project, including student and faculty surveys, aggregated student performance data, and input from faculty during training sessions and network meetings.