LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com) vs. Relias Learning Management System

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."

Good for an organization who are in health care and in ABA. Not so good everyone else. There are courses specific to the industry, however, the glitches and the lack of support from the customer service staff makes it hard to recommend the product.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Relias Learning Management System has a massive catalog of pre-built trainings available for employees to take at their leisure
• Relias Learning Management System has many compliance & hr related trainings based in the system already based on laws and regulations
• Relias Learning Management System makes it easy to record & build your own trainings to add into their system for specific employees in your company to take as you require

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Reporting is abominable, hasn't been updated in over 4 years.
• Organization of courses, modules, training plans, skills checklists, manuals, and tests— a lot of options and very challenging to differentiate
• Their mobile application is not user-friendly, it crashes, doesn't load certain courses, doesn't play audio on other ones, and has very poor performance.

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.

Incentivized

RMLS have become an important component of our agency's support systems. It provides consistent context for education and trainings as well as being flexible to allow staff to access it on their time. We have found many of the content sessions to be very useful for staff development and supportive of our overall agency goals and strategies.

Incentivized

The platform is very easy to use and navigate, the content is clearly itemised via the Contents section and the video playback speed can be adjusted. It's also useful to have optional captions (I always use them) and a transcript for accessibility purposes.

Incentivized

I enjoy the ease of setup. It has a large course library and selection filter to choose by
profession and/or module type. Even though it has a generic user
interface and navigating tools, but it gets the job done. It offers the
basic and simple delivery, tracking, and reporting.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Our implementation specialist was second-to-none, and upon 'graduating' from implementation, we were underwhelmed by the support after that. Due to the thoroughness of our implementation, we have had few occasions to contact support. We've been passed among several different contact persons, but have always received answers to our questions.

Incentivized

By implementation we are able to achieve 1.Skill improvement 2.Reduced burden on training staff 3.Learning new market leading technologies like Generative AI.

Incentivized

It was very easy to implement. It's cloud based, so the most difficult part was getting users loaded.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Relias has significantly more and higher quality training courses and video offerings than any competitor in the space. At the end of the day, it's about the caregivers receiving as much information they can to be successful.

• 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.

Incentivized

• We have been able to manage a large amount of training for a diverse work force more efficiently.
• We are adding functionality to be able to use the system to circulate materials to our workforce where documentation of knowledge/understanding is needed,

Incentivized