How to Use LinkedIn Learning: Tips and Tricks for New and Existing Users
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LinkedIn Learning, previously Lynda.com, is a professional development tool available for LinkedIn users. If you’re familiar with LinkedIn Learning, you know how easy and important it is to continue learning. If you have never used LinkedIn Learning, MnCCC is happy to offer you a license. LinkedIn Learning has over 10,000 courses in its library taught by hundreds of industry leaders and top instructors and new courses are always being added.
“Professional development has never been so easy and I'm confident that the LinkedIn Learning platform has content available to you to take your game to the next level.” - Oliver Schinkten, LinkedIn Learning Instructor
Content in this blog post is derived directly from How to Use LinkedIn Learning with instructor Oliver Schinkten.
How to Access LinkedIn Learning
www.linkedin.com/learn will bring you to your platform, but you can also access it from your account using either the icon in the corner or the “Work” dropdown menu. You can also access LinkedIn Learning from the mobile app, which also gives you the option to download content and view it offline.
When you first activate your account, you will be prompted to choose some skills you’re interested in. You can do this right away or add and update your preferences anytime by clicking on your profile and selecting “Skills.” You can add anything from professional development to personal improvement.
A new feature for individual learners is setting weekly learning goals, which is visible on the homepage. You can enter how many minutes (15-120) you’d like to spend learning each week. Your progress will continuously update. You can also choose to receive notifications and/or email reminders to meet your goal. This will help keep you on track with your development goals and increase your productivity.
Finding Content
You can search for content in the library. One way is to click on the “Browse” tab, which separates topics by categories and learning paths. Another way to search for custom content is by using the “Search” bar. This allows you to search for a wide variety of courses related to whatever you’re interested in. Take advantage of these tools to find specific courses or broad topics.
The “Home” icon will always take you to your LinkedIn Learning homepage. You will see the “In Progress” tab, which will take you to any courses you’re currently viewing. The “Saved” icon will take you to a page with any content you’ve saved. Your profile tab can also take you to a variety of places, including “In Progress,” “Saved,” “Collections,” “Learning History,” “Skills,” and much more.
The banner at the top of the homepage will show you new and noteworthy content curated specifically for you based on the learning paths you’ve chosen in the past, your current job position, and skills you’re interested in. You can also view other recommended content. If you happen to see a course you aren’t interested in, simply click the “X” in the top right corner to help LinkedIn provide more courses you do like.
Learning paths will provide several courses focused on a broad topic. When you search a topic, you can filter by learning paths to view related courses. The learning path will give you an in-depth learning experience around that specific skill or topic, including courses and videos from different instructors. You can view the topics that will be covered, along with the course length and number of items in the path. Once you complete a learning path, you’ll be able to share this accomplishment on your LinkedIn profile, which is a great tool to let your friends and colleagues know you’ve dedicated time to improving yourself!
Another great way to organize courses you’ve saved on LinkedIn is to create collections. These can be accessed by clicking on your profile and selecting “Collections” in the dropdown menu. To create a collection, click “Create New Collection” and name it. When you view a course or learning path you’d like to save to your collection, click the bookmark icon and select the collection you’d like to save it to. These collections are only visible to you, but you always have the option to share it with other members by using the “Share” button. You can use the link to share it wherever and with whomever you wish. You always have the option to reverse the link’s shareability.
Consuming Content
There are plenty of icons on the course page that can allow you to save, share, and download content. You can also provide feedback and get support anytime. The navigation bar of the course page shows the individual videos and chapters in the course. You can also view an overview of the course, course content, Q&A, transcripts, exercise files (some courses may not have any), and notebook.
Be sure to explore the video player options, like rewinding 10 seconds, closed captioning, and increasing or decreasing video speed. You can also change the video quality and autoplay options.
While watching courses, you may find some noteworthy things. You can use the built-in notebook feature on the navigation bar to take notes throughout the video. After you’ve written a note, click “Enter,” which will tag it to the time in the video that you made the note. The notes will be saved in your account to access and place a bookmark in the video where you had an idea or special learning moment.
Many courses contain assessments. These quizzes are helpful to validate understanding and solidify what you’ve learned through the course. This is also a valuable tool for group admins to ensure users’ understanding of course content. CPE courses will also include course assessments, which are graded, to help you earn units and certification. Some courses also contain practice exams to help learners prepare for certification exams.
The Q&A tab allows users to ask questions and receive answers from other users or the course’s instructor. This feature helps create a community and help others learn. When you navigate to the tab, you will see a number next to the icon which will show how many comments there are. This feature isn’t available for all courses but will continue to be added as it becomes more advanced.
Share Your Learning
Completing a course on LinkedIn Learning demonstrates your willingness to continuously learn and adapt. Once you’ve completed a course, you will receive a certificate of completion. You can download the certificate and/or share it to your LinkedIn profile. If you share it to your profile, you have the option to update your skills on your profile based on what you’ve learned. You can also add the certificate to your profile without creating a post.
Contact Us
If you would like more information or are ready to sign up, please contact Amanda Beyer via email at amanda@mnccc.org.
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