My Experience Becoming a Lynda.com Author

During your career, certain milestones come and go without ever being noticed. However, there are some milestones that you simply can’t ignore. These milestones stop you in your tracks and force you to pinch yourself—they make you think, “gosh, have I really ‘made’ it?!” Well, I have to admit, I recently had one of these moments.

This past week, I was super excited to announce the launch of my very first course with Lynda.com: Learning Articulate 360: Rise.

Besides the excitement of launching my first course and becoming a Lynda.com author, I’ve been even more excited to tell you about my six-month journey to getting here!

Here’s my experience becoming a Lynda.com author.

How it All Started

I’m not exactly sure how I came about becoming a Lynda.com author. It was back in February when I was contacted by Aaron Quigley, a Content Manager for Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning, who asked if I would be interested in authoring and recording a course on Rise, a new eLearning authoring tool by Articulate.

I was excited, to say the least. I’ve always admired Lynda.com’s approach to training and how they made it possible to learn almost any piece of software out there.

Upon receiving the offer, I accepted without a bit of hesitation. Having just started a new eLearning job with GoDaddy only a few months prior, I was a bit nervous about the time commitment I was signing up for, but I simply couldn’t refuse the opportunity.

That’s how my journey to becoming Lynda.com author started.

The Scripting Process

After accepting the offer, Aaron and I immediately jumped into conversations about the course itself. I was initially surprised (and a bit suspicious) by the amount of creative control and trust I was granted. It felt both empowering and bit scary to have giants like Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning trust what I had to say about Articulate and Rise.

After planning out the “table of contents” for the course, it was time to start scripting each video. At this point, Aaron’s job was done and I was introduced to my Producer, Bobby Erzen. Bobby’s job was simple: to make sure I was on schedule and fully prepared for recording. Over the several weeks I spent scripting each video, Bobby and I would meet to review and practice each video.

I won’t lie, the scripting process is a bit tedious. Not only did I have to script each video, word-for-word, I also had to build a sample course with Rise to demonstrate each feature. As Brian Thurston Bralczyk describes in his Lynda.com story, the scripting process “was hard.”

Luckily for me, I felt very prepared to script my videos. Prior to working with GoDaddy, I spent almost three-straight years facilitating Articulate Storyline workshops with E-Learning Uncovered and ATD. This wasn’t my first time designing a learning program for an eLearning authoring tool.

The Recording Process

After I finally finished scripting my videos, it was now time for the actual recording. Lynda.com’s offices are located in Carpinteria, California, just north of Los Angeles. Upon landing at LAX, I decided to take the scenic route up Highway One, through Malibu.

My recording time was scheduled for a full four days. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but I knew it was going to be a lot of work. On the morning of my first say, I met by Producer, Bobby, and we headed off to the recording booths.

The recording booth was tiny, but comfortable. We spent about an hour or so getting set up and conducting a few test recordings. My first few recordings felt rough. I’ll be honest; it was a bit of a juggling act trying to read my script on one screen and demonstrate the process on another, all while trying to sound professional and limiting unnecessary mouse movements. However, after my first few takes, I was able to find my groove.

The first day of recording flew by in no time at all. We were able to knock out nearly half of the 27 videos we needed to record. The second day was even faster. We were able to finish the remaining videos by lunchtime!

All in all, I have to say I felt pretty good to finishing the recording ahead of schedule!

The Hiking

You’d think after finishing the recording process two and a half days early; I’d be eager to get back home, right? Not at all! Besides the excitement of now being an official Lynda.com author, I was equally excited about the extra time I now had for some incredible hiking.

Carpinteria sits on the base of the Santa Ynez Mountains. Living in Arizona, I’ve seen my fair share of mountains, but these looked different. They seemed taller than most.

After a quick Google search, I quickly learned that the Santa Ynez Mountains offered a ton of hiking trails. After bookmarking several different trailheads, I was off to explore! On my first day off, I hiked the Romero Canyon Trailhead, which wrapped its way up to a beautiful view of Carpinteria and the Pacific ocean.

On my second day, I decided to be a bit more adventurous and hike to Inspiration Point, which sits on a peak above Santa Barbara. The hike up took me about an hour and was mostly straight up, but it paid off at the end. The views were incredible.

In the End…

In the end, my experience becoming a Lynda.com author was fantastic. The process was a lot of work, but it offered me a career-defining experience.

If you haven’t had the chance, check out my course on Lynda.com: Learning Articulate 360: Rise. Enjoy!

Additional Resources

• First Look at Rise: Articulate’s Newest eLearning Authoring Tool
• What’s New in Articulate 360
• What’s New in Articulate Storyline 360
• Articulate Storyline 3 vs. Storyline 360: Which Should You Buy?

Download My Free eBook: 10 Lessons Learned My First Year in eLearning!

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