What Is LinkedIn Learning and Should You Use It?

When it comes to learning new skills or building up your knowledge of existing ones, there are plenty of online resources and learning platforms to aid you. Linkedin, typically known as a networking platform, also provides online courses to help grow your skill sets from the comfort of your home.

You can also earn certificates from Linkedin Learning once you complete courses, allowing you to showcase the new skills you have gained. As this is through Linkedin, you can display any certificates of completion you receive on your LinkedIn profile, which is excellent for job seekers looking to stand out among the crowd. In this article, we’ll cover what Linkedin Learning offers, how to use it, and whether or not you should consider doing so.

What Does Linkedin Learning Offer?

There’s something for almost anyone to learn from and build up their career. Linkedin Learning is a paid service that includes LinkedIn Premium for a monthly subscription of $39.99 or annually at $239.88. You can also try out Linkedin Learning with free access for a month, though once the month runs out, you’ll begin paying full price unless you cancel the subscription before it renews.

Linkedin Learning offers a few different categories of courses, and many sub-categories within those. The four categories are Business, Creative, Technology, and Certifications.

Under the Business category, you can choose courses based on different Role Guides, such as a project manager guide. There are also a variety of courses on various Business Topics, such as Business Analysis and Strategy, Customer Service, or Leadership and Management. You can also find courses for business-related software and a collection of learning paths that guide you toward a specific goal.

The Creative category also gives you role guides, including graphic designer or photographer. There are many creative skill topics and software courses such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and much more. There are also learning paths available here for creative career goals.

The Technology category also provides all the sections outlined before. Some of the topics of note in this section are Cloud Computing, Data Science, Database Management, and many more. Many software courses are also included in the Technology category, like Python, Java, WordPress, Linux, etc.

You can also look in the Certifications category to find all the certificates you can earn. These include professional certifications from companies like Meta or IBM, academic credits, and certification preparation for receiving specific certifications elsewhere.

How to Use Linkedin Learning

To use Linkedin Learning, you need a Linkedin account. If you don’t have one, you can create one on the Linkedin Learning website. Next, choose Start My Free Month and decide whether you want an annual or monthly subscription.

From there, you’ll need to log into your account (or create one) and enter your billing information. Remember that you can cancel the subscription before your free trial ends and not be charged.

Using Courses

Once you’ve signed up on LinkedIn Learning, you’ll arrive at the homepage. Search for specific courses, or browse the entire catalog here. When you find a course you want to watch, select it to go to the course video page. Here, there are quite a few features available to help you.

Below the video, notice a few different tabs.

• The Overview tab provides the course details, other users’ ratings, and related courses.
• On the Q&A tab, you can click on the Ask button to submit a question on the video.
• The Notebook tab allows you to type and save notes on the video, and you can export them for download.
• The Transcript tab provides a written transcript of the entire video.

You’ll see a sidebar with the course navigation on the left-hand side. Here, you can select any part of the course to go to it. Select the bookmark icon to the right of each module to bookmark those parts. Collapse the contents list by clicking the X, and return to it anytime in the top left corner. To save the entire course, you can click on the bookmark icon in the top right corner of the course videos.

To find saved courses, click on the My Learning tab at the top right of Linkedin Learning and go to My Library > Saved.

Setting Goals and More

By navigating to the My Learning tab, you’ll see a few different panels: Skill Evaluations, My Library, and My Goals.

In the My Library section, you’ll find your saved courses, as explained above. You can also go to My Collections and click Create New Collection to save courses to a collection.

Under the In Progress tab, you’ll see courses you are currently taking so you can quickly pick them up again.

Under the My Goals tab, you have the option to create career goals as well as weekly goals.

Select either Set career goals or Set a weekly goal, then follow the prompts to create some.

You’ll also see a Skills Followed section, where you can add skills you’re interested in so that Linkedin Learning can more easily personalize your course recommendations.

Under Skill Evaluations, you can see your completed skill evaluations on specific skills. To take a skill evaluation, you can find the skill by searching for it and then selecting Start Skill Evaluation in the blue box that appears in the search results.

Note that not all skills on Linkedin Learning have skill evaluations available.

Should You Use LinkedIn Learning?

Whether or not you should invest in a subscription to LinkedIn Learning depends on your needs. LinkedIn Learning can undoubtedly be a valuable asset if you’re looking to learn specific job-related topics and skills you’re a beginner in.

LinkedIn Learning would be most beneficial for someone pursuing a job in the business, tech, or creative fields. In addition, it’s advantageous if you use LinkedIn already and consistently network using the platform. LinkedIn Learning has many course offerings that could apply to any field, so it’s up to you if you want to spend money learning those skills through this site.

Regarding quality, LinkedIn Learning courses are an excellent choice for developing knowledge online. Many features make learning easier, as well as a wide breadth of topics covered in their catalog by industry experts. However, the topics certainly have a career and business-oriented focus, so keep that in mind when deciding.

Learn More With LinkedIn Learning

If you’re interested in gaining skills and knowledge for professional development, LinkedIn Learning is a great place for online courses. It covers many topics, and can help you advance your career or grow as an entrepreneur. It’s worth it to check out the site’s free trial and see if this platform is right for you.