Lynda offers campus online training resources

“Microsoft Excel for Dummies,” plus a whole host of other reference guides, will become a thing of the past this year at Brandeis.
 
This summer, Brandeis signed a site license with Lynda.com to provide students, faculty and staff with free access to the website’s library of online classes and tutorials that cover a range of technical, creative and business topics.
 
"You can’t imagine how thrilled I am that we now have Lynda at Brandeis,” said Louise Grasmere, business systems support manager of Students and Enrollment, who worked in collaboration with Library and Technology Services (LTS) to secure access to the website.
 
Lynda at Brandeis provides the Brandeis community with unlimited access to an online library of over 2,500 high-quality instructional videos. Users of any skill level have the ability to watch short tutorials for immediate problem solving and skill building, or participate in a comprehensive certification course.
 
The Lynda interface also allows users to design customized playlists of individual tutorials. Faculty can even assign playlists to their entire class and track a student’s course history.
 
"Faculty can make use of Lynda videos in their courses to enrich the student’s experience, to free up class time, and to allow students to acquire needed skills at their own pace,” said John Unsworth, vice provost, university librarian and chief information officer.
 
“For example, a class on data-mining could be assigned the Lynda tutorial on using the programming language R; a film class could use the lessons on Final Cut Pro or After Effects; a faculty member might dip into the instructional video on Moodle to watch a four-minute chapter on Facilitating peer review activities with forums.  And many students and faculty are already familiar with Lynda, because it does have a lot of useful, high-quality tutorials.”
 
The service, which was recently acquired by LinkedIn, offers videos that are tailored to aid users of different skill levels, from novices to computer whizzes. In addition, they can be played on all desktops, laptops and tablets and a wide variety of mobile services, including through the App Store, Google Play, Amazon or the Windows Store.
 
“After many conversations with colleagues, I realized there was indeed a widespread need for training in many technologies and across all departments,” Grasmere added. “With help from LTS and all the members of the Lynda launch team, we were able to make Lynda at Brandeis a reality. I want to encourage everyone to pick a topic you want to learn and jump right in.” 
 
Lynda can be accessed via the Brandeis Apps panel on the community login page, on Latte, the LTS website, or by typing go.brandeis.edu/lynda in a browser of a computer connected to the university network. Those needing assistance using the site can refer to a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page or visit the LTS help desk in front of Circulation in the main library.