In my first year at York, I directed and edited two short movies, and found video editing fun and entertaining. I also realized this skill could bring me more (paying) projects to work on. As someone who has worked in digital marketing, I know that video content is essential for brand communication and that many clients need this service. My faculty, the School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), has editing classes, but I had yet to see if something like video editing would suit me. I decided to test that out on the LinkedIn Learning platform by taking a course about video editing.
The LinkedIn Learning platform has more than 22,000 courses where you can get professional certificates, certification preparation, certification practice exams, continuing education (CEU) and academic credits.
Pro tip: York University offers students and faculty a FREE membership to LinkedIn Learning! You simply log in using your Passport York credentials.
What does a LinkedIn Learning course look like?
The course I took was around three hours long and was in video format, and it was terrific in terms of user experience. There is a straightforward content table - similar to video chapters on YouTube - so you can jump between content. There is also an option to bookmark chapters, make notes or leave a comment. In my video editing course, I also got exercise files, which are extra files or content to practice what I’ve learned.
On my LinkedIn Learning profile, I especially liked the option to set up my weekly goals. You can also choose your career goals, such as transitioning to a new job or industry. After setting your career goals, LinkedIn recommends courses to help you achieve them. I set my goal to become a script writer and was immediately shown screenwriting courses, but also courses that could teach me how to find a mentor or leverage my network.
What are the benefits of LinkedIn Learning?
The video editing course helped me find other projects to work on because I was confident in my new skills. I edited several videos for YouTube for new clients, and with each one I edited, my skills developed further. I learned how to extract music from a video, make a vertical video from a horizontal one, make effective transitions, add captions and so much more.
It also helped me explore more digital technologies- I needed to split voice from background music in one video, which I successfully did with artificial intelligence software. And while my LinkedIn Learning course was focused on Premiere Pro video editing software, I chose to work with the free CapCut software. Both software are quite similar - it felt familiar, like how the image editing software, Photopea, is similar to Photoshop. So, learning about one software introduced me to many others!
The important thing for me was to approach LinkedIn Learning with clear and focused goals and a precise timeline, as I already had a lot of ongoing courses at York.
Overall, LinkedIn Learning is a great option for specialization, learning about niche subjects and broadening your knowledge about any topic you are interested in. It is also free for York students, so why not give it a try!