“We use ticket forms as the sole gateway to support,” LeDuc said, “which really enables us to power through triage and automate a lot of flows.” Just in March 2020, said Khan Academy’s Head of Community Support Laurie LeDuc, “we saw a 1,200 percent increase in parents contacting us and over a 750 percent increase in contacts from teachers.” Many newly remote learners, parents, and teachers “didn’t understand how to get started with Khan Academy or get the most out of it,” she said, and the support team was close to being overwhelmed by the sudden surge in requests for help.Īutomated triage built into the Zendesk ticketing process made it possible for the team to prioritize who needed immediate help, who should help them, and whose issues could wait. An unprecedented spike in support requests One of the ingredients to Khan’s success? Zendesk. But Khan Academy was ready – with advice, support, and nearly 100,000 items in more than 40 languages, effectively scaling to handle a huge spike in traffic and support tickets. Parents, thrown suddenly into schooling at home, needed to help their children with school work while also juggling childcare and jobs. Teachers needed help preparing remote-learning courses and schedules, while students required assistance adjusting to online learning and supplementing video conferences.

When schools around the world closed their doors earlier this year in response to the pandemic, Khan Academy was uniquely well-suited for the moment, and traffic skyrocketed. Teachers and parents use Khan Academy’s free tools to track student progress.

The eponymous nonprofit, created by Sal Khan in 2008, has long been known for its free educational offerings in math, science, and the humanities. Khan Academy is one of those organizations. The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated some organizations into unique positions for their abilities to bridge enormous gaps caused by widespread shutdowns.

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