The Middlebury Blog Network » lynda.com

Last Chance — LIS Open Workshops Wind Down for the Summer

Cynthia Slater — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:57:25 +0000

It’s not too late to join us for a workshop (in English!) before Language Schools begin. Visit go/lisworkshops to view the last of our advertised open sessions. Youll find a Drupal introduction that covers basic web site maintenance skills, as well as another opportunity to learn how to access and use Middlebury’s fabulous online learning resource that uses short videos to help you acquire new business and technology skills, including photography finesse.

Lynda’s recently added courses include such varied topics as “Managing Teams,” “Designing a Book,” and “Up and Running with Windows 8.” Watch a single video or work through an entire course, but be warned its addictive.

Please note that we do continue to offer “by request” group training during the summer months, staff and classroom space permitting; kindly send your request with details to helpdesk@middlebury.edu.

Life After Midd & lynda.com video-based learning

Cynthia Slater — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:09:39 +0000

Students… Interested in skills you can use in Life Beyond Midd? lynda.com has everything you need! Just click any of these course links, log on with your Middlebury username and password and you’re on your way. Work through an entire course or view just the movie segments you need — it’s up to you.

This small sampler of business skills topics is just the beginning — lynda currently offers over 1600 course titles from which to choose.

Need a hand getting started? Sign up for our lynda.com overview session at noon on March 15.

LIS Workshops for February-March: Drupal and Video-based Learning

Cynthia Slater — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:34:30 +0000

Our current workshop schedule is now available. Visit go/lisworkshops to view offerings for February and March and sign up for topics of interest. You’ll find Drupal introductions that cover basic web site maintenance skills, as well as work sessions where you can get help with specific questions about how to improve your departmental web site. We are also offering several opportunities to learn how to access and use — Middlebury’s fabulous online learning resource that uses short videos to help you acquire new business and technology skills.

Lynda’s recently added courses include such varied topics as “JavaScript and AJAX,” “Writing Fundamentals: The Craft of Story,” and “Office 2013 New Features.” Watch a single video or work through an entire course, but be warned — it’s addictive.

LIS Workshops & Professional Development Offerings

Cynthia Slater — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:52:13 +0000

There is still time to acquire new skills before the year is out! Visit go/lisworkshops to view our workshop schedule and get signed up for topics of interest. You’ll find a few more Drupal work sessions where you can get help with specific questions about how to revise and improve your departmental web site, as well as one more chance to attend an introduction covering basic web site maintenance skills.

We’re also offering another opportunity to get acquainted with — a fabulous online learning resource that uses short videos to help you acquire new business and technology skills. Recent course additions include “InDesign Secrets,” “Managing Your Career” and “Word 2010 Power Shortcuts.” Watch a single video or work through an entire course — either way it’s professional development that doesn’t cost you or your department a dime.

New Queue feature in Lynda.com (technology training tutorials)

Brenda Ellis — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:09:23 +0000

Want to keep track of video tutorials you want to view later? Add them to your queue. View ‘Creating and managing your queue’ from the “How to use lynda.com” course, by Garrick Chow. Tutorial link: http://www.lynda.com/home/TutorialLanding.aspx?lpk4=97408

LIS web presence – marketing project

Barbara Merz — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:43:35 +0000

The LIS Web team – Dan Frostman, Jess Isler, Richard Jenkins, Matt La France, & Barbara Merz – has been conducting a publicity blitz for chosen features of the LIS web presence. The selection was done in consultation with other LIS staff, with the aim of drawing attention to underutilized good stuff available to the Middlebury community. The features we advertised were:

Searching: the Midd Google search & special Helpdesk Google search
Training: Lynda
Drupal: documentation and new editing interface
Self-service PIN and password updating
Media services Event Recording & Film Screening forms
Middmedia

The tools we used were chosen with the target audience in mind:

an LIS eNewsletter to reach faculty, staff, & students who actually read e-mail
advertisements in “The Campus” to reach students as well as faculty & staff
posters to reach students
creation of more “go” links for easy access
use of QR codes to attract the attention of mobile device enthusiasts

We’ve also been trying to assess the effectiveness of our marketing efforts – here’s a summary of our metrics:

eNewsletter – special edition. Sent 10/5/11.
Caused a small peak in blog hits – normal background approx 30 per day, peak 196. Some of the eNews links weren’t to blog posts & as you can see below, there were spikes in the stats for featured wiki & web page URLs too.
Top posts on 10/5 – all featured in enews:
Home page 71
All About MiddMedia 16
Lynda in the Limelight 12
What is GO? 12
Searching is new and improved! 11

Unique pageviews /wiki/LIS/Main_Page (Sent Oct 5th, blue)

Unique pageviews /offices/technology/help/ (Sent Oct 5th, blue)

Unique pageviews /offices/technology/help/mediaserv/Recordingrequest (Sent Oct 5th, blue)

QR codes

Perhaps it was the content, or perhaps people in general aren’t following QR codes around here, but the codes we included in our posters & “Campus” advertisements weren’t used much! 3 hits on MiddMedia posters and 1 hit on a “Search” poster.

Changes in use of advertised features

Self-service PIN and password updating.
Frequency of Helpdesk HEAT tickets for PIN reset. The decrease in HEAT tickets after the marketing effort indicates a possible, though transitory, effect!

Training: Lynda.com
With the help of Pij Slater, we were able to gather statistics about lynda.com use, but it was difficult to assess for sure whether our advertising caused any spikes in new-user accounts (posters around campus, bookmarks, LISblog posts, and an ad in The Campus on Nov. 3.) However, we can chart the number of new users from the time the service was officially rolled out in July,and we see that at least word is getting out:

July: 30
August: 103
September: 107
October: 80
Nov. (as of the15th): 46

Overall, it seems as though the strongest tool in our marketing kit is still the LIS eNewsletter, in addition to the MiddPoints News & Announcements blog (also shared as an email digest).