The website is the brainchild of Salman Khan[not be mistaken with the Indian actor, Salman Khan], a Bangladeshi born American citizen. A short profile of Khan and how Khan Academy came to be is mentioned in the following excerpt from the Wikipedia article about Khan Academy-
Khan holds three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: a BS in mathematics, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and an MS in electrical engineering and computer science. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. In late 2004, Khan began tutoring his cousin in mathematics using Yahoo!'s Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends sought his tutorage, he decided it would be more practical to distribute the tutorials on YouTube. Their popularity there and the testimonials of appreciative students prompted Khan to quit his job in finance in 2009 and focus on the Academy full-time.
Salman, in my view, has begun a revolution by changing the way students access educational material online. Besides being easy to understand, the videos are also extremely small in size, which means that even students in rural communities with slow Internet connections will have access to Khan's educational videos.
As of December 2009, Khan's YouTube-hosted tutorials receive a total of more than 35,000 views per day. Each video runs for approximately ten minutes. Drawings are made with SmoothDraw, which are recorded and produced using video capture from Camtasia Studio. Khan eschewed a format that would involve a person standing by a whiteboard, desiring instead to present the content in a way akin to sitting next to someone and working out a problem on a sheet of paper: If you're watching a guy do a problem [while] thinking out loud, I think people find that more valuable and not as daunting. Offline versions of the videos have been distributed by not-for-profit groups to rural areas in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. While the Khan Academy's current content is mainly concerned with pre-college mathematics and physics, Khan states that his long-term goal is to provide "tens of thousands of videos in pretty much every subject" and to create "the world's first free, world-class virtual school".
The Khan Academy has recently been in the spotlight with Khan speaking on numerous interviews on major news channels. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and philanthropist, has also been promoting this initiative.
Needless to say, I recommend this great educational resource to everybody. I also would like to request all of you to support this great initiative.
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