New Features for Gamified Learning on Khan Academy

I want to start this off with a note that I am an avid learner, a gamer & loving user of Khan Academy.

I have been searching for ways to improve this site, which would make for an experience that is so much like an addictive game that people will be hooked and keep on educating themselves in a much more fun manner. Because Learning is the only addiction that is worth it In this world. Do note that this is a list of things that I, as a person who loves gaming and reward systems would personally like, but I've made sure to include things which other people unlike me would love as well. We don't want to gamify it too much, which would discourage the learner from focusing on the subjects themselves rather than on the game-like elements around it. The key is to make it addictive and fun in a way that isn't distracting to students. So here are some of my pitches for an improved experience for all students of Khan Academy. 

• Exercise points:

  Make it so that doing exercises, quizzes, practice tests, challenges etc. grants "Action Points" alongside the existing Energy Points. This motivates students do practice more instead of just watching videos over and over again.

• Randomised Exercise problems: 

  Train Khanmigo, or the platform's AI to create more questions based on a particular type of question, and integrate it into the algorithm for the practice exercises. This is needed because when someone does questions for a long enough time, the system ends up giving a part of the same set of questions on every test, effectively making memorisation the key to gaining proficiency in that 'Skill'. Just adding more questions for each type will be helpful, about twice the current set of problems, especially for the higher level ones would make that repetitive question-solving less of a situation where students copy the "Find out how we solved this question" and pasting it into whenever they find that same question again.

• Math Duels, or Tournaments:

  Look, I know it sounds like I'm a demon for making students compete each other instead of truly learning which is the exact opposite of what this site set out to do, but hear me out on this one. Having two students decide if they want to battle each other out to see who's better at Math (or some other skill), and to test how good each of them actually are, is a great incentive for students to make themselves better at these skills. As for the questions and set, there could be various systems at play, but here's my one- 
  
  Choose any course(s) that both of the students (or ALL of the students if it's a tournament) have dabbled in or studied even the slightest bit, find out who's proficient at which skills of that course, then randomise the questions from the quiz set of that set of skills and courses, then place each student in a bracket to see who solves as many correct problems from the set of skills in that tourney/duel. Suppose 4 students are in a tournament together, pA, pB, pC & pD, and they are proficient at 4 different sections (1/4th of the course, will not always be even but for the sake of simplicity in this example I've given exactly 1/4th). The Skill sets- A, B, C, D. If students pA & pB are competing against each other, then they should be tested on Skill sets- C & D. This makes them prepare for countering the strengths of the students they will face next round. Same vice-versa. It also preserves the feeling of entering a Math Olympiad to some extent, where the students don't know what they will be tested on, instead they will have to use their analytical abilities to do well.
  
  There should preferably be various duel/tournament types as well, being "Endurance & Strength" and "Agility & Speed". Endurance types will have a lot of questions, where students will try to do as many questions as correctly as they can, without making alot of mistakes. If they lose more than 1/2/3/5/7/10 (any amount really) questions, while having less questions solved correctly than the opponent, they lose. The Agility Type will have a time lock, where the students will try to solve as many questions correctly as they can within a set period of time. They lose points for getting a question wrong. In the end of each tournament/duel, they can go over and review all the questions they solved & got wrong, and be guided to the videos. After getting a question wrong, the students should be able to see the explanation of how the answer was solved, but they can't be redirected to any external links, such as videos or articles. They'll have to understand it by purely analysing the question's answers. The tournament is better to be done in a new, separate computer window though, which locks changing tabs and instantly reduces points in order to avoid cheating through Web-Searches, ChatBots etc. , but that should be left up to the decision board at Khan Academy. 
  
  Whoever ends up with the most points at the end, wins. Rewards may include: Extra Energy points, Action/Exercise Points, Medals. BUT, we need to have a system of loss as well. When you enter a tournament you are potentially sacrificing a part of your existing wealth, in this case your accumulated Energy Points/Action Points. We don't want them to be too engrossed with the rewards though, they're just here to give students amplified stakes for winning/losing duels/tournaments.

• Daily Missions, Revision Mission or Self-Duels:

  This is where the randomised problem making shines now. Everyday students get a set of 5/10/15 questions on random topics across their entire profile, whether it be Physics, English, Maths, or any other subject. Thus, they can understand their own strengths and weaknesses. This makes them go on to studying their weak points in the subjects they actually are learning, and helps them achieve mastery and proficiency in more and more skills so they are overall more educated. 

• More questions types:
  

  Please, add open-ended and creative question types into the system. By utilizinng Khanmigo to analyze certain problems, the students can have open-ended conversations which would help them learn more, basically like talking with a teacher or an expert about a topic in which the end goal is to know more than what you started the conversation with. The CQ types shouldn't give points though, because a difference of opinion will always be there, and thus no opinion can be awarded more 'points' than others. This will be a total bias. I have more ideas for question types as well, here are some of them-

1. More Drag-&-Drop activities, including Graphs: The system that Brilliant.org have in their way of teaching makes for an amazing learning experience. Couple the exceptionally engaging and interactive question patterns of Brilliant with the existing ecosystem of learning on Khan Academy would turn this site into the best learning site out there. The variety of questions coupled with the set of existing courses and skills will enable students to become masters at Analysing problems they are not familiar with, yet know the basics to begin solving them. Some of the Activities are: a) Having a 'Network' of sorts which would prompt students to add certain concepts to them, and to make them realise which concepts/topics are related to what, which fall under what kind of categories, etc. They''ll have a more transcendent knowledge of how subjects are inter-related with each other that goes beyond the basic PEMDAS & BODMAS type of Connected knowledge-set.

• Integration with Discord & Google Classroom: 

  Imagine looking at your friends' Discord Profile and see:
  "Studying on Khan Academy:
   Algebra 1
   Exercise- Equations with Variables on both sides "
  Wouldn't you be proud? Seriously though, being able to share and discuss a random Khan Academy problem/exercise and ask your friends for help is an amazing idea, not only for convenience but also for social interaction related to such fields/subjects. I also suggest Habitica, where gaining a certain amount of Action Points/Energy Points would grant them rewards and trigger the completion of certain habits/dailies, or cause negative reactions if a part relating to such missions isn't fulfilled. I leave it to the board of directors at Khan Academy yet again, but Habitica is an extremely useful application for self-accountability. Any classroom-based app that's popularly used world-wide would suffice.
  
  
• More, & Customizable Background themes: 
  Solving a Multi-variable Algebra equation while the background is completely based on Neon-vibes and blues? Count me in! (I'm not saying it should be that way for everyone, but customizability plays a big role in immersion) Dark mode, Neon-purple, Dark-Blue tint, any style would go a long way in achieving a more engaging user experience.
  
  

• MORE SUBJECTS:

  This should be the last priority among the things on this list. Khan Academy so far already has a great set of subjects and courses to learn from, and to make those existing courses seem more fun and just improve the entire platform overall seems more like a priority over adding new subjects. I would like a more question-based approach to something like Physics, Chemistry, & Biology. Maybe having a new [Video+Article]-only Philosophy course would be good. Also interactive Computer Science/Data-Science courses which teach us important algorithms and concepts (instead of, say, Programming. There's plenty of resources out there for programming already Khan Academy doesn't need to focus on those). Maybe an Electronics and Engineering course would be decent, but that's up to the decision board yet again. The previous Ideas I listed in this post prior to the additional course ideas should be the main priority of the Platform's moderators and developers. Period.

• CONCLUSION:

  I know some people may disagree with me, but these are just my pitch of ideas that I would like for everyone to have on Khan Academy. Please give me your thoughts on this matter, and your own pitches for more features to be added here. I love this platform, and its aim of having everyone in the world learning for Mastery in their own ways. Adding these features would only help in that.
  
  Thank you, and Goodbye~