By: JIM IRIZARRY
Staff Writer
jcirizar@iusb.edu
To paraphrase the late David Bowie, IUSB is turning and facing the strange. This semester, students are wading their way through banded tuition, new financial aid disbursement policies, the retirement of Oncourse, and a new parking system.
Add to that the ongoing construction that began in Spring 2016, which has caused many offices and classrooms to move to different locations around campus. It would be understandable if you lost track of the news that you no longer have free access to the learning website Lynda.com through Indiana University. The university’s association with the website ended on June 30.
Anastasia S. Morrone, IU’s Associate Vice President of Learning Technologies, said in a prepared statement that the decision to discontinue the service was based on two factors: a proposed 60 percent price increase by Lynda.com and limited use by the IU community.
The opportunity to use Lynda.com for free, however, is still available. University Information Technology Services (UITS) advises on its website on multiple ways to access Lynda.com.
IUSB area residents can access the website for free through memberships with the Mishawaka Penn-Harris, Plymouth, St. Joseph County, or Bremen libraries. You will need a library card from one of those libraries, all of which are free to obtain. All you need is a current state ID card or driver’s license. If you want to pay for Lynda.com, the website offers a 10-day free trial with its membership plans. After 10 days, you will be charged $29.99 a month for a full year’s access or $34.99 for month-to-month access.
UITS also has several other training options available. Many exercise files and materials are available through the UITS website http://ittraining.iu.edu. In the case of the programs Edcert, Skillsoft and Pluralsoft, large discounts from the regular consumer price are offered.
There are many more ways to freely access the information taught on Lynda.com. MIT and Stanford each offer similar services, as well as the crowdsourced web community Reddit through their University of Reddit education program. Apple offers web learning through iTunes U, and the website Lifehacker has its own Lifehacker U curation of online classes.
Of course, you can also Google whatever you want to learn.
