Jasmine-Ceere HerndonIt’s been a long time coming, but N.C. Central University is now offering access to LinkedIn Learning to students, faculty and staff.
When students are logged into their school Gmail account on their browser, they can simply search for LinkedIn Learning and it’s free.
According to Bruce dePyssler, an associate professor in mass communications, it’s long been a dream of his and other NCCU faculty to provide access to the learning site to colleagues and students, a dream he had since he arrived in 1999. The site was then called Lynda.com.
dePyssler was especially impressed by Lynda.com’s early focus on new technology and training of emerging software programs like Adobe Creative Cloud, and that industry professionals created the training video sessions.
Lynda.com was named after one of its founders in 1995, Lynda Weinman.
“I wanted to share my fascination with web design,” Weinman said in an early interview.
LinkedIn purchased Lynda in 2015 for $1.5 billion. Then when Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016 for $26 billion, it became LinkedIn Learning.
According to Clayton Mack, Special Projects Coordinator in the Division of Extended Studies, discussions “led by the spirit of collaboration” began as far back as 2021.
Original partners, he said, included leaders from the Career and Professional Development Center, Extended Studies, Human Resources, ITS, Library Services, and the University College.
“All agreed that LinkedIn Learning could become NCCU’s go-to skill enhancement, training, and onboarding platform,” Mack said, adding that the university currently has 7,200 licenses and is paying under $100,000 for the annual contract.
The director of Career and Professional Development, Charles Jennings, said that Mack was the driving force behind the effort to bring LinkedIn Learning to campus.
“This started with Mr. Clayton Mack. He pulled in the Career and Professional Development Center, the Office of Human Resources, University College, and the Department of Library Sciences to be a part of the team to get the resource implemented on campus,” Jennings said.
“It is a convenient method for everyone to enhance their skills at their own pace because the resources are online and available whenever the person is ready to do the training.”
According to Mack, the platform serves students with most all majors. Students in business, science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics all can benefit by taking prep courses and earning professional certifications.
“All students can take trainings that assist with writing, creativity, mindfulness, mental health, and dozens of other topics,” Mack said.
But the platform isn’t just for faculty and students. It also serves administrators and staff. For example, supervisors can assign training videos to their staff to help them learn technical and soft skills. On LinkedIn Learning university staff can master software like Asana, Sharepoint, Smartsheet, and more.
There are hours-long courses in aerial photography, entrepreneurship, marketing, Microsoft Excel, the entire Adobe Creative suite, business management, cybersecurity, statistics, economics, public relations, customer service, finance, human resources, game development, software development, music production, and many more.
The pricing for an individual plan would cost a student $30 a month.
Today, the site offers aerial photography, entrepreneurship, marketing, Microsoft Excel, photoshop, video editing, business management, cybersecurity, statistics, economics, public relations, customer service, finance, human resources, game development, software development, music production, and more.
When you first log onto LinkedIn Learning there is a small questionnaire about your career goals. Once finished, your name, career goal, learning plan, progress, details, and potential career paths will appear on the page.
The “My Library” page has essential tabs, such as saved, in progress, my collections, assigned by North Carolina Central University, and learning history. Here, users can set their weekly goals and see their weekly learning progress.
The content page has five primary sections: business, technology, creativity, certification, and North Carolina Central University. These sections offer role guides, learning paths, topics, and software; however, content may vary depending on the career.
LinkedIn Learning even offers AI coaching which guides and curates personalized advice tailored to the user’s needs.
To get an idea of the scope of learning LinkedIn Learning provides, let’s examine two educational tracks: Entrepreneurship Foundations and Learning Aerial Photography with Drones.
Entrepreneurship Foundations is a course about the basics of entrepreneurship. Each chapter is short and has bite-sized video lessons with a chapter quiz. Outside of the introduction, there are only eight chapters of this course, and only an hour and thirteen minutes long.
The first few chapters are about finding your why, whether you are ready to take a financial risk, start-up business, naming the business, financial models, venture capital, start-up mentors and advisors, growth, and co-founders and team members.
The last half of the course talks about marketing, marketing strategies, product partnerships, pivoting your business plans, personal branding, public relations, social media management, start-up tractions and scaling, growing the business, work/life balance, business coaches, and finally, launching your business.
Learning Aerial Photography with Drones is a beginner and intermediate course about photography using drones. This teaches you how to add another perspective to your photos and strategies to improve your shots.
This course has nine chapters not including the introduction and conclusion. There are no chapter quizzes in this course and the entire course is about four hours and seventeen minutes.
The first chapter is about understanding your country’s regulations, a duo, registering your drone, understanding weather conditions, and preflight checklists.
The rest of the chapters talk about techniques, shooting and developing raw photos, safe landings, shooting and developing panoramic images from a drone, and shooting and developing HDR images from a drone.
Students say they are impressed with the decision to bring LinkedIn Learning to campus.
“I like how anything that you want to look up is on the site,” mass communication senior Allexus Killian said. “The courses are tailored to your interests, which is great.”
