LinkedIn recently announced that it was entering the professional development market. Surprisingly, this news barely caused a ripple. Will Sept. 22, 2016, go down in history as a key milestone in the digital transformation of the professional development market" Only the future will tell.
The context is straightforward. In April 2015, Lynda Weinman and her husband, Bruce Heavin, sold online video course provider Lynda.com to LinkedIn for an incredible $1.5 billion.
Lynda.com had specialized in developing and marketing learning videos for more than 15 years. The original focus was on training courses for software programs such as Photoshop, Excel and Adobe Illustrator. In recent years, Lynda.com had increasingly expanded its presence in the business arena, with videos on personnel, strategy and marketing. The payment model at Lynda.com is one element that sets it apart from other online video providers such as Coursera, YouTube and TedX. Individuals and companies pay a monthly fee that allows them to view as much online learning video content as they like.
Another differentiating factor is its investment in its selection of video authors and content, and in professional learning video production. Courses are complementary, are constantly updated and are of consistently high quality. Authors are paid in royalties. That means that when a Lynda.com user views a video, the author receives a share of the profit.
With the new LinkedIn Learning service, the entire instructi...