LinkedIn Learning is an online learning platform that offers a wide variety of courses across many different topics, including business, creative, and technology skills. With a LinkedIn Learning subscription, users can access high-quality, expert-led courses to advance their careers. However, a common question many LinkedIn Learning subscribers have is whether they can share access to courses with others. The short answer is no – LinkedIn Learning does not allow course sharing due to copyright and licensing restrictions. However, there are some workarounds and alternatives to enable learning with others. This article will provide an overview of LinkedIn Learning course sharing rules, reasons why sharing is restricted, options to learn with others using LinkedIn Learning, and alternative platforms that allow content sharing.
Can You Share LinkedIn Learning Courses?
The standard LinkedIn Learning license is for individual use only. Subscribers are not allowed to distribute or share content from LinkedIn Learning courses with others who do not have their own subscriptions. This applies to both individual and organization subscriptions.
Specifically, LinkedIn’s Terms of Service state:
“The Services are intended solely for your own use. You may not resell, lease, share or distribute the Services or any reports or data generated by the Services.”
So officially sharing your login credentials or course materials with non-subscribers would be considered a violation of LinkedIn’s terms.
Why Can’t LinkedIn Learning Courses Be Shared?
There are a few key reasons why LinkedIn Learning restricts sharing courses:
Copyright and Licensing Restrictions
LinkedIn Learning owns the copyright on their course content or has licensed it from the instructors. This content is intended only for use by paying subscribers. Sharing the courses would violate the copyright and licensing agreements.
Security and Account Protection
Sharing login credentials compromises account security and makes the account vulnerable to misuse. LinkedIn aims to protect user account security and prevent unauthorized access.
Revenue and Sustainability of the Platform
Access to courses is a key part of LinkedIn Learning’s subscription business model. Enabling sharing would essentially allow non-paying users to access premium content for free, which is not financially viable. Restricting access helps sustain the platform and continued creation of new courses.
How Can I Legally Learn with Others via LinkedIn Learning?
While directly sharing courses is prohibited under LinkedIn’s terms, there are some options to legally learn and discuss concepts from courses together:
Group Subscription via an Organization
Many organizations purchase enterprise or team subscriptions to LinkedIn Learning for their employees. This enables groups under the same subscription to access courses. Learning together is possible for groups within the same organization.
Share General Concepts Learned
While you can’t share verbatim course content, you can legally discuss and share high-level concepts, ideas, and your own notes from the courses. Summarizing principles or having conceptual discussions does not violate copyright.
Physical Group Viewing
It is permitted to have physical viewing groups, where a group watches a course together on one logged-in device. This is analogous to watching a DVD together. However, the course cannot be streamed to multiple locations or devices.
Alternatives for Sharing Online Courses
While limited in scope, there are some other online learning platforms that do enable sharing courses or content with others:
Skillshare
Skillshare has options for Teams and Organizations accounts, which allow groups to access and share courses. Their terms permit sharing within an organization.
Udemy for Business
Udemy for Business enables sharing Udemy courses within an organization by distributing content via their own internal platform. Employees can view and share courses.
edX
edX offers some courses that allow groups or teams to register together. Group enrollments allow sharing materials privately within the group.
Coursera for Campus
Coursera for Campus enables universities to distribute Coursera courses to enrolled students on campus. This facilitates course sharing within campus communities.
YouTube
YouTube has a massive library of educational content creators. Videos can easily be shared with anyone publicly or privately via links and embeds.
Skillshare Projects
Skillshare has a Projects feature that allows Course Creators to share course projects publicly for feedback and learning. Students can view others’ work and provide feedback.
Workaround Options to Share LinkedIn Learning Content
While clearly prohibited by LinkedIn’s terms, some users do share courses unofficially using workarounds. Two common options are:
Sharing Login Credentials
Giving other people your LinkedIn Learning login lets them access your subscription account without their own. This violates LinkedIn’s terms and account security practices.
Copying/Downloading Course Materials
Using tools or extensions to download, screen record, or copy course videos and materials makes them shareable. However, this violates copyright and licensing of the content.
We do not recommend these workarounds, as they can put your account at risk and constitute copyright infringement.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn Learning does not allow officially sharing of courses due to licensing, security, and financial reasons. However, there are some options to legally discuss and learn concepts together through shared subscriptions, group viewing sessions, and alternative platforms. While workarounds exist to unofficially share, these come with risks and legal concerns. For accessible group learning, using authorized organizational subscriptions or alternative platforms like Skillshare, Udemy, edX, and YouTube is the best approach. But when using LinkedIn Learning as an individual, focus on learning together through concepts vs. verbatim content.
