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I think the biggest difference in making it revolutionary vs evolutionary is the target audience. OCW and their kin are all targeted at people that are highly motivated (and generally highly educated already) to learn something new.

While Khan academy is targeted at a mass audience. I think both serve their target audiences very well too. I'm nearly addicted to OCW, but it's heavy stuff, not something you can sit down with for 10 minutes at a time and make progress.

In regards to your comment on impact. Khan academy in its current form has only been around for months while OCW has been around for over 10 years. In my daily life I've only met one or two people that have even heard of it, while the Khan academy is already being mentioned by people I know independent of my experience with it.




Actually the entire premise of MIT OCW was to make superior educational material available worldwide i.e to a mass audience, and it was a pretty big deal when announced. After OCW, several other organizations started doing the same. I wouldnt be surprised if Sal got his inspiration from OCW. (The Univ. of Tubengin TIMMS predates OCW but is completely unknown). So imo OCW has the larger impact.

Also, I've been following KA for a while and its definitely been around a lot longer than a few months, its form has changed a couple of times, much improved now. IIRC Sal originally started by posting on youtube.




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