Khan Academy - Mastery Learning
Is there a better way for students to master what they're learning? Working closely with Sal Khan, we set out to make a video campaign promoting Mastery Learning.
Role: Creative Lead, Art Director, Animation Director, Storyboard Artist
Case Study
Khan Academy
Khan Academy, a non-profit educational organization, offers free online educational tools as well as test prep for the SATs, LSATs, and more. From early math to Microeconomics, they've got you covered. If anyone's passionate about making education better and more accessible to everyone, it's Khan Academy.
Me?
I had the opportunity to lead Khan Academy's new mastery learning video campaign. Working closely with their strategy, copy, and design teams, as well as their founder and CEO, we set out to make a brand campaign video for digital, social, and traditional channels in time for Sal Khan's campaign kick-off
What is mastery learning?
There's another way for students to master their class subjects than the standard version taught in most school systems. A way to help teachers give their students more one-on-one attention. A way for kids to progress through courses at their own pace. It's called mastery learning and Khan Academy is providing teachers and classrooms the online tools necessary to integrate this concept into the new educational standard for free.
The goal
The goal was to define mastery learning and establish Khan Academy as the foremost thought leader of the concept. Having just gone through a rebrand, Khan Academy also came to us to explore the motion strategy that could bring their new visual identity to life.
Why use mastery learning instead of the traditional approach?
Teachers know it's critical for students to form a solid understanding of one level of a subject before advancing to the next in order to achieve better test results and retain all they've learned over time. However, due to increasing class sizes and other roadblocks, students are still being forced to move on to the advanced levels in lock-step with each other even if they don't understand the current one.
The problem
How do you convince teachers and school systems that this new method of learning won't completely disrupt their current way of teaching, and in fact, will help them keep up with growing class sizes? Empathizing and gaining their trust is key. We needed to show them that Khan Academy understands the problems they're facing and is devoted to empowering both teachers and students, building upon the current approach and making it better. We also needed to show that even with Khan Academy's learning platform there to assist them, teachers are always the true heroes.
Coming up with a concept
Khan Academy's mission is easy to understand: changing education for the better with free tools for anyone, anywhere. And, luckily, with the company founder being an amazing teacher himself, it was also easy to understand how mastery learning works and our search for a narrative was made a little bit easier. After talking with Sal Khan, I had ample metaphors to explain what mastery learning and the traditional approach are. I boiled them all down to their simplest form: building blocks.
Blocks...
...the ultimate early-education toy. As young school kids, many of us have started out putting assorted blocks together in random order and orientation. A thin block like this, a couple of thick blocks like that, and before you know it everything falls over. But over time, you inherently learn that you need a sturdy base.
That's what mastery learning is all about: building a stronger foundation
To demonstrate the difference between mastery learning and the traditional approach used widely in our education systems, we decided to juxtapose the two via building block towers. One that doesn't fill in the gaps before moving on to the next level, leading to collapse, and one that is built piece-by-piece and doesn't progress until each level is completed, resulting in a happy, sturdy tower.
Key story takeaways
Besides finding a simple metaphor for how mastery learning works, it was necessary to connect with the audience emotionally. The story starts by relating to the frustration endured by a student when learning something new. When the teacher enters, she struggles too, staying by the student's side, helping them every step of the way, sharing in the ups and downs. As the story progresses the student and teacher continue their struggle to build the tower using traditional methods, ultimately leading to its collapse. Enter Khan Academy with mastery learning. With this new system, every level is completed before moving on thanks to our teacher who now has the ability to focus on individual students, driving home that teachers are still the heroes guiding students to reach their full potential.
Throughout the video, I knew I couldn't portray the technology as the hero, but rather as the missing piece of the puzzle, or in this case, a pencil with glasses. By avoiding visuals of the brand's UI and the platform itself, we were able to focus on the characters and emotions and show how the system is still completely reliant on the people who use it. By the end of the piece, the teacher and the Khan Academy pencil high five and form a trifecta - student, teacher, and Khan Academy - standing at the top of the tower they built together.
Results
Sal kicked off his media tour with the video, showing clips during his interviews on CNBC, CBS This Morning, and other morning shows. In tandem, Khan Academy launched its digital and social campaign with the brand video and continued providing it to media outlets during their pitching, outreach, and donation efforts after the launch, successfully establishing the brand as the thought leader of mastery learning. Soon after the campaign, the piece won a Telly award in the educational institution video category.
Awards & Recognition
2019 Telly Awards
Bronze, Non-Broadcast General - Educational Institution