On July 18, UNC-Chapel Hill initiated the upgrade to LinkedIn Learning, an e-learning resource previously known as Lynda.com. The service offers the same e-learning resources as its predecessor, with a more intuitive and customizable interface.
Led by Thao Nghi Tu of ITS Teaching & Learning, a project team consisting of six ITS employees oversaw the University’s transition from Lynda.com to LinkedIn Learning. Alongside the project team, many ITS groups collaborated on the project including Software Acquisition, Identity Management, Communications and Teaching & Learning.
“Given the relatively short amount of time this project went on, things went pretty smoothly, and it was all thanks to the project team and LinkedIn support,” Tu said.
The team ensured the infrastructure was in place to support the upgrade, navigating the simplest way to provide the service to students, faculty and staff. Additionally, the team consisted of two student workers, who created and modified marketing materials to inform the campus community of the upgrade as well as LinkedIn Learning’s distinguishing features.
The team’s main focus was notifying active Lynda users of when the site was sunsetting.
Communication was key
“Our biggest concern is making sure Lynda users activate their LinkedIn Learning account by March 2020, as their data will be lost and unrecoverable after this time,” Tu said. “We will continue to monitor and contact users periodically if they have not activated their account, as we cannot activate their account for them.”
In addition to notifying campus of Lynda.com’s deactivation, the team sought to ensure active Lynda users were aware of the website’s outage during the July 18 migration. With Summer Session II in full swing and many students using Lynda.com as a resource for studying, the team wanted to ensure that students were aware of the transition.
Lynda.com was acquired by LinkedIn Learning in 2015, so the University’s transition to the new e-learning service was part of a required migration. LinkedIn worked closely with ITS’ LinkedIn Learning project team throughout the transition.
LinkedIn Learning “was very helpful during the whole process,” Tu said. “LinkedIn Learning has provided content for nearly every step of the migration process, which we can modify and use for our communications, project management, and resources to share with the campus community. They try to make the migration as pain-free as possible for their customers.”
LinkedIn Learning gets personal
LinkedIn Learning incorporates all previous Lynda.com content plus added videos and functionality. The service boasts a library of more than 10,000 business, technology and creative skills courses in over five different languages, including English, Spanish and Mandarin.
“In addition to thousands of video tutorials and courses on a variety of different topics, LinkedIn Learning offers a more personalized experience,” Tu said. The new e-learning service populates and suggests videos to users based on their interests, enabling users to instantly find material that suits their educational and career needs.
Anyone navigating to Lynda.com will be redirected to the LinkedIn Learning platform, and the site’s links will redirect to the appropriate LinkedIn Learning video until Lynda sunsets in March 2020. Faculty members will need to add the appropriate LinkedIn Learning links to their course curriculum where needed.
General assistance available
During the Carolina community’s transition from Lynda.com to LinkedIn Learning, ITS will provide general assistance as well as personalized help, depending on the issue.
“Users can submit help requests to Software Acquisition if they need assistance, including help with updating Lynda links they may have saved outside of the Lynda.com platform,” Tu said.
General information regarding the migration can be found by visiting the University’s site for LinkedIn Learning at linkedin.unc.edu. Users may also contact LinkedIn Help for assistance with using the LinkedIn Learning product.