Using Khan Academy as an Open Educational Resource and Online Homework Tool for Introduction to Engineering (RESUBMISSION)

This paper will demonstrate how the open educational resource (OER) Khan Academy was integrated into an Introduction to Engineering course. Use of this particular OER provides multiple advantages for the student: 1) when used as a supplement for basic engineering concepts, the OER replaces the need for a textbook, saving each student upwards of $100 for the semester; 2) Khan Academy has a breadth of fundamental instructional videos ranging from algebra to statistics to calculus (and beyond to differential equations and Laplace transforms), chemistry, mechanics, circuits and other basic engineering concepts to complement course instruction; 3) Khan Academy provides many practice problem and unit quiz sections which allow the student to practice problem solving with immediate feedback and help. From a pedagogical standpoint, Khan Academy allows the instructor to set up a course and create assignments, all free of charge. This greatly enhances course delivery and assessment by providing additional instructional resources as well as an online homework system that includes varying the problem assignment per student. Problem solving documentation is accomplished by requiring the students to submit written solutions, which counts as a portion of the grade, but cuts down on grading time significantly. This paper is being offered in the GIFT (Great Ideas for Teaching) category because the author has not yet conducted a formal study on the impact. However anecdotal feedback from students is extremely positive and the ease of use makes this tool an excellent resource for a variety of early engineering coursework.