Khan for Educators: Creating a class

Hi, I'm Megan, and in this video, we'll walk through setting up a class on Khan Academy.

First, log in to Khan Academy. Once you're logged in, you should land on the teacher dashboard. The teacher dashboard is the starting point for most teacher-focused activities on Khan Academy, including creating and organizing classes.

From the teacher dashboard, make sure you are on the classes tab and then click the add new class button in the top right corner of the screen. We recommend that you create separate classes for each group of students you teach. For example, if you teach four sections of seventh-grade math, we recommend you create a separate class for each section.

If you already use Google Classroom, you can import your classes with all students directly to Khan Academy. If this is not the case, start by giving your class a name. A tip we hear from teachers is to choose a naming system that helps keep your teacher dashboard organized and easy to find for both you and your students. A common trend is to use your name, class period, and subject.

Now, let's choose one or more courses for your class. You can scroll down to see the full list of courses available. You can choose the course by subject, such as Algebra 1 or US History, or you can choose the course by grade level, like second-grade reading or get ready for 5th-grade math.

And don't worry; if you change your mind, you can edit your class name and courses at any time in the class settings. After you've set up a class, you'll want to add students, and there are three different ways you can do this.

The first option is to use Google Classroom. If you're a teacher who uses Google Classroom, you can link your Google Classroom and Khan Academy accounts to import your class roster directly. This will automatically send emails to your students letting them know they've been added to your class.

The second option is for students to join your class using the class code. Each class created on Khan Academy has a unique code, which students can use to join your class. Students only need to enter this code one time to be connected to your class. You can share the code with students via email or by displaying the code in your classroom.

Students can enter the code from the teachers tab on their learner home. They will be automatically added to your class roster after they enter the code. Some teachers find the process of adding students by class code challenging, especially those with younger students, but don't worry; we have one more option.

The third option for adding students is to create accounts for them. Please remember, before creating accounts for students in the United States, Khan Academy assumes that you already have permission from parents or guardians of students under the age of 13. We do not recommend this option for students over the age of 13, as it creates a more restrictive type of account.

Select the option to create your students' accounts. When you create these accounts, Khan Academy automatically generates usernames and passwords. You are able to create the passwords for your students according to preference, and we strongly recommend you download the complete list with login information to keep in your files in case you need to consult them in the future.

One important warning: you will only be able to download this list when you create accounts. You will receive an email with all this information as well, but you will not be able to retrieve or edit this information, including passwords, at any other time.

Now you've set up a class and added students, but what happens when the class roster changes? We know students move in and out of classes during the year. To keep your student list up to date, select the class from the teacher dashboard, and in the left side navigation, select the students tab. From there, you will be able to add or remove students from your classes.

If a new student is joining your class, click add new students and choose your preferred method to add the student from the three methods shared earlier in this video. If one of your students moves from one class to another but remains your student, select that student's name from their current class and click on the add to class option. From here, select the class the student is joining to add them to a new class.

Once that is complete, remove the student from the original class using the remove from class option. In this situation, you can move the student from one class to the other without the student needing to take any additional action.

If you are no longer a student's teacher, select the student's name and click stop teaching. This will remove the student from all of your class lists and disconnect the student's account from your teacher account. You will no longer have access to any of this student's information.

If you want to clear an entire class roster, like you might want to do at the end of a school year, select the box in the first row and then click stop teaching. This will remove all the students in that class. Many teachers recommend doing this over the summer in an effort to clean up your Khan Academy teacher account and prevent the accumulation of students year over year.

One other rostering tip we'd like to share with you: all Khan Academy's student rosters are automatically alphabetized, but student display names often appear as their usernames rather than their real names. As a teacher, you can edit the display name of any student by hovering over the name you want to change and clicking on the option edit display name. Type a new name, save, or hit enter, and you're done.

This change will only occur on your class roster; it does not appear on the student's home page, nor will it change the data they use to log on to Khan Academy.

Now that you've completed the initial setup for your classes, we know you'll probably want to adjust them in some way during the school year. For any changes to the class, you want to go to the settings tab. Here, you can edit the class name, change the course or courses, update student sync with Google Classroom, sign up for a weekly report on student performance, and even delete the class.

We hope this video helps you get started building your own classes on Khan Academy.