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LinkedIn Learning

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  4. Learning & Development
  5. LinkedIn Learning

Overview

In January 2021, GitLab implemented LinkedIn Learning to provide our team members with more off the shelf learning resources. With a growing company, the needs for learning are growing as well and we are excited to provide this opportunity to our team members.

Benefit of LinkedIn Learning

Utilizing LinkedIn Learning will be beneficial to your personal and professional development. With access to LinkedIn Learning, you will be able to access over 8,000 courses on many different topics.

How to incorporate LinkedIn Learning into your day-to-day role

We encourage all team members to take time out to learn. If you are working on a project and realize you need to know more about a certain topic or a certain tool, you can go to GitLab Learn and search for LinkedIn Learning couses to see if there are resources avialble to you.

Take Time out to Learn

Finding courses and skills to learn just got easier with access to LinkedIn Learning. We have a take time out to learn campaign where we encourage our team members to take time out of their work week to learn. Focus Fridays create designated meeting-free space within our weeks and are a great opportunity to take time out to learn.

You can take time to learn about something that will help you in your current role. You can learn about things that can help you in a future role (maybe you are an aspiring manager). You can learn more to improve current skills or learn entirely new skills. You can also take time to learn about things that are fun or interesting for you like graphic design, drawing, or mindfulness.

Walk and Learn

With the LinkedIn Learning app, team members can download audio-only versions of courses and take learning on the go. We piloted a new initiative during the month of April 2021 encouraging team members to take learning with them while they walk.

Why should you try a Walk and Learn?

  1. Some team members might feel like their weeks are too busy to build in time for learning, or that professional development falls off their priority list. We hope this initiative helps team members think creatively about how they can make time for learning
  2. Auditory learners might feel that LinkedIn Learning isn't a good fit for them, since courses are often created with video. The audio-only download option can help remove the added distraction of video and let learners focus just on listening

Walk and Learn Goals

  1. 20 team members will complete 1 walk and learn session and post in the #walk-and-learn Slack channel during the month of April 2021
  2. Average time spent on LinkedIn Learning by team members in April will reach 1.4 hour target

Here's how you can participate:

  1. Join the #walk-and-learn Slack channel
  2. Browse courses on the app, or check out recommended learning paths for all team members and skill of the month outlined on this page
  3. Download the audio-only version of the course you want to listen to
  4. Get walking! Aim to take 2 walks per week when you tune into your LinkedIn Learning course. Use the :walking: emoji in your Slack status with the status Going on a #walk-and-learn! to let people know you're participating in the initiative!
  5. If you'd like, post a photo of your walk or a screenshot or link of the course you're listening to in the channel

How can I participate if I can't walk?

No problem! The goal of this initiative is to combine learning with something that makes you feel recharged and reenergized. If you aren't able to walk or are looking for another option to participate, check out these additional ways you can integrate learning into your daily practice!

We have outlined recommended LinkedIn Learning paths for different roles at GitLab. We also have a Recommended LinkedIn Learning Courses channel in GitLab Learn to showcase popular and recommended courses among GitLab Team Members. These links will take you to GitLab Learn and if you decide to take the course it will open a new tab for the course in LinkedIn Learning. This is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good start if you are new to using the tool.

All Team Members

Aspiring People Leaders

People Leaders

Senior Leaders and Executives

Professional Development

All are outlined under Continuing Education (CEU) on LinkedIn Learning.

How to access LinkedIn Learning

Please follow this process for gaining access to a license for paid LinkedIn Learning content:

  1. Go to https://gitlab.okta.com and open LinkedIn Learning
  2. You will be asked to login to your LinkedIn account and to give Okta access to your LinkedIn account
  3. You will receive an email notification from LinkedIn Learning once you have been added to the system.
  4. To access LinkedIn Learning content, go to https://www.linkedin.com/learning alternatively, go to our learning platform, GitLab Learn and search for skills or topics you want to learn more about. When you select a LinkedIn Learning course it will open a new tab with the course directly on LinkedIn Learning.

What to do if you receive an error message when trying to redeem a LinkedIn Learning license via Okta

If clicking the above link results when trying to access LinkedIn Learning for the first time results in an error message, this may be because we have reached our limit of available licenses.

In this instance, please:

  1. Ensure your GitLab email address is on your LinkedIn Profile
  2. Fill out an access request
  3. You will receive an email invite when a license next becomes available. Generally a couple of licenses are freed up each week.

If a license is required urgently or during periods of high demand, the Growth & Development benefit can be used to expense one.

Revoking LinkedIn Learning licenses

Due to the limited number of licenses available for team members, the Learning & Development team may periodically revoke licenses from inactive user accounts (Usually accounts that haven't been active in over 6 months). This allows for the licenses to be redistributed to team members who may be able to better utilise them.

Before revoking any LinkedIn Learning license, users will always be notified via email and given the opportunity to log in to their account, which will signal that they would like to retain their license for the time being.

Searching for LinkedIn Learning Courses

  1. Open GitLab Learn
  2. Click the search bar at the top and type in what you are looking for
  3. If you want to filter down to LinkedIn Learning courses specifically, you can click “All Filters” in the top right. Then check the “LinkedIn Learning” box and click “Apply” (this will pull in only Linkedin Learning courses on the topic you are looking for)
  4. Once you have found the course you are interested in, select that smartcard
  5. On the smartcard click "view more" and this will open a separate tab with the LinkedIn Learning course
  6. Click "play" to begin the course

Sharing Your LinkedIn Learning Certificate

Once you have completed a course on LinkedIn Learning, you will receive a certificate. You will have the option to download and/or share it on your LinkedIn Profile. The video below walks thorugh how to do both.

LinkedIn Learning Cohorts

Self-organizing a cohort to complete a LinkedIn Learning course together can be a great way to keep each other accountable, discuss your learning, and connect with new team members. Similar to our book clubs, we encourage team members to organize LinkedIn Learning cohorts to learn together.

Use this checklist when organizing your LinkedIn Learning cohort. Here is an example of how the GitLab Women TMRG organized and implemented a LinkedIn Learning cohort.

  1. Organize a cohort of learners. Consider reaching out to your team, the #what's-happening-at-GitLab channel, or a TMRG you're part of. Pose the opportunity to learn together and see what response you get!
  2. Explore courses on LinkedIn Learning. We have suggestions on this page for all team members, but feel free to get specific in an area you're passionate about!
  3. Vote or decide on a cousre to take together.
  4. Set a completion goal. Be realistic with how much time you have to learn each week. Consider a 2 or 3 month completion goal.
  5. Decide how you want to collaborate. You may want to meet bi-weekly to discuss synchronously or use issues to collabrate async.
  6. Build your learning pathway in GitLab Learn. Curate existing LinkedIn Learning SmartCards into the pathway you'd like to create. Consider adding a badge to the pathway as well. Documentation for building pathways can be found in our GitLab Learn admin docs
  7. Choose a facilitator. This facilitator is expected to organize discussion issues, set due dates, and send preriodic reminders to the cohort to keep members accountable
  8. Create a temporary Slack channel. This space can be used as a place to remind members about upcoming deadlines, plan synchronous calls, and ask questions.
  9. Have a celebration! When you've completed the course, consider having a celebration to recap your learning, share takeaways, and recognize your accomplishments. Share your takeaways and badges on your LinkedIn profile if you'd like!

Learning and Development Team

The L&D Team will provision and deprovision access to LinkedIn Learning. If you are on the L&D Team and would like to learn more about LinkedIn Learning, we recommend the Getting Started as a LinkedIn Learning Admin course.

Provisioning Access

The L&D Team will provision access to team members who want access to paid content on LinkedIn Learning by going through the following steps:

  1. Log in to LinkedIn Learning
  2. Click "Go to Admin" in the top right
  3. Hover over the "+" in the top right and click "Add Learners"
  4. Click "Add new users" and then "Add new users by email"
  5. Enter team members GitLab email address
  6. Click "Confirm" in the bottom right

If you are on the L&D Team, you can watch a video walkthrough of the provisioning process when adding team members via email (not CSV upload).

Deprovisioning Access

The L&D Team will deprovision access to LinkedIn Learning to team members who leave GitLab by going through the following steps:

  1. Log in to LinkedIn Learning
  2. Click "Go to Admin" in the top right
  3. Use the search bar to search by name or email
  4. Click the three dots at the right end of the row with their name
  5. Click "Manage licenses"
  6. Under "Assign a license" change the selection to "No license"
  7. Click "Confirm"

If you are on the L&D Team, you can watch a video walkthrough of the deprovisioning process.

Collections

The L&D Team or other sub-admins can create content Collections in LinkedIn Learning by going through the following steps:

  1. Log in to LinkedIn Learning
  2. Click "Go to Admin" in the top right
  3. Click "Content" on the top bar
  4. Click "+ Add" on the right and select "Create Collection"
  5. Click "Create New"
  6. Fill out the fields on the form that pops up
  7. Click "Create"
  8. Click "Add Content" and then "Search for Content"
  9. Type in some key words or course titles to find courses to add to the Collection
  10. Click "Save & Publish"
  11. At this point you can share with others or you can "X" out of the message and share with groups later following the directions below.

If you are on the L&D Team, you can watch a video walkthrough of the deprovisioning process.

Sharing Collections

You can share collections with groups or with all team members by going through the following steps:

  1. Log in to LinkedIn Learning
  2. Click "Go to Admin" in the top right
  3. Click "Content" on the top bar. All current Collections and Learning paths will be listed there.
  4. Next to the Collection you want to share click the "Share" button
  5. Click "Recommend on LinkedIn Learning"
  6. Add recipients you want to share the content with (this could be a group or set of groups or all GitLab Team Members)
  7. Add in a message so team members know why they are recieving this content recommendation
  8. Add a due date if that applies
  9. Click "Send"

If you are on the L&D Team, you can watch a video walkthrough of the deprovisioning process.

User access process with the EdCast

All GitLab Learn users will be able to access free content on LinkedIn Learning.

If you have activated a LinkedIn Learning license, you will also be able to access the paid content on LinkedIn Learning. You can find LinkedIn Learning courses by going to GitLab Learn and utilizing the search bar at the top to search for a topic or skill.

Sub Admins

All of our People Business Partners are set up as sub-admins for the groups they over see.

We recommend that all sub-admins take the Getting Started as a LinkedIn Admin. If you do not have time to take the full 1 hour course, here are the videos we recommend watching to learn how to recommend content to your groups and pull reports:

  1. Recommend Content (5m)
  2. Create and Share Collections (7m)
  3. Create and Share Learning Paths (5m)
  4. Analytics and Reports (4m)
  5. Skill Insights (3m)

If you would like to request access to be a sub-admin, please reach out to our team in the #learninganddevelopment Slack channel.

Reporting

For People Business Partners that are helping groups track LinkedIn usage for OKR purposes or otherwise, these are steps that can be followed after sub-admin access is provisioned.

  1. Login to LinkedIn Learning
  2. Hover over the Insights tab at the top of the page, and then click Dashboards
  3. Click on the Reports tab

From here, the report you download will depend on exactly what you are looking to track. LinkedIn Learning has many different reports available depending on the data you are looking to analyize.

A couple of useful reports and their functionality are:

  1. Learner Management report can help determine the number of team members in a given division/department with activated licenses (and also provides visibilty into who does not have their license activated)
  2. Learner Summary report can help you review which users in a specific group are using LinkedIn Learning, hours spent within the platform, number of logins, etc.

Groups and Sub-Groups

In LinkedIn Learning we have set up groups and sub-groups. The groups are equal to departments in BambooHR. The sub-groups under each group are equal to divisions within each department in BambooHR.

Sub-admins are set up for each group and sub-group based on the People Business Partner alignment.

Current groups and sub-groups are outlined below:

Updating Groups

Groups and sub-groups in LinkedIn Learning are updated on a monthly basis. (Note: Updates, such as internal transfers and promtions, are made in BambooHR each month on the 1st and 16th.) We utilize this google sheet template for uploading data with a CSV file.

The Learning & Development Generalist will be tagged on any department name change issue to update relevant groups in LinkedIn Learning.

Coordination with EdCast

Set Up

Our integration and configuration was set up in conjunction with our partners from both EdCast and LinkedIn Learning using the Integration Guide and the Configuration Guide.

LinkedIn Learning KPIs

FAQs

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