Lynda.com and Navigational Pain (Or “Please Don’t Punish the Learner”)

February 4, 2008

Before I reflect upon today’s eLearning Hall of Shame nominee, let me state for the record that I love Lynda.com. Lynda offers a stellar catalog of narrated screencast-based courses covering a wide variety of software applications (mostly in the graphics design arena). And with a yearly all-you-can-eat subscription, I can easily jump in and review a particular topic regarding a specific application-related dilemma I may be facing at any given moment. It’s almost like having a software coach available at my beck and call. This is what eLearning is all about.

Well, in concept anyway.

What I don’t love about Lynda.com is the archaic navigational scheme. Each course on Lynda.com consists of a collection of individual screencasts in QuickTime format, organized in a logical sequence by topic. These topics are accessed via a long list of hyperlinks on the course page. Yeah, this is where the learner gets wary…

So here’s the Lynda.com course routine:

1. Log in.
2. Choose the course you wish to access.
3. Click the hyperlink for the topic you wish to view. The screencast then opens in a new window.
4. View the screencast.
5. Close the window.
6. Scan the list of hyperlinks to see which screencast you viewed last.
7. Click the next topic hyperlink.
8. View the screencast.
9. Close the window.
10. Repeat steps 3-9 until A) you finish the course, or B) you get frustrated and quit.

Sadly, I usually hit B before I hit A.

Oh, and if you’re behind a corporate firewall that doesn’t like ActiveX controls (like mine), you may get that pleasant little ActiveX dialog box to respond to. FOR EACH AND EVERY SCREENCAST YOU VIEW!

Let’s have a look at the actual navigation scheme in a Lynda.com course:

Yep, old school. But is it functional? Sure. Does it put me, the learner, through more grief than necessary? Absofriggenlutely.

Why can’t one screencast automatically jump to the next upon completion? Or at the very least contain a hyperlink at the end of the movie itself to take me to the next topic? Why all the keyboard and mouse gymnastics? It’s irritating to me as a learner, and consequently I use Lynda.com less often than I’d like to.

Bottom line: too many clicks!

Now, Lynda.com might argue that this cumbersome setup helps prevent piracy (since I can’t think of any other logical explanation). After all, if they offered screencasts that automatically advanced from topic to topic, it would be easy to take a video screencapture of an entire course and dump it on a P2P network for all the freeloaders to enjoy. Fine, valid argument. But is it fair to punish me, a paying customer, for the actions (or potential actions) of the pirate horde? No, it’s really not. And ultimately, if I really wanted to pirate a Lynda.com course and share it with the world, couldn’t I easily get around their clunky navigation system? Of course I could. This setup is as ineffectual as DRM on digital music files. It’s frustrating to honest customers, and to cyber deadbeats, it’s nothing more than an easily-circumvented irritant.

As a piracy preventer, Lynda.com’s navigational scheme fails. As a learner interface, Lynda.com’s navigational scheme fails. It’s time Lynda.com utilized their vast design experience by giving us a learner-friendly navigation scheme.

If I were a true cynic, I might argue that Lynda.com utilizes this painful navigational scheme to keep me, the learner, from accessing the courses too often under my all-you-can-eat subscription plan, i.e. “passive throttling.”

I don’t believe this is the case, but ultimately this navigation setup needs to go!

One day in a fit of exasperation, I emailed Lynda.com to complain about their irritating course navigation system. In response, the Lynda.com representative said it was a common complaint and implied that it would be remedied in “an upcoming site revision.”

I believe that was about two years ago.

Needless to say, the navigation scheme continues today with its old, learner-abusive ways. Apparently “upcoming site revisions” at Lynda.com are about as expeditious as “upcoming site revisions” here at my place of employment. In other words, go ahead and make yourselves comfortable - it’s gonna be awhile.

Lynda, please fix this navigational torture device! And please do it sooner than “soon.” You can start by closely examining the Adobe Video Workshop learner interface, where Lynda.com content already appears.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you why you should still use Lynda.com, despite the horrible navigation system.

P.S. Lynda, please understand: I only criticize because I care.

Posted in eLearning Design, eLearning Hall of Shame