Lynda.com: a great new technical training resource

ldc_banner_160x600_fear-no-softwareStarting immediately, I.T.S. is providing all students, faculty, and staff with access to lynda.com, an online subscription library that teaches the latest software skills through high-quality instructional videos. Lynda.com maintains a very large and up-to-date library of courses taught by prominent technologists and designers. New titles are added every week.

To try out the videos, visit http://lynda.swarthmore.edu or find the link under the “More” menu on the Dash toolbar. Lynda is tied into our single sign-on system, so you can log in with your College username and password. You can watch the videos 24/7, from anywhere that you have network access. You may also download a free app to your mobile device from the Apple or Android app store if you’d like to view lynda.com courses on the go. (If you use the mobile app, just be sure to log in using the “Web Portal Access” option.)

Courses are broken up into bite-size chunks of a few minutes each. You can use Lynda whether you have five minutes or five hours. If you are trying to complete an entire course or playlist of courses, it automatically keeps track of your progress. But you will also find Lynda.com useful as a just-in-time knowledge base. If you’re stuck trying to figure out a feature in an application, search for it on Lynda. You may just get the answer you need to get back up and running quickly.

There are Lynda videos for every skill level. For beginners with an application, here are just a few of the relevant “Up and Running” and “Essentials” titles in the collection:

  • Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, After Effects)
  • MacOS 10.8 and Windows 8.1
  • Microsoft Office
  • SPSS
  • MATLAB
  • WordPress
  • Moodle
  • iBooks Author
  • GarageBand
  • Python
  • Sibelius
  • SolidWorks
  • R