YouTube the Tutor?

December 12th, 2008

Back in the early 2000s, I only had three ways of boosting my calc grades: study group, teacher tutoring, and cable access programs. While I did manage to ace the class, it was only after I made significant changes to my schedule that allowed me to meet up with teachers and fellow students that my grades improved. If only there were some way that today’s calc students could amp up their GPAs when it’s convenient for them — a sort of Tutor-on-Demand system.

Oh, that’s right! There’s YouTube. Yes, YouTube. The bane of many an office and college with its nearly endless supply of irreverent videos and songs, YouTube has become a private tutor to today’s students. Rather than keep their academic prowess to themselves, teachers and pros in the know have been taping lessons and explanations so that students wide and far can benefit from at-your-pace learning in the comfort of their own homes.

One such budding tutor is Salman Khan, the mind behind the one-man not-for-profit Khan Academy, which has posted well over 600 videos on everything from trigonometry and physics, to the credit crisis and SAT prep. With an academic record that includes the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Khan has become a scholastic sensation over the last two years. His minimalist videos (Khan uses MS Paint to work through equations) have amassed more than 100,000 views and his hits keep climbing thanks to word-of-mouth and recent coverage in various news outlets.

If you’d like to check out some of Khan’s tutorials, check out his site www.KhanAcademy.org that links back to YouTube.

– Genevieve M. Blaber

Entry Filed under: College Trends, School Tools, Test Prep