Likelihood to Recommend Absorb LMS is appropriate for any continuing education organization or company that wants a reliable platform to host enduring educational content. It has been a great experience in terms of building and designing courses, monitoring learner progress, and as another touch point for learners to access other resources our organization offers.
Read full review I've learned hundreds of software applications over the last several decades, and trained teams in offices and one-on-one. At one point, books and trade magazines were a great way to get up to speed with an application, but they've become less and less effective for getting started. Video lessons have some strengths; you can get a rapid overview of a program's capabilities and watch an experienced user using its tools efficiently. On rare occasions they'll even point out bugs that could trip you up, but I wish instructors shared more of those issues. However, it takes a very self-motivated learner to sit through training sessions. Most people don't fit that category, and a subscription may end up gathering dust like a pandemic gym membership. My account is sometimes dormant for months, but then I'll be watching lessons continually the following month. I've often wondered if it was worth it for that reason. I have some friends that voraciously devoured class after Lynda.com class, and built successful careers on that training. But many others never use their account. It's helpful to consider whether you're a self-motivated learner. If not, it may not be the best format for you. More complicated software often can't be adequately introduced in a several-hour-long series of videos. I found Final Cut Pro (7) hard to learn online, also Logic Pro. Other somewhat complicated programs like DVD Pro were a snap to learn, and I learned a lot about PHP and Actionscript programming from Lynda.com. Some web and graphics software is exceptionally explained by real experts, such as Lynda's Photoshop classes, which are the best I've seen on that subject. Many of her web production courses will take you every step along the way to creating your own website, even if you haven't coded before. Adobe and Apple have both published similar project-based tutorial classes in book form, and I think they're a bit more polished, but the video instructor can help move you along through all the content more easily. Learning software seems to work better from an online video than a book these days; it's helpful to already be sitting at the computer where you're able to try everything out as it's explained. Most people don't seem to retain software principles unless they're trying them while learning. A bad instructor can make it difficult to sit through a video class. Lynda.com and others generally have a large variety of content creators, so you're not as limited with instructors as you might be at a University, where the same instructor may teach several related applications. Departmental faculty may have much more targeted and creative applications for your software though, while paid corporate software training can be mind-numbingly bad. Continuing ed classes that I've taken usually seemed to just focus on learning the tools in a software product. They often don't or even can't show you how to apply the software for your purposes as full time faculty at a University might. Some Lynda.com instructors weren't great, but most seemed a cut above the continuing ed and corporate software trainers I've learned from or contracted. The majority of the classes seemed to apply the software for an impressive final project. Redundancy is a real drawback among the online lessons. Often the advanced classes repeat many of the concepts from the introductory "Essentials" courses. If you know an earlier version of an application and just want to learn new features, a book may be a faster route to your goal. I originally suggested the "New Features" lessons that Lynda began to offer for updated releases, and I think they're especially helpful. It's much harder to skim through a video than a page of text, so I'd anticipate having to complement your Lynda.com lessons with other instructional materials. Lynda.com didn't have as many of the "fluff" courses that LinkedIn is now offering. These titles read like articles from Cosmo. They might be better served to offer "How to respond to a connection request from a recruiter who works in a field completely unrelated to you."
Read full review Pros Usability - Both the User and Admin Experience is so simple and intuitive. The admin tools are clearly defined and laid out, yet the functionality makes it still powerful. Integration - We used the Scheduled Data Imports and Exports to connect with our HRIS tool. After the initial configuration, it has worked reliably and gives me all the custom data I need to make assignments and reporting a breeze. Design - I know it's covered a little bit in the Usability above, but the site just looks fantastic. There are a lot of options to customize and fit your branding requirements and all of the thumbnails/posters/billboards/etc give a very visual and appealing look to the LMS. Much better than I've seen in other products. Read full review Industry expert authors/instructors - you're learning from people with pedigree. Breadth and depth of catalog - not only is there a wide range of topics and disciplines, but there are frequently several levels of depth within each (eg. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced). Time needed to complete each course AND each section of a course are included - you know what you're getting into from the first click. Read full review Cons Uploading documents is perceived as hard for employees, especially with video uploads. Sometimes the program lacks and then an employee has to start all over. Spacing courses is possible but not with a certain amount of time, which would be useful if the next course could open after a week/month instead of when the employee finishes the previous course. Read full review LinkedIn Learning provides learning paths, but it's left much to be desired. Not enough direction about the why, or learning outcomes. Some courses provide exercises/quizzes. Others do not. There's definitely a missing piece to test comprehension. The library is so large, it's difficult to really build your own learning. I find it better for just-in-time learning. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We have no plans to move away from Absorb at this time. It has all of the functionality we are looking for in a learning management system and we have a lot of info stored in our LMS system for trainings including all of our current and past employee transcripts. It is also getting easier to manager with being able to connect the LMS to ADP to update employee reporting/department/location/etc. We don't have a need or reason to move away from Absorb at this time.
Read full review It can help all employees learn to strengthen current skills or to learn new skills and then can learn to excel in their current department or they learn a new skills in a new department creating interconnection and cross-departmental value in a company.
Read full review Usability It's a great place to house our trainings and keep things interesting for our associates.
Read full review Very user friendly, easy to copy and/or download notes offline, and follow up with your instructor is easy as pie. You can even LinkedIn with your instructor and follow up with questions/concerns online and in several forums. Very cool concept and easy to use.
Read full review Support Rating I know the support team is hard at work! We are currently dealing with a confusing issue where our buttons don't connect to the pages we assign them, and they have been looking into this for a number of weeks. I hope they will unravel the issue soon so we can role out our modules!
Read full review The technical team behind LinkedIn Learning (or Lynda.com) knows their job, and they usually solve problems very quickly. While I haven't had many run-ins with them (thus the low rating), I do find that when we call them, the problem gets resolved in a reasonable amount of time. The flip-side of this comment is that we never have needed to call them with a high-priority issue.
Read full review Online Training I meet and do training with my absorb support every week. and I have all my questions answered! it's great
Read full review Alternatives Considered Our organization previously used
LMS365 , which did not support eCommerce and had difficulties supporting external users. (My understanding is the issues with external users may have been directly related to our Microsoft implementation and not directly
LMS365 's fault, but it was nonetheless a deal breaker for us.) Docebo was the runner up in our LMS selection process and I spent significant time chatting with the team at Docebo. It seemed like a strong competitor to Aborb. Ultimately, Absorb was both slightly more cost-efficient for our scenario.
Read full review Our organization has used different webinars, including ones on LinkedIn, to provide similar insight. But it's a totally different ballgame. Lynda.com offers in-depth tutorials rather than just a 2-hour video broadcast. With lynda.com there are more information and experts, as well as so many different courses fit for every need/want. There is also a lot more flexibility with lynda. You can take it on the go, watch on mobile and at anytime, rather than being tied to a certain time slot.
Read full review Return on Investment Course enrollments and completions have increased by 500% since implementation Employee visits to our learning centre have increased by 300% since implementation Cost saving from a time perspective as we can automate a lot of the admin work we used to do. Pre Absorb we had about 3 or 4 e-learnings that were available. We now have over 100 that are accessible to all employees Ability to seamlessly integrate with Workday and Udemy allowing all learning to be in one place, people data to be imported from WD, and very comprehensive reporting Read full review I can't think of a negative impact that Lynda.com has when it relates to the extensive library of training software that is available to subscribers. I'm lucky that my job provides a free subscription for instructors. I use Lynda.com to hone in on my technical skills. Read full review ScreenShots