Established in 1995, lynda.com was a pioneer in online technology training long before competing websites like Treehouse and Codecademy arrived on the scene. Since then, it has grown a training library of over 2,000 video courses, with nearly 300 in the Developer Training section.
Lynda.com is trusted by businesses, governments and over 1 million individuals worldwide to learn software, design and business skills. Hopefully, this review will help you decide whether you should join them.
Details on lynda.com
Lynda.com was founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin, in order to make education available to people online. Its training library covers software usage, design and business as well as developer training. You can find out how lynda.com produces its training in the following video:
The Developer Training section of lynda.com is where you’ll find the coding training. There are multiple forms of coding covered – including web development, app development and even game design. There’s at least one course on basically every coding language you could want training for. That includes:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- PHP
- Ruby
- Python
- iOS
- Android
- Java
- C++
The lynda.com library truly has everything, and new courses are added every week.
Lynda.com Courses
Each course at lynda.com is a series of bite-sized, tutorial-style videos. The videos are a combination of screencasts, live action and even smart boards.
A typical course contains about 40 videos, which are grouped into chapters. However, the good news is that each video is designed to make sense on its own – so you don’t need to commit to an entire course if you don’t want to.
There’s a selection of free videos in each course, so you can preview a course before you sign up. Courses also contain free sample files to start you off, and a transcript for if you want to refer back to a course at a later date.
Of course, the most important aspect of any training is who’s behind it. Lynda.com courses are authored by professionals who actually practice the subjects they teach, not just talk about them. Here’s a video from a lynda.com course:
Producing a Product
Many of the courses in the Developer Training section of lynda.com have an emphasis on creating a real product, such as an application or website. These tutorial-style courses let you follow along and build the project yourself.
Producing a product is one of the most important skills you should develop in coding, and the project tutorials at lynda.com are a perfect place to start developing this skill.
Cons?
Like all training, lynda.com has its share of downsides. Because it’s a larger operation than other training companies, the material tends to be updated less often. However, every course is marked with the date of publication.
Also, there’s no community at lynda.com. While other training sites like Treehouse and Codecademy have discussion forums, lynda.com does not. Whether this matters to you will depend on what you’re looking for in your training.
Finally, while lynda.com will give you the training you need, it does not go the extra mile to help you start a career in coding. If you would like your training to help you with this, Treehouse may be what you’re looking for.
Bottom Line
Lynda.com definitely has the most extensive library of any online coding training destination. While it has a few minor downsides, one thing’s for sure. Whatever coding topic you want to learn, lynda.com has training for it.
If you have any questions, the best way to get them answered is to contact lynda.com directly. Remember, you can also preview every course for free.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
