Build Your Skills and Career with LinkedIn Learning

Online learning platform with 18,000 courses is available at no-cost for staff, faculty and students

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As an administrative specialist with Duke University Hospital’s perioperative services unit, Robert Johnson often examines data about surgeries and schedules to see how things can work smoother.

To better analyze data, Johnson learned how to use SPSS, a powerful statistics platform, with the help of LinkedIn Learning, an online learning platform with roughly 18,000 courses offered at no charge through Duke. He described the SPSS lessons as “very digestible.”

“They take you step-by-step on how to open the app, how to navigate it and how to play around in it,” he said. “They show you a little sandbox of tools and exercises so you can get familiar with it instead of just being thrown into the deep end of the pool.”

Duke staff, faculty and students have access to LinkedIn Learning’s growing online training library by logging in with their Duke NetID.  High-quality, professionally produced content covers everything from business and technology topics to well-being themes with options for certificates.

“I think it’s really one of the benefits I love about Duke,” said Chuck Roberson, Duke’s Parking & Transportation customer service manager who has taken LinkedIn Learning courses on leadership, Microsoft Excel, effective communication, and balancing work and life. “I’m always going through there looking for topics which can help me do my job better.”

We took a spin through the latest LinkedIn courses and share a few that were added within the past few months.

Four Time Wasting Habits: How to Quit

Image courtesy of LinkedIn Learning.

Released in January of 2023, this 26-minute audio-only course is hosted by work efficiency expert Pete Mockaitis and writer Steve Glaveski. They explain four habits, such as switching between tasks too often, that knock people off track and leave them with less time to accomplish work.

The pair explore creative strategies, such as designating times to check email or learning how to automate or outsource certain tasks.

“When we’re totally immersed on one task, the rest of the world can seem to fade away and the hours can fly by,” Glaveski said. “We are way more productive. But when we’re in a state of hyper-responsiveness, nothing gets done. We can be busy, busy, busy all day long but have little to show for it.”

The Headspace Guide to Mindful Workdays

Image courtesy of LinkedIn Learning.

LinkedIn Learning has a wide range of guided meditation sessions among its content.

A 21-minute session from February 2023, the Headspace Guide to Mindful Workdays, provided by Headspace, offers a series of short guided mindfulness exercises built around a workday.

The beginner lesson features a handful of 3-5 minute exercises for getting into the flow of a morning, a midday reset and an afternoon refresh.

“You can watch this course all the way through, or pick and choose short exercises when you need them most throughout the day,” said instructor Samantha Snowden. “No worries if you’ve never meditated before, we’ll walk you through every step.”

Inclusive Mindset

Image courtesy of LinkedIn Learning.

Creating an inclusive environment requires self-reflection and a willingness to challenge internal and external bias effectively and empathetically.

As Dereca Blackmon, CEO of the Inclusion Design Group, explains in her 52-minute course released in November 2022, adopting an inclusive mindset is the first step in that process.

Blackmon’s course is broken into six chapters, with a short quiz at the end of each one.

“Embracing an inclusive mindset means becoming more effective in creating change,” Blackmon said. “This is the kind of change where all people feel included, respected and treated as equals.”.

Outlook: Efficient Email Management

Image courtesy of LinkedIn Learning.

The Microsoft Outlook email inbox is an invaluable repository for information and resource for communication, but finding things can be tricky if an inbox is not maintained or organized.

Microsoft expert Gini von Courter offers a comprehensive breakdown of tips and strategies for wrangling control of your email inbox in the two-hour, five-chapter course released in July 2022.

Among the strategies taught in the course are using the “advanced search” tool to more effectively dig out old emails, use conditional formatting to color-code messages from important senders, and use folders and “quick steps” to automate the process of organizing your inbox.

“If we could improve our email management, even if only incrementally, and if the improvements we made could become habits, we could save hours every single week,” von Courter said.

Get started with LinkedIn Learning through Duke here.

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