Partnering with Khan Academy on building AI tools for classrooms

Bringing these interactive elements to life required deep collaboration. First, Google engineers helped define the underlying metrics for what makes a high-quality diagram. Then, they evaluated the visuals for relevance, helpfulness, and clarity, ensuring diagrams appear exactly when students can benefit the most. They also worked together to refine visual details like labeling, and built a new feedback widget directly into Khanmigo so user input can help continually improve the experience. Khan Academy is seeing early signs of increased student engagement and how well students answer questions after they see a diagram.

The second major feature to come out of this partnership is Khan Academy's reimagined Practice My Knowledge tool, which keeps teachers in control of their practice materials. Originally, the goal was simply to use AI to generate high-quality multiple choice questions. But working in partnership with Google fellows helped the Khan Academy team pursue a bigger opportunity: completely redesigning the tool making it fully editable, scorable and reviewable by educators.

The latest version now enables teachers to partner with Gemini to plan, draft, and validate practice questions before students see them. Teachers can also upload their own materials for Gemini to reference. Before an assignment goes out, a teacher reviews the full set, making edits or rejecting questions before they're sent to students. Once the work is done, teachers receive detailed performance reports for easy assessment. It's an update rooted in a clear philosophy: Gemini drafts the materials, but teachers have the final say on what students see. Teachers and administrators have told Khan Academy these adjustments make a difference, giving them just what they need to ensure questions are the right difficulty level for their students.