ARCHIVED: Completed project: lynda.com pilot

Primary UITS contact: Chris Payne

Completed: July 13, 2010

Description: In support of Empowering People (ITSP2) Action 26, Indiana University has established a pilot agreement with lynda.com. This agreement enables students, faculty, and staff on IU campuses to access all of lynda.com's eLearning content from August 20, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Lynda.com offers more than 730 video-based eLearning courses with a primary focus on Adobe and open source applications and technologies, multimedia and web development, and programming; courses are offered on Macintosh-specific applications as well.

This service is being integrated with UITS training offerings to expand the modalities and content of all training offered. Lynda.com's courses can be used by individuals looking to expand their skills in topics not traditionally covered in IT Training's STEPS workshops or by users who want to learn on their own at the time and place that suits them best; they can also be assigned by university instructors to their students to help those students build the IT skills they need to succeed in an academic course.

Outcome: The program is being offered on a pilot basis for the period of August 20, 2009-June 30, 2010. During the pilot, and especially as it concludes, IT Training staff will rigorously analyze usage metrics and user satisfaction to establish the level of interest in this program in the university community. If said interest is high, all attempts will be made to extend this agreement with lynda for a longer term.

Milestones and status:

• Negotiation of contract with lynda Completed August 2009
• Development of website, supporting documents and communication plan for the pilot service Completed August 2009
• Introduce service to the university community Starts August 20, 2009
• End of pilot program December 20, 2009
• Analysis of usage and satisfaction, which will inform recommendation as to whether to try to continue service January 2010
• Due to high usage and user satisfaction rates in the fall pilot, the pilot was extended through June 30, 2010. For full details, see Evaluation of the Fall 2009 lynda.com pilot (PDF).
• Indiana University is working on negotiating a contract extension with lynda.com.
• Indiana University signed a three-year contract with lynda.com effective from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2013.

Comment process: Since IT Training is administering this service, users should contact IT Training with comments.

Benefits: This pilot helps address the needs outlined in Empowering People (ITSP2) Action 26, which calls for training to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on a wide range of topics and skill levels, delivered in multiple modalities. Through this service, users have access to a wide range of video-based eLearning courses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All members of the IU community will be able to use this service to grow their skills at the time and place that suits them best, and instructors will be able to use this service to help their students grow their IT skills.

Related information: The URL for this service is:

  http://ittraining.iu.edu/lynda/

This page will contain links to additional information and a sample course module, as well as the CAS-authenticated link to use the service.

Client impact: We expect that users will appreciate the ability to access high-quality video-based courses at any time, from anywhere, on a wide range of topics of special interest to the IU community. We further expect that a number of faculty, AIs, and other instructors will want to point their students to lynda's eLearning content to help those students learn the IT skills they need to succeed in their course.

Project team:

• Chris Payne (Project manager, IT Training)
• Carol Rhodes and Denise Brown (IT Training)
• Kate Ellis and Elisabeth Dahlgren (IUB TLTC)
• Randy Newbrough (IUPUI CTL)
• Trudi Weyermann (IUE CTL)
• Kathy Ross and Cherie Dodd (IUK CTLA)
• Greg Ogle (IUK Student Computing Services)
• Beverly Church (IUSB, Sr. Director User Support & IT Communications)
• Jackie Coven (IUN Training)
• William Radell (IUN, CISTL)
• Nick Ray (IUS, Director of IT Support and Communications)
• John Gosney (LT Faculty Liaison)
• Sarah Engel (UITS Communications)
• Jonathan Bolte (KB)
• Laura McCain (Online Support)
• Drew Hostetler and Adam Smith (IUB Support Center)
• Margaret Londergan (IUB ATAC)

Governance: The page at http://ittraining.iu.edu/lynda/ and all supporting KB documents for this pilot will be managed by the professional staff team of UITS IT Training.