Using LinkedIn Learning as Faculty & Staff

As a member of our community, you have free access to LinkedIn Learning. We encourage you to access the resource to support you in your personal development and encourage students to utilize it for their professional development. Connecting your existing profile with your Merrimack LinkedIn Learning License can be done easily within a few minutes.

As Faculty & Staff, we are generating resources to best support you in working with students in the classroom, on the job and in other capacities. Here you’ll find information on using LinkedIn Learning in your Canvas courses and how to provide pre-generated content to student employees as two use cases. If you have another opportunity in mind, please reach out to our team at obriencenter@merrimack.edu to receive additional assistance.

We encourage you to think about the skills and technologies you believe are most important to students being prepared for your class or work experience and their ability to effectively enter the workforce post-graduation.

Educators find it beneficial because of its ability to:

  • Easily enhance the instructional experience of your courses
  • Create a digital history of your lessons
  • Provide learning opportunities outside of the classroom to further discussion and comprehension of in-class discussions or activities
  • Expands the subject matter and allows students to hear from experts

Students will be able to:

  • Build or enhance competencies 
  • Dive deeper into content from your syllabus
  • Access content 24/7 via Canvas alongside other coursework
  • Learn to demonstrate their skills effectively

Homepage AI: As you navigate the platform, you’ll be presented with a homepage AI tool which will generate potential topic areas of interest. This tool will change based on how the learner is engaging with the platform.

AI Coaching: Accessible via the menu bar, the AI Coach works more like other AI driven tools as a question and answer model. Use a suggested prompt or type in something else of interest to receive course recommendations. It will give one recommendation at a time unless you specifically prompt it to provide more than one suggestion.

Custom Learning Paths: Learning Paths are designated content which is meant to be completed in a specific sequence. Our license allows us to create unlimited Learning Paths with just a few questions and answers. Check out the resource below on our existing Merrimack Learning Paths or reach out to us to create one just for your students. An alternative option if you’d like to create on your own is to use Collections which can be completed in any order and created by any Merrimack community member.

Included Certifications: Navigate through the menu bar to find the Certifications page. The first section simply titled Certifications includes free preparation content geared to specific certifications. Once a learner has watched all of the content, they will be prompted to take the certification exam. If passed, they will receive the certification to post publicly on their LinkedIn. Other sections of this page will include preparation courses for other certifications that may not include a free exam and practice exams. Continuing education content to stay up-to-date on your personal memberships are made available on this page as well.

Certificates of Completion & Digital Badges: Learners will have the ability to add unique badges or certificates to their LinkedIn profile when they successfully complete courses within LinkedIn Learning.

Integration with Canvas: Faculty will be able to easily add videos, courses, learning paths and collections to their Canvas Courses at any time. You can select how to implement within your course such as assignments, direct links, embedded pages and more.

How is it accessed? Are there limitations? 

  • Every member of the Merrimack College community has free access to LinkedIn Learning once they connect a LinkedIn profile to our institutional license. Instructions are available via the O’Brien Center. LinkedIn has a help article for anyone who has trouble connecting their personal email account to the Merrimack license.

How does it connect to LinkedIn? 

  • Everyone needs to have a LinkedIn profile to be able to utilize the platform. However, it does not need to be complete or public. It can be created from scratch using any email of choice or connected to an existing profile.

Can I access learning histories of my students?

  • Contact the O’Brien Center to determine the options available.

In what ways can I add content from LinkedIn Learning to Canvas?

  • Add individual videos via Canvas
  • Share an entire custom collection of videos via Canvas
    • Custom topic and handcrafted by the instructor / department / College
  • Create a sequential Learning Path
    • Custom topic and handcrafted by the instructor / department / College
    • Utilize existing LIL Learning Paths
  • Certificate Programs
  • Upload custom content to assign 

Does the platform have something for every department?

  • While LinkedIn Learning has a large video library, it will not have something directly related to every major or interest area. However, we encourage you to think about transferable skills and technical tools which most learners should build their skills. Encouraging communication, time management, critical thinking and other similar topics will support students in growing as individuals and preparing for their future.

As we walk through the steps of adding LinkedIn Learning content to your Canvas course, it will be beneficial to know what types of content and where you want it to live in your course.

Course Page / Module

Please note that LinkedIn Learning may not prompt students to receive a certificate of completion while completing learning within Canvas. LinkedIn Learning content will auto play by default when opening the correct Canvas page.

  • From pages or the module view, select an existing page or create a new page. You’ll want the page to start blank for this to work the best.
  • Edit the page and look for the electrical plug option in the menu bar for the text box editor. It may live under the three dots menu for more options.
  • Within the electrical plug, select View All and type or scroll to find LinkedIn Learning.
  • The LinkedIn Learning pop-up box will allow you to search for content. You can use this to do an initial search or to look up content you already know you would like to use.
  • After using the correct search features, you should find your video content you wish to include and see an Add button next to it. Select Add and then Confirm.
  • At this point, it should update your existing page to show the in-page preview of the LinkedIn Learning content. If it looks satisfactory to you in the edit page view, you can now Save & Publish accordingly.

Assignment

Please note that LinkedIn Learning video completion cannot be submitted alone within Canvas for grading. You should be asking students to submit a screenshot through file uploads or provide a short answer through text entry about what they learned for actual grading. LinkedIn Learning content will auto play by default when opening the correct Canvas page.

  • From assignments or the module view, select an existing assignment or create a new assignment. You’ll want the assignment page to start blank for this to work the best.
  • Edit the assignment and look for the electrical plug option in the menu bar for the text box editor. It may live under the three dots menu for more options.
  • Within the electrical plug, select View All and type or scroll to find LinkedIn Learning.
  • The LinkedIn Learning pop-up box will allow you to search for content. You can use this to do an initial search or to look up content you already know you would like to use.
  • After using the correct search features, you should find your video content you wish to include and see an Add button next to it. Select Add and then Confirm.
  • At this point, it should update your existing assignment to show the in-page preview of the LinkedIn Learning content. If it looks satisfactory to you in the edit assignment view, you can now Save & Publish accordingly.

External Tool / URL

While you do have the ability to use LinkedIn Learning through the External Tool or External URL features in the modules page, this will require students to access outside of the Canvas course. Asking students to load outside of the Canvas course may result in delays in accessing if they have not created their LinkedIn Learning free account. Whenever possible, it is preferred you build into a page or assignment to avoid access issues.

Our team has gathered suggested content for you to use as you see fit.