Adventures in Technology Enhanced Learning @ UoP

Tag: LinkedIn Learning

Guest Blogger: Adrian Sharkey – LinkedIn Learning – Collection and Learning Paths

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning contains over 40,000 courses on technical, business and creative skills and is free to all University of Portsmouth students and staff. Many of the courses will map directly to studies, others will be on tools such as Autocad, MatLab or SPSS which are essential for study. The courses on a wide range of business skills can be used by staff for CPD and students for employability skills.

Collections and Learning Paths

With that amount of courses in the library, searching for exactly what is relevant or required can sometimes seem daunting. LinkedIn Learning will offer recommendations based on the skills and interests you have setup as part of your profile. If you’ve connected a personal LinkedIn account to your University LinkedIn Learning, you will also get recommendations based on your professional network. One way to organise courses is to use personal collections and learning paths. Everyone can create these, collections work for a group of courses or videos related to one particular topic or skill, learning paths when you want to work through courses in a particular order, building skills and knowledge. If you create personal collections and learning paths you can share a link to them so others users can access them.

With Admin access however, it is possible to create ‘University of Portsmouth’ collections and learning paths centrally. You’ll see these in LinkedIn Learning in the main library, under the browse button. As well as being available here and shareable via a single sign on link they can be recommended directly to users.

Custom Content

Another advantage of Admin access is that you have the ability to upload custom content into the University of Portsmouth LinkedIn Learning platform. These can be videos, PDFs, PowerPoints, links, pretty much any type of file. It means you can then create collections and learning paths with a mixture of LinkedIn Learning content with bespoke University content alongside it. Great if you want some specific explanation or demonstration alongside the expert industry standard content provided by LinkedIn Learning.

LinkedIn Learning Mapping Service

LinkedIn Learning provides a mapping service where they map their content against a list of competencies or skills in a particular area. We have done this for a number of areas: the CCI Placements team created a learning path based on competencies students need for finding a placement, a similar exercise was done for the student sports club committees. LinkedIn also provide mapping against frameworks used in Higher Education, such as the Jisc Digital Capability Framework and the framework for Researcher Development and Doctoral Skills. As well as this LinkedIn have developed course mapping against the range of activities for a typical university, things like teaching skills, skills for student success, professional development, project management and many other areas.

Next Steps

Have a go at creating your own collections or learning paths or using some of the ones set up by Linkedin Learning. If you think you could benefit from the Admin access and you want to create collections and learning for groups of students or staff contact ittraining@port.ac.uk for further help. Let us know also if you’d like to take advantage of the mapping service and get LinkedIn Learning content mapped to specific skills and competencies for your areas. Lastly check out the Linkedin Learning landing page and the collections and learning paths created by University colleagues.

For further reading on Linkedin Learning, then check out these previous posts:

LinkedIn Learning – Change

Guest Blogger: Adrian Sharkey – University of Portsmouth LinkedIn Seminar

Guest Blogger: Adrian Sharkey – Goodbye Lynda, hello LinkedIn Learning

Guest Blogger: Adrian Sharkey – Digital Capability Discovery Tool

Adrian Sharkey: @adrianjsharkey

LinkedIn Learning – Change

The definition of the word change says: “an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another”, other words that could be used are adjustment, development and modification. These are all words used daily in our vocabulary and are words that reflect what is happening within the university as a whole, but mainly within our roles.

Who else looks at their original job description and specification and can only see a few responsibilities that look similar to the work that you’re carrying out now? For me, some areas have disappeared altogether, whilst others have been replaced by new processes and procedures. People are all different, some seem to embrace change easily, whilst others stick their heads in the sand and hope it doesn’t affect them or their role. I’m one of those people who like to digest (in my own way) what’s been said and then find out more information e.g. Where do I fit into the change?  What part will I be expected to play in making the change happen? What knock on effect will it have elsewhere? Is there training that I’ll need to undertake? etc. etc.  

During this period of adjustment when we find our responsibilities have changed and we’re expected to ‘step up to the mark’ and embrace whatever is required to make these changes happen, this is described by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross as a ‘Change Curve’.  Kubler-Ross ‘Change Curve’ explains the emotions that most people go through when change is in the offering, although the original theory was in relation to the grieving process and describes 5 stages (see image below).  In business it is now applied to any kind of change.  

Stage 1, Denial were we blame others, which is preceded by blaming ourselves, “What have I done wrong?” and “Why me?”  

Stage 2, Doubt follows quickly afterwards causing self-doubt, uncertainty and confusion, this happens normally when you’re at your lowest ebb.  

Stage 3, Acceptance, the turning point, when you start to accept the change, think more rationally about everything and can start to work to solve problems that may arise to make the change work for you and others in your team. 

Once you’re through the ‘Change Curve’ it’s only then that you can start to move on, and it soon becomes the norm.  The length of time it takes for an individual to experience the ‘Change Curve’ varies from person to person and can depend on what the change is and how much this change is going to affect the person.

The diagram explains the stages of the Kubler-Ross model

(https://www.cleverism.com/understanding-kubler-ross-change-curve/)

I bet you’re wondering what all this has to do with LinkedIn Learning?  Well I’m not talking about the change from Lynda.com to LinkedIn Learning, although that has happened (see blog post Goodbye Lynda, hello LinkedIn Learning) but about the courses that may be of benefit that provide an insight into the processes that happen when change occurs. The courses (or individual videos if you’re short on time), look at change from different angles and perspectives, giving you the techniques to help you cope with change, before it happens, while it’s happening and how to come out the other end and to keep altering and growing until the process produces the end results. 

When you have time, just type ‘change’ into the search box, you’ll see a list of over 48,000 items will appear, this can be filtered down by using the block on the left-hand side, to make it more manageable and tailor made to your requirements. Of course the university hold workshops on this subject as well, but we don’t always have the time to attend. 

In case you were interested in the courses that I looked at, here they are:
Building Resilience by Tatiana Kolovou
Embracing Change by Todd Dewett
Managing Stress for Positive Change by Heidi Hanna
Leading Change by Gary Bolles

So go on, have a go, log into LinkedIn Learning today!

 

Further Reference: https://www.cleverism.com/understanding-kubler-ross-change-curve/
https://www.definitions.net/definition/change
Image Credit: Photo by Krisztian Tabori on Unsplash

Guest Blogger: Adrian Sharkey – University of Portsmouth LinkedIn Seminar

LinkedIn Services to Support University of Portsmouth Students and Staff

On Friday October 25th we had a visit from Ralph Blunden the Relationship Manager for LinkedIn. Since 2017 the University has been using Lynda, an online resource with thousands of courses on business, creative and technical skills. Lynda had been owned by LinkedIn for sometime and this summer, Lynda moved over to the LinkedIn Learning platform. Ralph offered to present on how LinkedIn Learning and LinkedIn could be used to support both students and staff and we had a great turnout from all around the University willing to listen.

People sitting in a room facing Ralph the person from LinkedIn Learning

There are now over 30,000 courses on LinkedIn with up to 40 new ones being added every week. The new platform personalises learning by making recommendations a lot more relevant, these are based on previous learning, on what is popular in the University and if a LinkedIn account is connected – recommendations are based on the skills shown on the user’s account. When courses are completed a badge can be added to a LinkedIn profile, which is particularly useful for students in order to show employability skills to potential employers.

LinkedIn have 23 million accounts in the UK, while only around 10% of these are active at any time it represents a significant section of the working population. Around 70% of employers recruit using social media showing a professional presence for employability and making connections is essential. With Industry 4.0 and changes about to happen because of emerging technologies like AI –  skills requirements are increasingly fluid – Linkedin data shows the average skill having a shelf life of 5 years. While hard skills are still important, the most in demand skills for employers is creativity along with other soft skills such as critical thinking, being able to learn, teamwork and adaptability.

LinkedIn are aiming for their services to compliment learning for students and staff in HE. LinkedIn Learning can supplement in class learning, allow opportunities for flipped classrooms, support accreditation and professional development for staff. It can promote employability and placement skills for students and encourage engagement with alumni, allowing students to make important professional connections. 

There a number of ways we could leverage LinkedIn Learning to target certain areas by packaging courses and creating collections/playlists or utilising the existing learning paths. Teaching excellence could include blended learning, flipped classrooms, instructional design and VLE training. Digital capabilities can be packaged, staff development and employability for students also. LinkedIn offer a mapping service, where if we supply the competencies we’re looking to develop they will map the appropriate courses against them, allowing the creation of collections/playlists.

For further support/assistance with LinkedIn Learning contact:

adrian.sharkey@port.ac.uk

Twitter: @adrianjsharkey

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrianjsharkey/

Image Credit: supplied by LinkedIn

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