Lynda.com online learning tool extended to more staff

Published September 8th, 2017

While college staff are often keen to do training courses, the times during which they take place don’t always suit. It’s against this backdrop that the Corporate Services Division ran a pilot programme earlier this year involving the online learning and development tool, Lynda.com.

That joint venture between IT and HR was deemed a success and is now being extended to all academic and admin staff. Director of IT Services Patrick Magee takes up the story.

“For the next 12 months we will be largely focused on getting academic and admin staff up and running on Lynda.com. We’ll also pilot it with a number of the students. Our ultimate goal though will be to open it up to the whole of college.”

Playlist
For those yet to experience it, Lynda.com is a Microsoft platform comprising thousands of online courses where the user can dip in and out of according to their own schedule. There is a broad and varied mix of courses available to staff, once they’ve completed the initial playlist.

This initial playlist includes lessons on Microsoft calendaring, excel, Skype for business - to name a few - and the beauty of Lynda.com is that it’s accessible as a single sign on, so you can log on using your Trinity username. There’s also an app, which allows you to download content to watch offline.

The roll-out of the learning and development platform is part of the college’s digital upskilling objective in its current strategy.

“If we’re going to have what’s called a ‘digital campus’, where the students will be accessing services digitally,” explains Patrick, “we need to ensure that everybody who’s associated with the university is as comfortable working in a digital space as they are a physical space.”

Collaborate
Lynda.com, says Patrick, is part of a series of initiatives that will ultimately lead to Trinity being a digital campus, where it will be easier work, learn and collaborate in new ways.

Over the coming weeks and months, IT and HR will be promoting Lynda.com to academic and admin staff.

“That means we’ll be making sure people know where it’s available. We’ll also be running small workshops for administrators showing them how to set it up - they will then promote in their own unit and create playlists particular to their own area.”