Last updated on February 17, 2016
By: Shannon Feaganes, Staff Writer
Free access to the educational website Lynda.com is now available for student and faculty use at Volunteer State Community College through the partnership of Kevin Blankenship, Chief Information Officer, with the Thigpen Library.
Lynda.com is an online learning website founded in 1995 by professional network company LinkedIn, which allows users access to a video library from which they can learn business, software, technology, and creative skills.
Lynda.com offers video tutorials and training under developer, design, web, photography, business, education, 3D and animation, video, and audio and music categories, allowing access to 5,750 courses in total as well as downloadable exercises that will help students learn material.
Blankenship believes that what sets Lynda.com apart from most learning sources is the quality of the education that students will receive.
“The quality of the videos and training on [Lynda.com], it’s all provided by experts in the various fields,” said Blankenship.
“We wanted to use resources like this to create learning environments wherever students are, not just in class,” he said.
Sarah Smith, Director of Library Services and Learning Resources, hopes that Lynda.com will appeal to students because of its ease of use and broad range of learning material. Students can find videos on anything from learning basic skills such as how to use Microsoft Word efficiently, to learning advanced techniques such as how to develop games for iOS systems.
“Ideally we see a real link between students using Lynda.com and acquiring the skills that they’ll need to be productive employees and achieve their career goals after leaving Vol State,” Smith said.
“It’s for your future, to develop your professional skills,” said Smith.
“It’s a valuable resource,” said Livy Simpson, Librarian and Electronic Resource Manager for Lynda.com at Vol State.
“You can build up a lot of skills to put on your resume. If you’ve been looking for a job and they say you don’t have skills for something, you can build up a lot of skills to help it,” said Simpson.
To access Lynda.com’s features, students can either download the Lynda.com app or find a link to the site through the Thigpen Library’s home page.
After clicking on the Lynda.com link, students will be prompted to input login credentials, which are the same login credentials used for eLearn and the Vol State Portal, and then students will be redirected to a page on which they will create a new, separate account that is for Lynda.com.
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