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What’s changing for students on the reimagined Khan Academy?

Updated

Khan Academy is being reimagined for classrooms to create a more guided, engaging learning experience for students. As mentioned in this blog post, these updates were piloted in schools and designed with feedback from teachers and students to help learners stay focused, motivated, and on track toward Mastery.

This article highlights the key changes for students in the Khan Academy reimagined experience and what teachers should know as they prepare their classrooms for the transition. Once your teacher account transitions to the new experience, you can also use the student preview functionality to play around with the student side as well. 

These changes apply for students who are in a classroom on Khan Academy. Independent learners who are not in a classroom, will continue with the current experience.

  • If you'd like more info about what’s changing for teachers, check out this article.
  • If you are an administrator, check out this article for how to prepare your school(s) for the switch. 

What is staying the same?

Before diving into what's changing, we want to reassure teachers and students that many of the core learning experiences on Khan Academy are not going away.

Students will continue to be able to:

  • Sign in using their existing Khan Academy accounts. Any existing mastery progress will also remain on student accounts.
  • Access and complete assignments from their teachers (other than Course Mastery Goals) 
  • Build Mastery through practice
  • Track their learning progress
  • Have access to the library of high quality, standards-aligned content  

What students may notice first

One of the biggest changes in Khan Academy Reimagined is a more guided learning experience for students.

Students will notice:

  • An updated homepage
  • Simplified navigation
  • A learning queue that easily shows students what to work on next
  • Unit Missions that organize learning by unit
  • More visible progress indicators throughout the platform

The goal is to help students spend less time navigating and more time learning. 

Learning is now organized around Missions

Missions are goal-oriented learning journeys that help students know what to work on first. 

  • If you assign individual content assignments, they will be included in the Daily and Weekly Missions.
  • Mastery Goals are now Unit Missions, but the content included in a Unit Mission will be included in the Daily and Weekly Missions too.  

Below is some more information about how each Mission type works: 

  1. Unit Missions: 
    • Unit Missions are assigned by their teacher and replace Unit and Course Mastery Goals from the previous experience. 
    • The goal of Unit Missions is for students to get the Proficient or Mastered Mastery levels on all skills in that unit. 
    • Students will complete all the exercises, quizzes and unit test in the unit. Once they reach the  Proficient or Mastered level on all skills in that unit, the Unit Mission will be marked as complete. 
  2. Daily Missions: 
    • Daily Missions are a focused view of the students’ assignments that are due today, tomorrow, or overdue.
    • These are not assignable by the teacher but are comprised of assignments teachers make for students (from Unit Missions and individually assigned pieces of content)
    • Daily Missions essentially bump up the most important Unit Mission and standalone content assignments to the front of the line so students know what to work on right now. 
  3. Weekly Missions: 
    • Weekly Missions is the list of assignments that shows to students after they complete the daily Mission. 
    • Weekly Missions give students a broader look at what's coming up so they can work on what is due next
    • These are not assignable by the teacher but are comprised of assignments teachers make for students (from Unit Missions and individually assigned pieces of content)

Students can easily access their Missions on their student dashboard. To do so: 

  1. Make sure students have selected the correct class from the top dropdown 
  2. Unit Mission: click "Start" or Continue in the Unit Missions section of the Learner Dashboard 
  3. Daily mission: Click the big blue "Start" or "Continue" button at the top of their student dashboard. 
  4. Weekly missions: will automatically show to the student once they complete all the tasks in their Daily Mission 
  5. Reminder! All work completed in the Daily + Weekly missions count towards the applicable Unit Missions, and content assignments as well 

Viewing their assignments

  • There are 2 views students can use to see their assignments 
    • The "Path" view: we recommend this path for younger students or those who might want a more visual and direct view of their assignments
    • The "List" view: great for students who can navigate filters and want more customization
  • Both the views are available on Unit Missions, Daily and Weekly Missions. 
  • The student can decide which view by selecting either of these icons

New ways students can stay motivated

Khan Academy Reimagined introduces several new ways for students to celebrate progress and stay engaged with their learning:

  • Gems (these replaced Energy Points)  
  • Gem Challenges + Gem rewards set by their teachers (replacing Learnstorm) 
  • Customizable Khanmigo with earned accessories (replacing Avatars)

 

Some familiar features have been replaced

As part of the transition to Khan Academy Reimagined, the following features are no longer available: 

  • Discussions
  • Levels
  • Avatars (replaced by Khanmigo customization)
  • Badges
  • Energy Points (replaced by Gems) 
  • Learnstorm (replaced by Gem rewards) 

Additional experiences available through Khan Academy Districts partnerships

The following experiences are available to accounts that are part of a Khan Academy District partnerships:

Frequently asked questions

Can I see what my students see?

Will students lose their progress?

  • No. Existing student progress and Mastery levels will remain on student accounts.

Do students need to create new accounts?

  • No. Students can continue using their existing Khan Academy accounts.

Will teacher assignments still work?

Can students still use Writing Coach?

  • Yes. Students in the USA can continue completing Writing Coach assignments from their teachers.

We're excited to bring these updates into classrooms and hope students enjoy the more guided and engaging learning experience!

If you have questions or need help, please contact the Khan Academy Support team through the support request form.