Lynda.com is closing its doors this Friday after a long run as one of the web's most popular online education platforms. The company announced in April that it would be migrating all users over to LinkedIn Learning by June 1st and has been preparing for the transition since February 2019.
As you might expect, there was quite an outpouring of sadness from people who used Lynda.com while growing up or are still using it today, especially those who worked at the company during their formative years. In fact, I'm pretty sure everyone reading this article right now knows someone whose life changed because they had their first job through Lynda.com back when it launched in 2003.
If you were subscribed to Lynda.com, you probably know that the platform offers thousands of video tutorials covering everything from computer programming to graphic design to photography to business management. You also likely remember that Lynda.com offered subscriptions ranging from $9.99 per month to $499.95 per year. Now, however, the site is known only as "LinkedIn Learning".
Here's why: In March 2021, LinkedIn bought Lynda.com for a reported $1 billion dollars. It remains unclear whether the acquisition was intended to make money directly off of the existing user base or whether LinkedIn simply wanted to acquire the name for marketing purposes. Either way, the move makes sense given that the two companies share similar mission statements, both being focused on helping professionals improve themselves.
Yes. That means that if you subscribe to Lynda.com, your profile page says Lyndalearnings" instead of "lynda.com." Your email address becomes @lynda.com instead of @lyndalearnings. And your saved videos are now available under the "Learning Library" tab rather than the "Videos" tab.
Other than these minor changes, everything else works exactly like it always did. You can create a free trial lesson plan through LinkedIn Learning just like you could previously, though you won't be able to save them unless you upgrade to a paid membership. You can continue to use Lynda.com's built-in search tools, browse its collection of curated channels, and even follow other members' activity on the network. But as far as actual content goes, you're limited to the lessons you purchased or earned credits towards.
That said, you don't necessarily need to change anything on your current account. All of your previous purchases remain active as well as any lessons you created prior to moving over to LinkedIn Learning. Just note that you'll lose access to Lynda.com's mobile app. Also, some Lynda.com subscribers have complained that the "I forgot my password" link isn't working anymore. If you're having trouble logging in, try resetting your password instead.
It's hard to say for certain, but rumors abound that LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com specifically because the platform has become increasingly important as students enroll in college classes online. According to some sources, the deal may have included a clause stating that LinkedIn must maintain Lynda.com for five years following the close of escrow. But regardless of the reasoning behind the transaction, it seems clear that LinkedIn wants to own the market for professional development training materials. After all, as of 2020, nearly half of US adults between ages 18 and 34 consider themselves self-made experts in various fields.
So yes, if you ever find yourself needing help improving your skillset in accounting, data science, customer relations, or whatever else, chances are that LinkedIn Learning is going to be where you turn.
Also worth noting is that LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner reportedly turned down an offer to sell his stake in Facebook for $30 billion dollars -- roughly three times Mark Zuckerberg's net worth. Whether or not he regrets turning down that opportunity is unknown, but it certainly raises questions about his motives for buying Lynda.com.
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For those who still want to use Lynda.com but are unsure what to do about their current subscriptions, they should know that they won't lose anything if they cancel before the end of the month. In fact, they'll actually save some money because Lynda.com currently offers a discounted price compared to other providers like Udemy, Coursera, etc.
However, if you decide to stick with Lynda.com past the 30th then you'll pay full price for courses through July 2021 unless you sign up for a subscription at $50 per year which gives you unlimited access indefinitely.
If you haven't already done so, make sure to download all of your content first before June 1st. To help you along, Lynda.com created a tool that allows you to export everything into a single ZIP file right from your personal dashboard.
I've been a user of Lynda since its early days in 2010 when my company moved from our old office to a new one. At first there were only two people who knew about Lynda then they added more and more staff and by 2015 Lynda had become so popular that every single person at the company used it. It became an integral part of how we worked together as a team.
The beauty of Lynda wasn't just that you could learn anything online but also that everyone in the company would be able to find out what someone else did or where they needed help with something. The only problem was that if you didn't know how to use Lynda properly it made life difficult because everything was hidden behind a walled garden.
So this week is bittersweet for me, Lynda.com is fully migrated to LinkedIn Learning, we flipped the switch on June 1st. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft which bought them back in 2016 for $26 billion dollars. So while it means Lynda will no longer exist as a stand-alone product and won't be accessible through your browser I can still log into Lynda using my LinkedIn account (which I never thought I'd say).
At least this way if you want to take a course you can do it using LinkedIn rather than having to jump through hoops trying to sign up for another service. And don't forget that even though Lynda might be closing down you can still use Lynda products like Lynda Video Training Library to watch videos on your own time.
If you're worried about whether Lynda will disappear forever check out our guide to finding alternative services for video training. Or if you prefer books you should read our article on finding the best book reading sites.
Lyndon Rivet is the CEO & Founder of Lynda. He started his career building websites and apps. In 2005 he cofounded Odesk, a software development marketplace for freelancers and companies looking for remote workers. This later turned into Upwork and today is worth over $1 billion dollars.
In 2008 Lyndon decided to start teaching himself web design and launched Lynda.com where people could pay him $20 per month to teach them whatever skills they wanted to learn. Since then he's expanded to include other areas including business, marketing, sales, programming and many others.
Lynda.com was founded in 2007 by Lyndon Rivet and Chris Sacca, both former employees of Odesk. After creating Lynda.com they went onto found Asana, a collaboration tool for teams, and Hootsuite, a social media management app.
Microsoft shut down Lynda.com completely last summer. There was a lot of speculation that Microsoft planned to integrate Lynda.com into LinkedIn but nothing came of it. Instead they simply closed it down and redirected users towards Linkedin Learning.
Now that Lynda has left the internet it's really hard to search for things related to it unless you already know exactly what you're looking for. You need to know what keywords relate to your topic and type those words into Google.
One thing that is easy to see however is that Lynda has gone viral. They attracted millions of subscribers across multiple platforms and hundreds of thousands of hours of video watched each day. Even though the site hasn't been updated since late 2018 it's still incredibly active thanks to YouTube channels covering different subjects.
Once you've selected the courses you want to purchase you'll be asked to enter payment details. If you choose to make a monthly payments you'll need to go through the process again each month so keep hold of your card info. Alternatively you can opt to pay upfront for a set amount of credits instead.
However, if you decide to cancel your subscription anytime you'll lose access to your saved files. Also note that your credit cards aren't charged until the end of the billing period and so you may receive notifications asking you to confirm your subscriptions months ahead of schedule.
Unfortunately you cannot request a refund once you've started paying for a monthly subscription. However, you can ask for a partial refund if you haven't completed enough classes yet. To do this, contact customer support via email [email protected]
I'm sad today because I've been a loyal user of Lynda since its inception in 2007 and am excited about what's next. But it was also exciting when Lynda announced that they were migrating from their old domain name to LinkedIn Learning last year. It seemed like the perfect transition, as both companies are owned by Microsoft and share an interest in education.
But then came the news this month that Lynda would be closing its doors. The closure leaves many users wondering if there will ever be another option for online video training or are all videos going to disappear forever? That's why I wanted to take some time to find out exactly where you can still go if you want to learn something new.
In case you haven't heard already, Lynda has officially shuttered its doors after 13 years. While most people know Lynda through its popular "how-to" tutorials, the company was actually known best for offering premium content such as courses created by industry experts. So while you won't get any more Lynda tutorials, don't despair! There are plenty of other ways to learn anything you need to know. Here are just a few options that might help keep your skills sharp... Read More at TechRadar.
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