Khan Academy tackles financial literacy online

(CBS News) Without so much as a classroom, Khan Academy reaches up to 6 million students monthly. The education website founded by Sal Khan offers over 4,000 online lessons for students K-12 on subjects ranging from science, math, chemistry and art -- and Khan's latest venture extends the online offerings to include lessons in financial literacy for Americans of all ages. The venture is a new partnership with Bank of America as part of an effort to offer people free and easily accessible financial education content.

A recent Boston College study indicates that more than half of Americans are not saving enough money to support themselves if they plan to retire at age 65 and Khan emphasized Monday on "CBS This Morning," that the new extension of his learning platform offers solutions to a critical problem in across the U.S.

"It's a huge crisis and it's obviously not just our kids," Khan said. "Some of what we went through not too long ago was basically a crisis in financial literacy," he added, touching on the mortgage-backed securities crisis that sparked the 2008 economic recession.

Khan plans to offer courses in accounting and finance and include lessons that will help simplify mortgages and retirement savings. Bank of America has launched another site to showcase the finance-related content, in addition to Khan Academy's website.

For more from Khan on the growth of online learningand how our idea of a college degree may soon change, watch the video above.