Khan Academy has a new Mastery System which makes learning Math much more fun and tangible
You may have already heard of Khan Academy and how it is an excellent website for learning Math and other skills. But what is brand new is how KhanAcademy.org has unveiled a new Mastery System. This system allows users to track their progress in a much more visually tangible and motivationally accessible way than ever before.
After enabling the new Mastery Challenge system on your dashboard or “home” button area, you will find that a dark blue box appears with the message, “MASTERY CHALLENGE AVAILABLE!”
These mastery challenges are actually very similar to how you could do random practice. But now your progress is tracked in a way which is easy to see if you’re on the right track.
For example: If you already practiced something thoroughly, you might have a “level 2” or blue box. But if you do the Mastery Challenge, then there is a chance you might get a question correct and turn that blue box into a dark blue box.
When a dark blue box appears in your Dashboard, that means you have successfully demonstrated Mastery in a specific sub-section.
This is important because in the old-style of Khan Academy, you would be asked to “review” things even if you visit the site weekly. The words, “review” or “demonstrate proficiency” have very classroom-ish sounds to them and for an adult who is trying to beef up his math…having to review flash cards everyday is a sort of put-off.
So that’s why I like the new style of Khan Academy with the Mastery Challenge system. It seems more exciting. It’s as if the system says, “I have a challenge for you!” And of course I always will accept a challenge!
Another thing I enjoy about the new system is how everything is reminiscent of an old DOS defragment screen. When I was a teenager I used to actually watch my computer defragment. I loved it. The idea that the computer was doing work on itself was like watching an ant colony build a space port.
The beauty of the new Mastery Challenge system is that the work one does in the website directly correlates to how, “defragmented” the skill dashboard is…and also the work relates to the sturdiness of my understanding of Mathematics.
This type of force-feedback in learning is vital to both new and old generations who want to learn tough-as-nails skills. I can’t wait for other learning websites like, “Codecademy” to follow suit or perhaps even innovate beyond this new style.
Overall, if you haven’t visited your KhanAcademy.org profile in a while, check it out. It is totally worth it to see if this new system adds excitement to one of the most important skill sets any conscious human being can have.
-Tyler