LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com)

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."

Many of these questions are mis-leading because the company is changing hands.
Lynda.com support was a 10.
LinkedIn Learning is a O.

LinkedIn Learning is best for those that are in a particular field, but lack either the current skills or new skills to impress their future client/customer/employer. I have often recommended to people in career transition or business to utilize LIL in improving their marketability along with their monetary bottom line. It is also good in mastering skill sets where an instructor can not be there or the expense is out of an individuals price range. Where LinkedIn Learning is less appropriate would be as a sales tool. Not that it can not have some skill obtained there, but it would not be beneficial in that aspect.

Easy to use and makes problems go away pretty quickly overall. Customer service on Twitter during COVID is the best I have seen and rarely do you have a hiccup.

LinkedIn Learning (or Lynda.com) is appropriate for groups that need nothing beyond entry-level training in their field. If you are looking to make yourself or your team into experts, then you are in the wrong place. I would absolutely recommend this to a group that needed to put minor training into the hands of many employees at once.

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.

As an organization, you should be considering how to keep your staff engaged in ongoing learning. If you're hard-pressed to find something that can provide refreshers and transferable skills, LinkedIn Learning can be a valuable resource. You may find that you can fit the entire program for your staff well within your budget instead of trying to put together a piecemeal learning plan for staff based on what you find externally from multiple sources. With that said, if you're looking for more specific courses focused on industry-specific software or practices, you may find the offerings a bit wanting. Consider reviewing the options available to you within the course content prior to committing (which you should do anyway) to ensure that what is on offer will fit the plans you have for your organization.

Support has been fantastic and responsive. I have experienced very few issues with LinkedIn Learning but when I have had to reach out, there is very little time between the initial contact and a response from LinkedIn. They offer easy solutions and are able to help sort out any issues quite well. Moreover, our account manager was highly responsive and always making solid suggestions on how to optimize our usage of the platform.

If there are gaps in an employees' knowledge, LinkedIn Learning is a great resource. In addition, some of the courses might not be applicable to the "job" but will help folks become better at life and their jobs (meditation courses, art courses, etc.). Some (not all) of the courses are too simplistic and don't have an advanced version. In some cases, employees need more thorough training on a particular subject.

I love that there is a Q&A section where you can ask the authors questions. They are pretty good about responding as well. I have never had to use the customer support for LinkedIn Learning but I imagine it's pretty good. I can usually find what I am looking for on the portal.

So far, I can't see any less appropriate reasons for using LinkedIn Learning. The catalog of available training is extremely broad and very easy to search for. The process of signing up for classes/training is streamlined and simple. And the way the training is laid out makes it very easy to go through each course, to be able to start and stop as needed, and I find it well suited for my needs.

I have not yet had an opportunity to use LinkedIn Learning's support, so I cannot speak to how effective it is. On the other hand, I have not had call to have to use their support, which does speak to the product being well made and maintained.

LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com) is great if you want to broaden your knowledge in your area of education and experience. It is also awesome if you want to learn about new trends. I find it less appropriate if you want to get certified and put the courses on your résumé. It is great only for micro-credentialing.

LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com) has great videos on a variety of topics. Very detailed information with examples is provided. You can understand the information way better when examples are provided. I like that they also sometimes offer practice files so that you have a hands-on training. You can also use the community to ask questions.

A great scenario where LinkedIn Learning is fantastic is when working on a project where we miss specific skill sets. My coworker was skilled in Microsoft Power BI, while I was not. So I spent 3 hours going through a few LinkedIn Learning Power BI trainings to get up to speed. Another coworker was not experienced in Google Analytics, and again, LinkedIn Learning filled in the blanks.

A scenario where it's less appropriate is finding specific needs for your use case. While LinkedIn Learning is great for learning how something works and exploring test projects - don't expect it to hold your hand to do something very specific. For example - if you need to deploy a app using YOUR SPECIFIC WORKFLOW, you're not going to find a point-by-point tutorial. You'll find courses on how to deploy it in different ways, but not exactly the way you need it.

The LinkedIn Learning team has been pretty fast at providing any support needed. Besides a log-in issue and merging of accounts - I didn't find any real problems with the platform on the web. But the app has a bunch of bugs, and because of that, my team rarely uses the app platform.

We had an instance where one of our designers knew that there was a way to link an Excel document with fields to an Adobe InDesign template but they didn't exactly know how to make it all work. They found a training video and after a few minutes had a test page laid out and were able to show how the fields in the Microsoft Excel document were feeding into the new InDesign template.

It's super easy to use, always has what I need, and is reasonably priced for myself and my colleagues. I really don't know where I would be without this service. It saves us time and energy because we know the instruction and videos on LinkedIn are from reputable people who have just what we are looking for.

Lynda.com is absolutely great to jump-start learning something new or brush-up your skills. Also classes are very practical so there is always chance that you can use what your learned right away or that you can find an answer to some work questions here. It would probably be not a place to get some academic knowledge or to get to the very specific areas of advanced programming.

I never had to ask for technical support so not sure what its quality is (hoping it is superb!). The only time I was communicating with Lynda.com representative was about the switching my account to a different level and it went extremely smoothly. It was easy to find a contact information and transaction was very quick.

My company is in the Digital Marketing industry and Lynda provides great courses for anyone working in that field. Classes are led by industry experts and videos are of high quality. Lynda is perfectly suited for people seeking a flexible learning platform that offers unlimited access to many courses for a flat monthly subscription fee. However, their monthly subscription model might be overkill for someone looking to only take one or two courses.

I never had a problem using Lynda. The software is very user-friendly and the design is intuitive. I never had to ask for support so I couldn’t give a perfect 10 because I’m not sure how your support staff would respond. A lot of companies use bots to deal with customer support but I much prefer to deal with a real person.

LinkedIn Learning is well suited for organizations and groups who are trying to "level up" their employee's skills. It's also a great resource for students looking for quality and engaging learning content. It would be less appropriate for part-time employees unless they were using it outside of their work hours. Otherwise, it can be very time-consuming.

I have never had to directly interact with the support team for LinkedIn Learning, which is probably a good thing. This means their website is user friendly, and you're very unlikely to get "stuck" while trying to navigate the courses and manage your account, or subscription. Hence, I have been very pleased.

Lynda is best suited for companies that need to implement or increase their learning and development options. It's hard to get experts and employees to learn new skills and abilities doing the same job, so Lynda offers a platform in which you can develop your team's knowledge, and also yourself as an entrepreneur or manager by learning from experts teaching updated, relevant courses.

Lynda.com is great for on-demand, self-paced eLearning - both technical and soft skills.

Lynda is one of the best resources a university or corporation can use. Many large cities in the US even have a relationship with Lynda, so if you have a library card you can get access to their library.

Again, Lynda is a great system for providing employees an opportunity to grow and develop. Lynda is well suited for professional development sessions within a company.

Any company that desires to train their employees should invest in this. It's a polished business tool: feels a bit like YouTube but business relevant. Employees can find things on their own, and playlists from management can be dispensed, another way to ensure the company culture and perspectives can be communicated without having to invest in their own training material.

lynda.com is well-suited for an individual OR an enterprise. You can take learning on-the-go via mobile phone or tablet. Instructors are well-known industry experts. There is a tremendous amount of courses. Ideal self-directed learning library to supplement anyone's ILT-heavy learning strategy.

It is well suited for those of us that have short attention spans and need to utilize short stances of learning. Lynda provides video segments in a manageable time frame.

Practical Examinations are not really utilized in the courses I have gone over. I would like to see labs and practice exams be made available for certain courses if agreeable.

It is especially suited for new or junior employees to gain familiarity or new features of business productivity applications. Every course is also learn-at-your-own-pace; this is key to the utility of the website.

Very well suited for training in a variety of software used in different areas of industries. Helps people develop and build technical skills. Learners can learn at their own pace. There's also training in business principles and money-management advice.

Not sure if its useful as a tool to teach skills that requires face-to-face contact, for example in sales.

Lynda.com works very well to provide you high-level overviews of a wide variety of software. I have only found a few applications that lynda.com doesn't cover. The passive video approach, however, is inherently limited, in spite of the high quality of the presentation.

Lynda.com also works very well for those who need to learn independently of others. It does not work well for groups of learners.

Lynda.com is a great tool for personal use, or for usage in an organization. Considering the vast amount of content, ranging from personal to corporate usage, users can vary their experience based on the scenario. Since the courses range in difficulty and familiarity, it's easy to attract individuals to new solutions, tools, use-cases, etc. All in all - a great tool that can be leveraged for a number of different needs.

Well suited for learning just about any desktop application.

I have found Lynda.com very helpful to brush up on my Excel skills. It's great for employees to learn new skills and strengthen skills they already have. I love that there are lessons for project management which help to make employees more valuable to your company and help them gain upward mobility in the company.