Professor Pete Seel Department of Journalism and Technical Communication Usage statistics by Greg Vogl, ACNS - Morgan Library

Preliminary Usage Stats Thanks to Greg Vogl – Stats are online here Trends – usage is increasing each month – July-October Much of it appears tied to specific courses and labs E.g. -- teaching PhotoShop, Access, and Final Cut Pro Will look for Dreamweaver spike in late November The key message – initial introduction to Lynda.com is in labs associated with courses that teach software use Goal 1 - encourage faculty use of Lynda in labs Goal 2 – once students have experienced the utility of Lynda modules in courses – will they return on their own for review and/or upgrade self-tutorials?

Top 12 TitleViews Photoshop CS5 Essential Training2063 Photoshop CS5 for Photographers1700 Access 2010 Essential Training1516 Dreamweaver CS5 Essential Training1294 XHTML and HTML Essential Training1024 Final Cut Pro 7 Essential Training815 Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Fundamentals 509 Creating a First Web Site with Dreamweaver CS5 465 Web Site Strategy and Planning464 ASP.NET Essential Training456 Photoshop CS5 for the Web427 Photoshop CS3 One-on-One: The Essentials 400 How can we expand faculty (and student) usage beyond the Adobe Creative Suite?

Purchasing –Promotion Timeline March 3, 2010 UTFAB approves Lynda.com proposal March 11, 2010 ACNS requests purchase order July 6, 2010 CSU and Lynda.com sign final contract July 7, 2010 ACNS coordinates on linking to lynda.com July 7 to 28, 2010 Lynda.com logon tested by staff and faculty July 28, announcement sent by Scott Bailey August 5, 2010 D.Z. send news release out for CSU Today August 24, 2010 Lynda article runs on CSU September 16, 2010 Rusty Scott obtains Lynda.com posters and Ed Peyronnin distributes them to college IT administrators October 21, 2010 Review of Lynda.com by Binary Boys in the Collegian November, 2010 Learn it from Lynda table cards up in Lory food court

The Binary Boys Comments: A lot of this money is spent on upgrading the wireless network on campus, but last spring the board voted to fund a yearlong test. The question at hand is whether students would benefit from having an account with lynda.com. You may have heard the name lynda.com as the test began this semester, but if not here’s a brief explanation. The site provides high quality video tutorials on how to use several hundred different programs. Any innocent bystander can pay to have an account with lynda.com, but CSU has contracted with them to provided licenses en masse for all students. If you haven’t accessed the site, you should at lynda.colostate.edu. No hard numbers on usage have been presented yet, but we have talked to multiple professors whose classes have saved thousands of dollars on textbook costs thanks to these tutorials. We’ve heard some positive buzz about it, so we wouldn’t be surprised if the license gets renewed in the spring. We encourage you to use the service. It’s your student fees at work, and we thought you’d like to hear about how much money isn’t being spent on textbooks.

Case Studies Lynda.com modules are being used for software training in JTC 211 Computer-Mediated Visual Communication Professor Rosa Martey commented the modules replaced Adobe’s Classroom in a Book texts for Photoshop and Dreamweaver Texts were optional but cost $35 each and many students purchased them Each of these students saves $70 by using the modules instead Also note that $132 course text has been replaced by online readings -- saving each class of 72 - $9,504 Professor Lauren Kalish reports that using Lynda modules in her Agri 320 course (sections B-F) saves students $2,500 each semester in textbook costs (no longer needed)

A problem: Lauren Kalish commented: “My only complaint is that if you are a regular subscriber you can keep track of every training you have completed and print out certificates of completion. For our subscription, when we log out all records are refreshed and you cannot keep track of your progress or print certificates….otherwise I love, love, love it.” Need to find a solution to this….

Disparity in Entry-level Skills: A common problem in teaching digital skills is that some students are already experts in software use -- and some are just beginners Solution in JTC 211 – Use the modules to provide variable starting points with software instruction Each student must acquire 150 points per week Need to find out how mastery is measured Key point is that advanced students aren’t bored and beginners are not hopelessly lost in learning software skills

Faculty Promotion Workshop on Lynda.com used planned for CSU’s Professional Development Institute in January 2011 on use in courses that are dependent on teaching specific software knowledge Professor Lauren Kalish - use in her Agri 320 sections Professor Cap Smith on use in his CIS courses Professor Rosa Martey on use in the JTC 211 class Professor Pete Seel on using modules as a prescriptive tool in addressing gaps in software knowledge Goal – provide real world case studies of effective use in meeting classroom education objectives

More Promotion Target faculty who use specific software in college labs to adopt Lynda.com modules for instruction Seek Lynda.com coverage in student media Insert Learn it from Lynda flyers in Lory Student Center food court table cards (free and up for 2-3 weeks) Other promotion ideas for reaching faculty and students?

Comments and Questions… Contact Dr. Pete Seel at Dr. Don Zimmerman at Scott Baily at