Reimagined for Learners

Khan Academy is doing a major overhaul?  Has there been a post about it here in the Support Community?

It's being redesigned for LEARNERS?

Will discussions and CS programs be kept?

Hi JaniceHolz cwalsh1223 ‮BBB#‬

Khan Academy has announced their redesign on the blog and Youtube. The good news is that all the content and courses are still there -- they're not changing, and the core of Khan Academy is still a free, world-class education through free mastery-based courses and Teacher Tools (including free Khanmigo for Teachers).

The updates are mainly with regard to the Teacher Dashboard and Student interface. Teachers now have a clearer picture of relevant data and tools, and the learner dashboard makes the next skill to master obvious. There's also some new gamification systems ike gems system and classroom games.

I doubt discussions and CS projects would go away -- those, along with all existing courses (and new ones?!) will continue to be free on Khan Academy. The other updates shared are for those in Districts/Khanmigo subscription.

I am obviously only a user of Khan Academy, and all I've shared is from the blog post and YouTube. The feedback is in the hopes to make Khan Academy engaging and effective for its global community of students and teachers, in and outside classroom settings!

OK, that's good. I was getting worried that they were going to take those away.

So I guess I need to occasionally check the Blog as well as the updates posted here in the Support Community in order to know what Khan Academy is changing.  That's rather annoying.

I hope that the "AI" tools that Khan Academy is including are worth the extra energy and water resources used by Large Language Models.  (Personally, I find the sudden proliferation of unasked-for "AI" summaries everywhere frustrating.)

I am surprised that the summary of what's the same for students includes "mastery-based practice".  The math courses have very little practice, in my opinion, and I have seen many posts (both in the Discussion area and here in the Support Community) asking for more practice -- I figured Khan Academy was purposely relying on a student's main curriculum to provide practice exercises.

(I'm not complaining to any of the users here.  I'm extremely frustrated with Khan Academy's lack of transparency and communication, as well as their repeated refusal to address mistakes and pedagogical issues in the 6th grade math course -- such as using square roots in an example without having ever explained what they are.)

JaniceHolz These are important points indeed, and I really hope KA takes note of them all! It certainly would help if there were one streamlined channel for updates - or at least a way to get notified of updates without having to manually check. Agreed about AI costs, and from recent updates, it seems like Khanmigo is for additional (paid) AI-driven practice, and in assisting Teachers to plan lessons on the platform (free but optional). I really hope that regardless of the AI rollouts, Khan Academy continues to prioritise ways to support students and teachers in cultivating human-thinking capabilities -- where AI summaries remove the need for the hard labour of sitting with a text, and working out meanings and one's thoughts in relation to that text, and dialogue with others (this is of course for academic texts more than logistical information on websites).

I really hope Khan Academy takes into account all feedback from students and teachers and continues to improve the platform and course offerings.

It looks terrible, they gutted khanmigo (it's just a hexagon with googly eyes) and you can't turn it off or close it at all so it's always taking up a third of your screen even when its a test and you can't use it.

Thanks @ThegreatCoder for raising concern on Khanmigo taking up screen space. I don't know if that's the case for users without Districts or Khanmigo subscription also. I am assuming that the space would have links to the unit, course, assignments, etc for free users?

But I hope the Khan Academy team takes this into consideration and makes it possible to turn off Khanmigo in settings, and even when enabled, to close off all menu bars and focus on the exercise. Currently the navigation bar on the left, when you're viewing a video or exercise, can be collapsed and reopened. I'm hoping such features are included in the reimagined design too, since it is supposed to facilitate focused study.

About Khanmigo design, I agree the brain theme was livelier, and the hexagon seems to have been chosen to match the main logo. The brain design was also a great nod to Khan Academy's old growth mindset content and the You Can Learn Anything campaign before the current design was implemented many years ago.

G. Tarun,
ThegreatCoder wrote a detailed post about the changes they are seeing, including a screenshot.  You may find it interesting.

Hi Khan Academy team, Now that there's an official update on the changes for learners, some thoughts and questions. It's sad to see discussions removed, and I'd urge the team to reconsider that - is there any way to add a discussion section, or at least archive the existing comments for reference?

Rather than a mere design change (as I'd previously thought) I see this is a major change to the progress and gamification systems too - so what about learners with lots of energy points or levels currently? Any way existing badges, levels, energy points can all be saved?

Avatars are going away, and I wish they didn't! Can profiles continue to have avatars even if the dashboard itself now features the Khanmigo and new interface? Also, as others have stated, it would be helpful to minimise Khanmigo when in an exercise, both for learners with and for those without a subscription, to allow for focused test interface-style practice.

As for mastery, I see that the platform is moving towards a unit-level system, but what about learners who do want to master a course, or take a course challenge as diagnostic? Will course challenges and unit tests still be available - to attempt before lessons and exercises - as both diagnostic and acceleration?

I'd love to see a Course Challenge option too, and assigning an entire course goal to students. Having both course and unit-level mastery tests is helpful.

It says "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." so hopefully this means that independent learners like myself get to keep discussions and badges and avatars.

I have made hundreds of discussion posts and spent a LOT of time working towards the "Maelstrom" badge on an another account and I do NOT want all that effort to go to waste.

So if a student is learning math in a classroom but wants to learn JavaScript on their own, will they have access to the Discussion area in the computing courses but not in their math course? Or will they have to have separate accounts to access the Discussion area for courses they want to use aside from in their class?

And if I only have a teacher linked, will that make me not an "Independent learner"?

I submitted a support request 3 days ago asking questions about what will change and when.  Basically:
If a user is linked to a teacher or coach but not enrolled in a classroom, they will have discussions available.
If a user is enrolled in a classroom, they will not have discussions available.
If a user unenrolls from all classrooms, they will again have discussions available.

Here's the full answer I got from Alex G (KA Community Moderator):

When will the change happen?
Beginning Monday the 29th [of June], users in the United States who meet the criteria for the Reimagined experience will be moved into that experience. Additional regions will follow in the weeks after.
 
What specifically determines whether a user will be able to use discussions? Is it whether they have a teacher or coach linked?
Students who are part of at least one classroom will not have discussions available as part of the Reimagined experience.
One important nuance is that simply being linked to a teacher does not, by itself, change a learner's experience. A learner would also need to be enrolled in a classroom. It's possible for a user to be linked to a teacher without being enrolled in that teacher's classroom.
 
If the change happens for a user, but then they unlink their teachers and coaches, will they be able to use discussions again?
If a learner unlinks themselves from a teacher, they are automatically unenrolled from any classroom they share with that teacher.
 
Once the learner is no longer enrolled in any classroom, they will return to the Classic experience, where discussions remain available.
 
In practical terms, if a student wants to regain access to discussions, they would need to ensure they are no longer enrolled in any classrooms. Unlinking from the teachers associated with those classrooms would accomplish that.

I realized I had 2 more questions, and added those; I'll post here when I get answers to them.

I also asked if there will be an official post on the Support Community and on the KA blog clarifying these points, since so many users are worried about them.  I'm hoping they'll make posts in both places.

I'm still waiting to hear if they will make any official clarifying posts.  
Here's the official answers to 2 more questions (this time from Carol):

• If a user loses access to discussions, but then regains access (because they are no longer enrolled in any classroom), will all their previous posts still be there?

 Yes, all posts should still be there. 
 

• It sounds like if someone is enrolled in a classroom for one course (such as math), no discussions in any course will be available to them. Will the Questions, Tips & Thanks, and Help Requests on their programs (JavaScript, HTML, Python, ...) be available to them?

 On the new Reimagined experience, no discussions are visible regardless of what classes the student is enrolled in or courses they're working on. 
There is one exception, tough, and that is Computer Science, which is one area of Khan Academy that will remain as is. This means that students will be able to find the Computer Science course from the new Reimagined design, and it will open up in a new tab in the "Classic" experience.