Linkedin Learning is a vast collection of online courses on a huge variety of topics. For Project Managers (PMs) in particular there’s a wealth of knowledge on a variety of contemporary methodologies, useful tools, and professional development. My employer provides free access to Linkedin Learning for all staff, and it’s been an invaluable resource since I jumped into my first full time project management role in 2018. 

More recently, I’ve been working toward obtaining a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, and Linkedin Learning has proved useful on a whole new level. Over three months, I completed 30 hours of courses that qualify as professional education credits for the PMP. Adding in courses I’ve taken in the past when I wanted to hone specific skills, I now have all 35 required hours complete with no cost to me. I have more studying to do before I’m ready for my PMP exam, but I already have a solid foundation that I built on my own schedule. 

This post is a cleaned-up version of recommendations I’ve shared with several colleagues who have asked for advice on becoming a project manager or applying project management methods to their own jobs and projects. My perspective here comes from my experience as a project manager in small nonprofits, Libraries, Archives and Museums (LAMs), and higher education. I work on digital collections, fundraising, websites, and grant funded projects, mainly on the smaller side and always in collaborative environments reaching across multiple departments or institutions. If you’re in a similar position, these will be especially relevant. If you’re in a different sector you will have different needs, but the starting point is the same so this may help you too.

Start Here

These make good first courses – not too long, engaging instructors, and they set out useful ideas for where to go next.

Managing Small Projects is a good one to start with, it’s got all the basic jargon and thought frameworks in a shorter package than the full “Foundations” course from the same instructor. And in PM industry terms whatever you’ll be working on as a new project manager will likely count as a “small project”  – budgets under a million dollars, teams under 20 people. Bonnie Biafore is a clear, no-nonsense teacher, and I like her longer course as well and link it further down.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/project-management-foundations-small-projects-2

Managing Technical Projects is another good one that I think would be worth your time right up front. The instructor, Bob McGannon is highly personable and enjoyable to watch, and his explanation of the distinctions between “technical” and other types of projects was highly enlightening for me.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/project-management-technical-projects-2021

Going Deeper

When you want to invest several more hours, these courses go deeper on the fundamentals. 

Project Management Foundations From the same instructor as “Managing Small Projects,” this longer course gives a full overview of the elements of project management with a mostly traditional waterfall (sequential, linear) approach and speaking to current Project Management Institute (PMI) standards in a way that’s especially useful if you’re interested in the CAPM, PMP, or PMI certifications. 

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/project-management-foundations-15528659

Project Management Foundations: Communication There’s always more to learn about communication for projects. This video includes a lot of useful terminology and techniques for further study.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/project-management-foundations-communication-2019

Leading Productive Meetings Planning and running a useful meeting that people don’t resent having to attend? Solid gold!

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/leading-productive-meetings-17188803

All About Agile 

Actually just a bit about Agile, there’s so much more! I feel more confident now than I did before these courses but it’s still not exactly my comfort zone. 

Agile Foundations

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/agile-foundations

Agile Project Leadership

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/agile-project-leadership

Transitioning from Waterfall to Agile Project Management

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/transitioning-from-waterfall-to-agile-project-management-2019

Hybrid Project Management: Do What Works is a guide to putting it all together. Good rubrics here for picking the best approaches for different parts of a project, and moving between them without losing track of the high level project vision.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/hybrid-project-management-do-what-works

More Good Stuff

Project Management Foundations: Ethics Once again, I am fond of McGannon’s teaching style. I find it valuable to consider the ethics lessons intertwining with communication and stakeholder management.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/project-management-foundations-ethics-2019

Project Management Foundations: Risk This one is pretty far on the business-y side of things, so it’s not as directly applicable to my LAMs and nonprofit projects context, but it did help me think about risk from some different angles than I have in the past. 

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/project-management-foundations-risk-14910484

Project Manager Burnout: Recognizing, Disrupting, and Reversing

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/project-manager-burnout-recognizing-disrupting-and-reversing

Learning Asana

I happen to use Asana myself for most of my projects, and Learning Asana taught me a lot even after having used it for several years. If you’re interested in learning a good free tool, this course is great. It’s long, but very modular and easy to skip to the parts that are most relevant for you. 

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-asana-14468294

Try It Out

If you have Linkedin Learning through an employer, school, or paid subscription, I highly recommend checking out my playlist of courses today to level up your project management skills. You can also look into getting free access through your local library. 

Finally, I must give a shout out to this Medium post which showed me what a great resource Linkedin Learning could be for my PMP studies. I don’t necessarily endorse the idea of cramming courses in a single month, but if you have that kind of time to invest it may be worth a try. However you decide to approach these courses, I’d love to hear how they work out for you!