Hi Marc,

Personally, since so many other things also use computers, including the quizzes and tests on KA, I feel that they are not only learning how to do math, but also how to transcribe correctly and how to use the computer correctly.

When it comes to forgotten negatives, those answers are just wrong, at least in my opinion.  There's a huge difference between 45 and -45, and a forgotten negative can mean an entire Calculus problem has to be scrapped and started over.  It's better for them to learn to keep track of the negatives from the beginning.

The only time I can think of a space being necessary is when doing mixed numbers (is there something else?); a space between 3 79/80 makes that very different from 379/80.  Again, I view it as a good lesson to learn early, and kids don't learn it easily if they can just have it changed rather than redoing the work.

YMMV, but overall, I've never met a student who was harmed by redoing an assignment or test to correct errors, whether they were transcription, memory or process.

I understand the argument that so many other things use computers and they need to learn to transcribe. I agree. I also agree forgotten negatives are a wrong answer. Maybe I didn't convey my issue clearly enough?

However, I don't feel that is an accurate excuse for the poor UI used by KA when entering data in the answer fields. The students are able to show me their work on paper and I am able to watch them do it real time so I know it's not an issue of their knowledge. Which is what we are educating in particular, is it not? Poor scores reflected through KA because of "data transcription errors" is a poor indicator of student knowledge and performance.

I have watched them ask why a particular answer is wrong when it appears to look exactly like the computer answer. We have found many times an extra inconspicuous space had been entered they were unaware of and couldn't see. Or when having to jump back and forth between function buttons, it ends up entering part of the function that is not necessary and they will have to delete out to get to the particular place holder they are trying to edit. When doing all of that through a poor UI setup, mistakes unknown to them are bound to happen. They might only need part of the function but they have no option to choose just that part. The entire function is entered into their answer and they then have to go back and edit out the parts not necessary. That is when an extra space or a deleted negative they had in their prior get missed.  When it happens on problem 8/9 on an otherwise perfect unit test, it's a frustrating and discouraging waste of time to redo the entire test to get the grade indicative of their knowledge. If taking the test on paper, these errors would not happen. 

For the most part I offer my students to keep the grade they have or they can redo it to improve if they want. My students do a great job self-motivating to improve but it's heavily discouraging to them to redo something they did perfectly except for an UI issue. 

Attached is a screenshot example (not an accurate answer to anything) of how convoluted an answer could be with a horrible UI that KA uses. I challenge you to try to duplicate that screenshot. Then imagine a student doing that, how easy it would be after 4 hours for them to not notice a UI mistake when having to jump around all those functions.

Bottom line, why not make it an option for a teacher to edit students grades? Why is it different for us not to be able to do that on KA vice a teacher being able to do it in a classroom? 

I see where you're coming from, Marc.

I'm not sure why, but I've never had students marked wrong for random spaces.  I'm quite familiar with the way KA does exponents, fractions, quantities and roots, and I teach my students to go slowly and make sure they need each before clicking.

I can't see KA prioritizing a teacher's ability to change a grade in the KA gradebook when they can do it themself in Schoology, Canvas, Google classroom, etc.

Maybe "changing the grade" is not the best terminology to use. It would be helpful to at least mark their answer "correct" so it is not scored as wrong for UI imput errors. 

Yes you are right sir, teachers have to correct that because that is not the fault of students.

I do agree with P Rossell because instead of Khan academy allowing teachers to change the answer to the correct answer wouldn't be necessary when the teacher, that is with evidence, sees the student mean to type in the correct answer but because of the UI of Khan academy they get it wrong. Now you could just adjust their assignment grade instead which will really affect their scores. That would be more worthwhile. But I also suggest that your students write down their correct answer on a sheet of paper, and when they put the correct answer in but because of the UI they can show you the correct answer they put down. This would be more helpful and thus would prevent them from having to reduce the entire exercise. :)

Hi Marc!

Thank you for sharing the screenshot and background information about how difficult it can be for your students to enter complex formulas correctly on Khan Academy! I've definitely seen this type of user experience myself!

I've documented your feedback to share with our product team. Thank you so much for being an active member of the community! Your insights are greatly appreciated!