By Laker Newhouse
Hey, everyone!
I’m Laker, a content intern at Khan Academy. I’m excited to announce on behalf of the math team that practice is coming to multivariable calculus! I still remember how hard it was to find organized, high quality practice when I took multivariable calculus. My textbook didn’t always include solutions to problems, for example, so I couldn’t be sure I had done a given question correctly. Worse, I sometimes got stuck halfway through and needed to wait days before I could ask my instructor for help. I struggled to find great resources to help me visualize concepts, which are a big part of what makes multivariable calculus beautiful and powerful. We designed the new exercises with all of these issues in mind to make multivariable calculus on Khan Academy an effective way to help anyone learn, practice, and master this wonderful branch of mathematics.
What do I love most about the new multivariable calculus content?
- Comprehensive approach: The updated course covers content that is closely aligned to a typical first course in multivariable calculus. That makes it a powerful resource to supplement the many multivariable calculus courses that will be held online this fall—not to mention it’s a strong foundation for independent study.
- Instant feedback: Unlike practice questions in almost all other resources available for studying multivariable calculus, our problems give instant feedback. If a student is struggling, every problem has detailed hints to gently guide the student to the solution.
- Mastery: Students can repeat an exercise multiple times with fresh questions until they feel they have mastered the concept. They can also test their mastery with quizzes, unit tests, and the course challenge.
- Visual focus: We put special effort into building a number of exercises that help students develop a visual understanding of multivariable calculus. This leads to deeper conceptual learning, prepares students to connect their learning to other fields such as physics, and is much more fun than just manipulating symbols!
We’re extremely proud of the work we’ve done on the multivariable calculus course. Onward!