- Download exercise files from a course (if they're available), and practice what you've learned. If you have a premium account on Lynda, you can sometimes download computer files that are used by the instructor in the course. That way, you can follow along and practice the skills that you learn in the course with sample materials.
- Narrator If you have a premium or group account subscription to Linda.com, you have access to the same example files used by the author in the courses you're watching, allowing you to follow along doing exactly what the author is doing with photos, videos, audio files, business documents, and so on. Not all courses have exercise files, but for those that do, you will see this exercise file.
. Pros Amazing library of more than 3,000 online learning courses. Deep training for advanced software, particularly Adobe products. Well-structured site. Excellent video and audio quality. Well-vetted instructors.
Lynda.com is a free online training library that teaches the latest software, creative, and business skills through high-quality instructional videos taught. (Note: Lynda.com is authenticated with the Monarch Key Web Login; you will be automatically directed to Lynda.com if you have an active session in progress.).
Cons No per-video or per-course access. Equally helpful training videos sometimes available for free online. Bottom Line Lynda.com is an outstanding resource for video-based, online learning, particularly if multimedia software or coding skills are what you need.
The price is attractive, considering you get unfettered access to all the courses in Lynda.com's catalog. Lynda.com is one of the best sources for online learning. For years, Lynda.com has put informative and clear video-based training in front of people who need it. As part of LinkedIn, it has added learning paths to help professionals gain new skills. The videos let you work at your own pace, and the website is designed to help you keep track of what you want to learn and what you have already learned. The site is exceptional at teaching technical skills and technique, such as photography and.
Beyond multimedia training, Lynda.com also helps people pick up business principles, money-management advice, and much more. When you need skills training fast, Lynda.com is the go-to source for high-quality results and a PCMag Editors' Choice. Price and Plans Lynda.com is a subscription-based service. Some videos are made available free to help you preview courses, but you really need a subscription to get to the valuable meat of this online learning site. You can try the service free for 10 days, but you'll have to enter a credit card for access.
Alternatively, you can try it out via LinkedIn Learning for one month, which also requires a credit card (or PayPal account) on file. You can sign up on Lynda.com with a unique login or sign in using your account. A Basic plan costs $25 per month or if you are billed annually, $19.99 per month. It includes unlimited access to all the videos Lynda.com has to offer.
In other words, rather than paying for a course, you pay for unlimited access to everything in the catalog. That flexibility is one of the key features of Lynda.com, separating it from other online learning services such as, which charge you per course.
The Basic plan comes with a few limitations. You can't download project files or watch any of the videos offline on a mobile device. If you pony up the $37.50 per month Premium subscription fee, you get project files. Opting for the $375 per year Premium account gets you offline viewing access. Note that offline viewing isn't included for Premium members who pay by the month. Group pricing is also available on request for four or more people.
Lynda.com has apss for Android, AppleTV, iOS, and Windows. Though Lynda.com's prices are completely reasonable for the high-quality training you receive, there are ways to get similar content free. Khan Academy is perhaps the best-known website, with a vast and ever-growing series of videos that help you learn all kinds of stuff. While excellent, Khan Academy started out teaching academic material, such as economics and algebra, so you might not find the exact skills training that you need there. Lynda.com excels at teaching software programs, particularly multimedia software, and professional techniques for using them. If you need a crash course in the latest features of or, Lynda.com is sure to have them online quickly, whereas, with Khan, it's a crapshoot.
Excellent Features for Getting Started As mentioned, you do need to enter credit card details or a PayPal account just to try out the site. If you forget to cancel within your ten-day window, you will be charged.
Once you've set that up, Lynda.com asks you what you'd like to accomplish (improve at my job, change my career or job, learn skills, or build an app or a website). If you choose one of the first three options, you'll be asked to choose your job or interests in order to get recommendations. If you opt to build an app or a website, you'll be directed to suggested learning paths, such as Become an iOS App Developer and courses such as Foundations of Programming: Fundamentals. Hover over a learning path tile to see the number of courses included. Click through, and you can see potential salary ranges and the number of hours the courses will take.
Course recommendations also include the time commitment, level, and the number of views. You can preview courses before diving in. Programming courses are broken down into a series of short videos, most of which are just a few minutes long. You can skip videos if you want or read the transcript instead.
Another convenient feature is the ability to add them to a playlist. You can also find courses by searching keywords or browsing the alphabetized library. Lynda.com's Videos and Help I'm continually impressed with the quality of Lynda.com's videos. The player is large, with a few tabs below it for the video Overview, Transcript, View Offline, and Exercise Files. The Transcript tab has the full text of the video, and it highlights a few words at a time to sync up with the presenter's voice.
That's impressive and amazingly helpful if the speaker talks too quickly, or you just didn't catch what she or he said. Exercise Files are available with Premium accounts and let you follow along with the instructor as he or she demonstrates lessons. (Pro-tip: If you sign up for Lynda on LinkedIn—branded as LinkedIn Learning—you can access Exercise Files during your free trial.) Lynda.com really sets a high bar for sound and image quality, as well. The presenters are informative and rehearsed, but also relaxed. Like with, I really trust that these people are experts.
Lynda.com also highlights a variety of courses for those trying to pick up some new. Hundreds of courses and tens of thousands of video tutorials cover Web development and design topics for beginners and experts alike. The catalog features classes from the foundations of programming to specialized lessons on user interface, responsive design, and mobile app development. Some courses even feature expert opinions from legitimate titans of their respective industries, such as game designer Brenda Romero. And teachers will be pleased to know that many tutorials, including some free ones, are specifically targeted at children.
While Lynda.com's coding lessons lack the helpful interactivity of a service like Khan Academy and (an Editors' Choice for paid learn-to-code services), they make up for it with a much greater breadth and depth of content. Treehouse adds an extra touch with pop-ups of important keyboard shortcuts and visual representations of coding symbols.
The quality of the videos is also a lot more consistent, compared with large, open marketplace. When you complete a course, Lynda.com offers a certificate, which doesn't necessary bear any weight in the real world, but is useful for when an employer wants proof of your training before reimbursing you for a course. If you connect your account with LinkedIn, you can add these certificates to your profile as well. The site doesn't skimp when it comes to support outside of the training material. A toll-free phone number, international telephone number, and email submission form all offer channels for technical support or to answer your questions.
You'll find plenty of additional help files online, too. Quality to Spare. Lynda.com delivers high-quality, painstakingly detailed content, especially for high-end software. Members can watch the same videos as many times as they need, at any time of day, wherever they have an Internet connection and appropriate video-streaming capabilities.
With a Premium subscription paid annually, you can even download videos to a mobile device to watch them offline. While you certainly can spend your time hunting down free online videos to learn the skills you'll pay to learn on Lynda.com, Lynda.com removes the hunting and scrubbing through ill-lighted amateur YouTube videos to give you what you need, plainly and simply. If you're the type of person who needs a live instructor to answer your precise questions, Lynda.com might not offer enough for you, but be warned that one live course could cost you three times as much as a month's worth of access. Lynda.com is our Editors' Choice for online learning. Jill Duffy is a contributing editor, specializing in productivity apps and software, as well as technologies for health and fitness. She writes the weekly column, with tips on how to lead a better digital life. Her first book, is available for Kindle, iPad, and other digital formats.
She is also the creator and author of. Before joining PCMag.com, she was senior editor at the Association for Computing Machinery, a non-profit membership organization for computer scientists and students.
Lynda Exercise Files Download
She also spent five years as a writer and managing editor of Game Developer magazine, and contributor to Gamasutra.com. Her writing has appeared in Prevention, San Francisco Business Times, Popular Science, The San Francisco Examiner, Gamasutra.com, Intelligent Enterprise magazine, Game Developer, and several other publications. Follow her on Twitter.