Data is a powerful tool, but only as powerful as the person with the data.
The data in Khan Academy's reports are powerful. You can use the KA data reports to find out how much time your learners are spending on KA, what is their focus and what they are struggling with. Once you look at the data about how they are progressing, it makes it easier to address each student’s specific needs.
One step at a time: Picking a metric to focus on
When first starting to use Khan Academy's reports, we recommend looking through the various reports, and then selecting one metric to focus on - it could be the number of attempts for each skill or perhaps the number of minutes spent on Khan Academy or something else. In time, you'll become more familiar with the reports and the data available, and start leveraging more metrics to inform instruction; however, upfront, start simple.
Ways to use coach reports
Using data to drive student goals
As the coach, you are hopefully using Khan Academy data at least once after every time your students use Khan Academy. If that's once a week, look at the data at least weekly; if it's every day, look at it every day. It's important to make lesson-planning decisions and set milestones based on what individuals most need to focus on - whether for review, foundational preparation, or to move ahead. Personalize goals based on the data.
Encourage learners to develop a vocabulary of self-awareness and self-advocacy
It's great if you know how to use the data, and even better if learners understand what the data is telling them. Some educators and parents make it part of the learning routine to figure out what their data is telling them and to work out answers to questions about their individual data.
Egan Junior High 7th grade teacher Courtney Cadwell regularly asked students to review their own data, answering questions such as:
- This week, I've spent the most time doing... (based on individual focus graph)
- This week, I've struggled the most with...
- This week, I'm most proud of...
- I did / didn't meet last week's goal because...
- This week, I will...
Data can be used in parent-teacher discussions to talk about a student's work habits and progress. Having the parents look at the reports with you can be a good way to use data to drive the discussion.
Some teachers have even reported students who are so involved that they are working late into the night and parents complain their kids are studying too hard!
Other uses of Khan Academy data
Diagnose gaps in knowledge: Leverage Khan Academy to identify gaps in your child's understanding of key concepts
Drill down to catch common misconceptions: Deep dive into misconceptions and see step-by-step how a learner answered a problem and when they took hints. You can see if they zoomed through the hints or if they spent a lot of time in-between. You know if they viewed the video, and how many problems they attempted. The transparency of these actions enables you to pinpoint conceptual misunderstandings, as well as help pinpoint learners' behavioral or confidence issues.
Motivate with real-time data: Use energy points, badges and avatars as the source of competition, collaboration, inspiration and celebration.
Check out the top 3 ways 8th grade teacher Bryan Harms uses data