Lynda is an online learning platform that offers courses primarily in industries that use digital technology such as business marketing, website design and software development.
The platform currently hosts over 4000 different courses that cover a multitude of topics for people from around the world to purchase and study But is Lynda worth it in 2022 and beyond?
Since there’s an abundance of online learning platforms that offer courses, each of these Multi Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has to be unique in its own way, and of course Lynda is.
The platform was first conceived all the way back in 1995, so for it to still be popular today, this platform is clearly doing something right.
With the abundance of online learning platforms, it can be hard to know which one to choose. So, with this in mind, we’re going to be reviewing Lynda and outline everything this platform has to offer, and whether it’s worth your time and money.
What Is Lynda.com?
Lynda.com is an online learning platform app owned by Linkedin that was created by Lynda Weinman in 1995 along with her husband, but it’s currently owned by LinkedIn.
It has courses on applications, technologies and skills to allow you to gain more knowledge to succeed in the job market.
Each course is delivered by a professional that belongs to the specific field that you’re learning about and it’s delivered through video and text presentations and then you can practice what you’ve learned with downloadable exercises.
When selecting a course, you can either use a library search and put in terms relating to the skills you wish to learn more about or click on the subject tags that you think are the most relevant to the course category.
You will have to pay a fee to use Lynda, either a monthly or annual subscription, but you can access Lynda with a free trial. But we’ll discuss more this later on.
Features Of Lynda.com
Unique and original features aren’t a must for online learning platforms, but they’re much more likely to succeed and become popular if they do. Lynda does utilize some good features in its platform, albeit not that unique but still good.
Learning Paths
Lots of MOOCs are beginning to offer this feature on their platforms due to how popular it is. A learning path is a set of courses that are gathered and placed into one, specific “umbrella course”.
So, if you choose to follow a learning path of your chosen course, you may find that this learning path is taught by a few different instructors that cover separate themes and topics.
Some of these courses may be unique to the learning path, but some could just be gathered and placed together to create the path.
Learning paths do take more time to complete and they are regarded as the tougher alternative to individual courses. Some liken learning paths to the same intensity you’d get studying a subject for your college credits.
Learning Offline
Lynda has another good feature in its platform and that is offline mode. This offers students the chance to keep learning even when they don’t have an internet connection.
All you’ll require is a desktop app, it’s the perfect option for when you’re going on a plane or a road trip, as you can continue your learning even without wifi!
How Much Does Lynda.com Cost?
Pricing of a learning platform is usually one of the biggest things to consider when choosing the right platform for you.
Thankfully, Lynda’s pricing is fairly straightforward, it’s a subscription-based plan that has two options – a basic plan and a premium plan. The basic plan costs $25 per month and this allows you to unlock all the courses on the platform.
The premium version costs $37.50 per month and of course, is an upgrade on the basic plan.
You’ll get all the benefits of the basic plan, like allowing you to access all the courses on the platform but this plan also includes extra course material and some files to learn and study from.
This is quite a reasonable plan when comparing it to other MOOCs, you may find cheaper alternatives, but for the quality you get from Lynda, the pricing is definitely a benefit of using the platform.
What’s To Like With Lynda.com?
Here are a few points that users have found that Lynda does well:
- The library offers plenty of subjects in many areas of technology. So it’s useful if you want to cross-learn other topics using the platform.
- The user interface is very easy to navigate and the course presentations are delivered well and have a good level of professionalism.
- The download feature is very useful and allows you to learn from anywhere, even if you don’t have an internet connection.
- Since it’s an educational platform, you won’t find any up-selling or promotions being pushed onto you, which can be a turn-off for most people.
- The learning path is a great way to help you get started, you can learn a lot based on the course you want to take and it allows you to develop your skills and challenge yourself as they can be much harder than individual courses.
Is It Worth It?
Lynda is a great platform for beginners entering the world of online business and marketing, it is a useful and easy way to acquire all the fundamentals.
Lynda also offers a reasonable price plan that allows you to learn without spending tons of cash. Whilst it’s not the cheapest available, the content and knowledge you get out of it definitely make it worth the money.
The basic plan is also more than enough if you’re just looking to learn from courses, but the premium plan allows you to develop your skills with extra material.
So, with that in mind, yes Lynda.com is worth the time and money. It’ll allow you to develop or broaden your knowledge from professionals in that field in order for you to become well versed in your chosen topic.
