Has LinkedIn Learning Abandoned Learning?

In May 2024, LinkedInLearning released my course, The User Experience of Motion (for Non Designers). To explain the concept of speed without delving into physics, that particular video starts with an F-18 jet piloted by the Blue Angels flying at low level over my townhouse in Toronto. I then explain how a jet flying at over 300 mph translates into an object moving across an app or web screen. The inclusion of the Blue Angels in the course was not done to entertain prospective learners; it was to give them an example of how the speed we experience watching a jet fly over our house translates to speed on a computer or other screen

That sort of original thinking is the hallmark of instructor-led courses at LinkedInLearning. Not anymore.

As a LinkedIn Learning author, a host of other authors, and I have been jettisoned as LinkedInLearning embraces an AI-first strategy and moves away from a content-driven library to an AI-first career development platform. Though LinkedIn has not explained what this means, ask Google’s Gemini, what is this new direction implies, and you are told:

“LinkedIn is essentially betting that AI-driven personalization and enterprise integration are more valuable to their corporate clients than the individual brand or expertise of a human instructor.”

Using Gemini may be unfair because Microsoft, LinkedIn Learning’s parent company, has made a major investment in OpenAI, which brought us ChatGPT and Copilot. So I pose the same question to ChatGPT and, emphasis courtesy of ChatGPT, am told:

“Their published product roadmap makes the “new direction” pretty clear: from a course library first → to an AI-powered, enterprise career-growth platform.”

Reading both remarkably similar responses, I sort of have to ask: “Where do people learn the fundamentals of a career, and how do they remain current?” The answer to both is “human-centred” - human-to-human- learning. Whether in person in a class or through online courses, videos, or other media, people use education to embark on a career or learn a new skill.

Having spent over 40 years teaching in post-secondary settings and being part of LinkedIn Learning/Lynda since 2007, I am deeply concerned about the loss of “human-centred learning” and its replacement by AI Coaches, Agents, or other AI manifestations. I speak from experience on both sides—first as an educator, and now as someone who has seen firsthand what happens when AI-first strategies lead to displacement. Since it’s not my name on the door, I don’t have any issue with LinkedIn’s decision. After all, it’s their company. But I can’t help wondering: Did they really think this through?

First off, why is YouTube so popular when it comes to learning how to do something? Leaving the quality question out of this, it is because there is a human explaining how to change the washer in a faucet as in this video.

Ask ChatGPT the same question and you get this:

What you’ll need

• Adjustable wrench or channel-lock pliers
• Screwdriver (Phillips/flat)
• Allen key (sometimes)
• Replacement washer(s) + maybe an O-ring
• Teflon tape (optional)
• Rag and a small bowl (to catch parts)

Steps (two-handle compression-style faucet)

1. Turn off the water Shut off the two valves under the sink (hot and cold) by turning clockwise. Open the faucet to confirm water stops and to relieve pressure.
2. Plug the drain Put a stopper or rag in the drain so tiny screws don’t disappear.

…. And three more steps with bullet points.

As a teacher, I immediately catch an issue. I can guarantee I will be asked: “What is a two-handle compression-style faucet?” or “What are channel-lock pliers?”YouTube showed me how to do it. ChatGPT told me what to do.

What is missing is answering the “Why” and, when it comes to faucets, “What” questions? For example, the video starts with an explanation of why you need to change the washer. The presenter explains it is not because of the leak, but because of the financial implications. He doesn’t need to explain the “What”, you can see it. An AI only knows the answer to a query, never having changed the washer in a leaky faucet. It is up to you , if the answer is simplistic, to coax out a more detailed explanation.

An AI First approach to education speaks to the quality of the education and, even more fundamentally, how education is delivered. AI is just one educational delivery mechanism; it is not THE delivery mechanism.

AI is an amazing technology. It can effectively synthesize information. It can clearly explain concepts. If you know how to prompt, it can adapt explanations to a variety of knowledge levels. It can provide immediate feedback and help prepare quizzes and other tests. It can infinitely scale. All of this provides a rationale for LinkedIn Learning’s AI-first repositioning. On the surface, it is a compelling argument.

Maybe.

What it can’t do is share authentic lived experiences from decades of industry experience. No AI, unless directly asked,  will use the Blue Angels to explain speed in the digital studio. It can’t offer nuanced judgment. I couldn’t explain the size of a pixel unless I understood what a pixel was and what resolution was, having been involved with digital media since 1987. I love to share my “War Stories” because for over 40 years I have seen it, done it, been there and have the stories to prove it. Nothing catches a learner's attention more than, “Did I ever tell you about the time I….”  AI can’t make real-world concepts compelling and abstract concepts concrete. AI can’t teach from a place of expertise versus aggregated information. When it comes to the time piece of the speed equation, I tell learners it is calculated in milliseconds, then ask, “Imagine a millisecond. You can’t. This is why speed is an illusion.” An AI will never tell you that.

When I create a course, I share what I have learned from actually using the tool, having it blow up in my face, learning a workaround and understanding from bitter experience that there is a vast gulf between what the documentation says and how it actually works. Maybe one day an AI may replicate that. However, the current generation of AI tools uses information it has been trained on, rather than creating knowledge from lived experience.

Creating knowledge from lived experience- Here is what I saw. Here is what I know. Here is what I learned.  - is the essence of learning. It involves a human. Teaching, not coaching, involves a human curating, based upon knowledge and experience, of what needs to be learned. Curation involves a list of Learning Objectives, and LinkedIn Learning requires them when a course is authored. AI Coaches don’t. Generative AI doesn’t. Pull the human factor out of the learning process, and you have abandoned learning and replaced it with a machine that couldn’t watch a Blue Angel fly over my house and think,” I can use that to explain speed.”

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