Khan Academy Integrates With Digital Textbooks

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The 12-minute video lectures that Bill Gates has

“the start of a revolution” will now be linked with the material in some digital textbooks. Etextbook maker Kno announced Monday that it will integrate thousands of tutorial videos from Khan Academy into its books.

Khan Academy has been praised and funded by both Gates and Google. At its core, it’s a database of instructional YouTube videos that its founder, Salman Kahn, started creating in order to help his cousins with their math homework. Video production quality does not extend beyond the capabilities of Microsoft Paint, but Khan has a knack for making calculus seem like gradeschool math (the archive contains videos on both topics) that has made his tutorials a popular resource for independent learning.

Kno will be linking them to its books through a new “smart links” feature. When students click on a Khan Academy tutorial from a new tab on one of Kno’s digital pages, Khan’s explanation of that topic plays within the book.

“We’re excited that Kno sees the value in our mission and has integrated our videos and study tools directly into their books,” Khan said in a statement.

Kno worked with Kahn Academy to implement its tutorials for the feature’s launch. Eventually, Kno Vice President of Marketing Ousama Haffar says, the feature will expand to include other educational images and videos.

The digital textbook maker is also adding a 3D feature that allows users to turn images like molecule diagrams into 3D objects that rotate on the page.

Non-profit Khan Academy makes videos like the one above for a range of subjects. Digital textbook maker Kno has put links to some of them within its text.

More About: digital textbooks, education, Khan Academy, Kno

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