Anna Voskuil | News Editor
Featured Image: The site claims to provide users with a wider range for their learning. | Chrysa Dancey
For those looking to expand their skill set beyond the classroom, or improve on what they already know, a new service promises to bring opportunities to do just that.
Recently, Lynda.com—otherwise known as Lynda—a service provided by LinkedIn, has now become available to York faculty and students.
Available through an eCampusOntario provincial licence, this service is free to all those who can access it through their Passport York account.
Additionally, Lynda can be downloaded as a free app, and allows for either mobile or computer access to its services, and welcomes users of all skill levels.
Lynda has been expanding to other publicly-funded colleges and universities across Ontario.
This service is marketed as “an online learning library of skills development courses.” The courses provided are ‘non-credit,’ defined as courses not associated with any official York academic program, and thus do not count towards a university degree.
This service provides users with education on a variety of non-academic skills, some of which include, but are not limited to, information on areas such as: marketing, photography, video editing, website development, and others.
The primary services of Lynda are comprised of: access to thousands of online video tutorials, on-demand skills learning, the provision of skills based on the user’s individual experience level, access to exercises that can be followed along with while learning, as well as 24/7 access to thousands of courses, all of which are designed to accommodate the user’s schedule.
Material is created by experienced industry experts, and is kept up-to-date as often as possible.
For those who need it, easily-accessible, time-coded transcripts, as well as closed captioning, are available for use with any Lynda courses and videos.
This service’s “just-in-time learning resources” aim to improve career development and performance for faculty who wish to enhance their career, and for students looking into the future job market, hoping to initiate “flexible learning initiatives” across the university.
Once enrolled, users can also determine how much information they wish to learn from their courses.
If specific knowledge on a focused skill, or a short update on already-existing skills is requested, users can choose to focus on Lynda’s web-based tutorials, rather than slog through an extended process of earning a certificate.
A statement from Lynda’s information page explains: “Each non-credit course has multiple segments, so you can watch as few or as many as you want.
“You can take entire courses and receive completion certificates, or choose individual tutorials to learn specific skills.”
Lynda claims its service as beneficial for all, and is helpful regardless of one’s personal educational background. However, not all students have found the service useful in aiding their overall educational experience.
Kristen Walker, a third-year nursing student, says: “I went to it to see what it was exactly, and nothing on there is very useful to me as a nursing student. It’s nice for other applications, but nothing pertinent to my own school work.”
