LinkedIn Learning Review - Is it the right choice for you?

LinkedIn is one of the biggest social media platforms for professionals, used by hundred of millions of people worldwide. Since 2015, LinkedIn has also ventured into the world of online learning with their LinkedIn Learning product.

But how does it stack up against competition? And should you consider it when looking for online courses?

Let's find out in this LinkedIn Learning review!

What is LinkedIn Learning?

LinkedIn Learning is an online learning platform integrated into LinkedIn's professional network. It was originally called Lynda.com and was founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman. In 2015, LinkedIn bought the company to embed it into their own ecosystem. Since then, their focus has been on online courses for professionals in business, tech & creative environments.

With more than 16,000 courses and millions of monthly users, it has become one of the most popular online learning platforms for professionals, jobseekers, remote workers, etc.

Let's check out what makes their platform unique!

Courses

As mentioned, their core offering is their library of 16,000 courses. These courses are available as one-off purchases, but they can also be watched as part of the LinkedIn Learning subscription plan. All the courses are pre-recorded and are available to be watched on demand on the LinkedIn Learning website, as well as offline using the LinkedIn Learning app.

Every course is created by an expert instructor, as LinkedIn Learning is pretty selective with their instructors.

Learning paths

Besides the regular courses, LinkedIn Learning also has lots of learning paths that allow you to take a series of courses in the correct order, to dive deep into a single topic.

Full access to LinkedIn Premium

Another great aspect of LinkedIn Learning is that their premium subscription includes full access to LinkedIn Premium. That means you get features like:

• The ability to see who clicked on your profile

• InMail credits

• Salary & job insights

As part of the integration between LinkedIn and LinkedIn Learning, you can also get personalized learning recommendations based on your job, your interests on LinkedIn and courses that others with similar careers have taken before you.

Certification preparation

LinkedIn Learning has a suite of courses and learning paths that focus on helping you pass various exams and professional certifications, like AWS certifications, Google Cloud Platform certification, LinkedIn Marketing certification and many more.

Earn credit towards your degree

Some courses and learning paths on LinkedIn Learning are also recognized by select universities and can count towards certain degrees. You can learn more about this on the Academic credit page.

LinkedIn Learning mobile app

LinkedIn Learning also offers a mobile app for iOS and Android that you can use to learn while you're out and about.

Pro & Cons

Who is LinkedIn Learning for?

LinkedIn Learning was designed for knowledge workers of all kinds, but focuses mostly on business & tech skills like management, productivity, software development, etc.

For lots of topics, you'll find learning paths that help you go in-depth on a single topic. This makes it a great platform for professional development of all kinds.

LinkedIn Learning pricing: Is it worth it?

LinkedIn Learning gives you two ways to get access to their courses: By purchasing courses individually or by buying their premium subscription. Individually, the courses on LinkedIn Learning typically cost between $20 - $50 USD. Once bought, you will have lifetime access to the course.

If you plan on watching more than one course, you might save money getting the LinkedIn Learning premium subscription instead. You can get started with their 1-month free trial and after that, you can choose between their monthly/annual subscription plan. The monthly subscription costs $39.99 USD/month, while the annual subscription costs $26.99 USD/month.

LinkedIn Learning will notify you before your free trial ends, so that you don't accidentally pay even if you didn't want to. Make sure to use that reminder, because as you'll see below, LinkedIn Learning doesn't offer refunds for subscriptions.

LinkedIn Learning refund policy

LinkedIn Learning has different refund policies depending on how you purchase a course. The LinkedIn Learning subscription plan is only refundable if it's required by law, otherwise you don't get a refund.

When you buy individual courses on LinkedIn Learning, you get the right to request a refund in the first 30 days after your purchase.

You can read about the details in the LinkedIn Learning refund policy.

LinkedIn Learning for teams

If you want to purchase LinkedIn learning for your entire team, you can take a look at LinkedIn Learning for Teams. This is their offering for small teams that want to have central access management & insights for the entire team, but don't need enterprise-level support. For teams of up to 20 people, it costs $379.99 USD/year.

LinkedIn Learning for businesses

If you need more seats than the team plans offer you, LinkedIn Learning for businesses is the plan for you. It's an offering dedicated to large organizations that gives you more capabilities to manage the learning progress of your employees.

Every employee using the LinkedIn Learning platform gets personalized course recommendations based on their interests, their professional background and other data that LinkedIn collects. Managers can then track the progress of their employees through analytics, which helps determine what new skills your workforce is learning and where you might need to improve in the future.

The pricing for this plan is custom and only available after contacting the LinkedIn Learning sales team.

LinkedIn Learning for students

LinkedIn Learning doesn't have a dedicated plan for students, but students nevertheless get a 1-month free trial, just like everybody else. In addition to that, there are some universities that use the LinkedIn Learning for academic institutes plan, which means that they can grant free access to LinkedIn Learning to all of their students.

You might want to get in contact with your college or university to see if they offer this to their students.

Learning & Customer support

LinkedIn Learning has a self-service knowledge base for all technical support questions, as well as questions about your account and billing. If that's not enough to answer your question, you can use their chat & email support to get in contact with a support agent.

When you have questions about the content of a course, you can ask them in the Q&A section to get answers from fellow students or your instructor.

Please note that this support is up to the instructor, so you might get really good support for some courses, while you might get less support for others. If good learning support is important to you, check out LinkedIn Learning alternatives like Udacity.

Certification

When you complete a course on LinkedIn Learning, you get a certificate that proofs you finished the course. Even though this certificate is not officially accredited, you can use it to showcase the skills you've acquired. Therefore, it might help you advance your career, even if it's not an "official certificate".

While LinkedIn courses themselves typically aren't recognized by universities, there are a couple of universities that do recognize certain courses through the LinkedIn Learning academic credit program. This means that you can take certain courses and learning paths on LinkedIn and receive credits towards your degree with some universities. In most cases, you will have to pass an exam that verifies the skills you learned, but then you've earned your credit!

Create a LinkedIn Learning account

Creating a LinkedIn Learning account is super easy. To get started, click on the "Start free trial button" in the top right corner.

Next, choose your preferred subscription plan (you will only be charged if you keep using LinkedIn Learning after your free trial runs out). Now you'll be taken to LinkedIn to sign in to your account or to create a new account.

If you already have a LinkedIn account, you can just click on "Sign in" to log in with LinkedIn. Otherwise, you will have to create a LinkedIn account first.

Popular courses on LinkedIn Learning

Excel: Advanced Formulas and Functions

Learn how to use formulas and functions to speed up your Excel workflows and to increase your overall productivity. This course is taught by Dennis Taylor, an Excel expert with more than 25 years of experience of working with and teaching Excel.

Check out the course

Python Essential Training

Learn the essentials of Python programming with Bill Weinman, a technology veteran with decades of experience with Python, software and the world wide web.

Check out the course

Six Sigma Foundations

Learn the fundamentals of Six Sigma with the Six Sigma Foundations course by Dr. Richard Chua, a professor and certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt trainer.

Check out the course

LinkedIn Learning instructors

Instructors on the LinkedIn Learning platform are subject-matter experts that are selected by LinkedIn. Professionals interested in teaching a course can send an application that will be reviewed by the LinkedIn Learning team and the instructor will be able to publish courses only if it meets their requirements.

An example would be Shaun Wassell, a full-stack software developer that teaches lots of courses on a variety of different software topics and has hundreds of thousands of students on LinkedIn Learning.

Summary: Is LinkedIn Learning worth it?

In my opinion, LinkedIn Learning is definitely worth checking out for knowledge workers that want to advance their careers. Afterall, it's a learning platform built into one of the biggest social media platforms for professionals. You'll love LinkedIn Learning for their:

• High-quality courses

• Qualified instructors

• Self-paced learning

• Good mobile app