LinkedIn Learning Review
May 27, 2020
A bird's-eye view
Overview
This LinkedIn Learning review is one of many in a qualitative analysis comparing popular 'Learn to Code' platforms using 6 categories, each with 5 distinct grades. This is a bird's-eye view, rather than a comprehensive dissection of LinkedIn Learning.
Table of Contents
Who is LinkedIn Learning Great for?
- Experienced developers who want courses broken up into many dense, small videos for quick consumption.
Cost
| 3 | Most courses are less than US$40/month. |
|---|---|
| Cost category and grading details | |
LinkedIn Learning costs US$30 monthly, or US$300 annually. This gives you access to all the courses and videos.
Teacher Feedback
| 1 | Feedback from a teacher or other experienced developer is not reliably available. |
|---|---|
| Teacher Feedback category and grading details | |
LinkedIn Learning does not offer any feedback from a formal teacher. Their discussion forums aren't a reliable source of feedback either because the activity varies so much from course to course. Furthermore, the format of the discussion forum cannot handle multiple threads of conversations.
Range of Tools
| 4 | Each tool except one or two from the basket of tools was covered. |
|---|---|
| Range of Tools category and grading details | |
LinkedIn Learning's courses cover a large range of tools thanks to their model of allowing anyone who passes their vetting criteria to become an instructor. Even content covering niche tools can be found. The content primarily covers commercial and enterprise tools.
Computer Science
| 3 | Complex data structures covered in some courses. |
|---|---|
| Computer Science category and grading details | |
Some courses on complex data structures exist, but they're few, typically short, and lacking real-world projects to apply learned concepts.
Real-World Projects
| 3 | Real-world projects are presented with a description or walkthrough, but are not a primary objective of courses. |
|---|---|
| Real-World Projects category and grading details | |
LinkedIn Learning's courses are just collections of short, to-the-point videos. Most of the videos don't include a project walkthrough or description. If they do, it tends to be very short and secondary to the course's objective. Unfortunately, filtering courses for the ones that contain real-world projects is not possible.
Beginner Environments
| 1 | No beginner-friendly coding environments available. |
|---|---|
| Beginner Environments category and grading details | |
LinkedIn Learning does not offer any interactive coding environments.
Final Words
LinkedIn Learning is more of a professional development platform comparable to O'Reilly Learning. The difference between them is how they package their content. Courses are packaged into very small, dense videos, whereas O'Reilly offers access to some of the bibles of various branches of software -- it takes longer to consume, but it's more comprehensive.