LearnKey Blog

LearnKey, now a Better Learning Systems company

Good news, everyone! It was just announced that LearnKey is now a Better Learning Systems company.

What does this mean for you? As a parent company, Better Learning Systems oversees three brands – LearnKey, LearnCast, and Predix. Each company will continue to operate with their current branding, but the new partnership allows us to expand each others’ offerings in a way we could have never done before. LearnKey customers now have access to LearnCast’s mobile learning and publishing platform, and the Know Your Talents™ behavioral learning system powered by Predix.

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What’s Your New Year’s Resolution?

At the beginning of every year, people from all over the world make a vow to improve their lives. Sure, you can say things like “I’m losing weight!” or “I’m going to exercise more!” like millions of others, but unfortunately most people don’t stick with it. So, with typical New Year’s Resolution failure rates extremely high, why not try something new this year – get a certification or gain a new job skill.

As several studies in the past few years have concluded, employers claim they can’t find enough qualified people to fill the available jobs. If there is a lack of qualified job candidates, that means the qualified ones will stand out even more than before. That means that if you’re qualified, your chance at landing the job you’re after just skyrocketed.

See for yourself – take a look at the job results when you search for “A+ Certification”.

Want to learn Adobe Photoshop? Here are some jobs requiring Photoshop skills.

Mobile apps are huge right now – and they all need skilled developers to create them. Here are some Mobile App Developer jobs.

I’m not going to lie, mastering a new skill and gaining a certification takes dedication and focus. It’s not something you can set aside an hour every few weeks to work on, you really have to work at it. The same rule applies to pretty much anything that will improve your life, though. Want to lose weight? You’re going to have to put some serious time in at the gym and watch what you eat. Working out for a few minutes once every two months won’t cut it.

So if you really want to work on adding new skills to your résumé, why not get started now? Who knows, maybe once you land that new job, you’ll get more free time to focus on some of your previous resolutions!

LearnKey Holiday Hours

Good news, everyone! It’s late December, which means it’s the time of year filled with food, family, holiday cheer, and odd business hours.

LearnKey’s Holiday Business Hours

While you can still access your OnlineExpert courses over the holidays, our sales and support staff will not be available outside of these times:

Normal business hours:
Sales: Mon – Fri 8am – 5pm MT
Support: Mon – Fri 6am – 6pm MT

Friday, December 23: Closed at 2pm MT

Monday, December 26: Closed

Friday, December 30: Closed at 1pm MT

Monday, January 2: Closed

We hope everyone has a great end of the year. Be sure to eat plenty of holiday snacks and drink plenty of eggnog, because pretty soon everyone will have to start their New Year’s resolutions to go on a diet!

LearnKey Summer Giveaway: Thanks for participating!

Our giveaway on Facebook has officially ended as of Thursday 9/15. Thanks to everyone who participated and shared with their friends and family, and congratulations to everyone who won prizes!

Grand Prize Winner

Our Grand Prize winner was Michael Cruz. Michael won an Acer Aspire laptop bundled with our A+ 2009 (course + 2011 updates) series. He was also the first winner back when we started our giveaway, winning a $50 Amazon gift card. Being one of the most active and earning more entries than almost everyone who participated, it goes to show that participation can definitely help your odds!

Second Prize Winners

Kevin Gensel: $25 Amazon gift card
Patrick Gutierrez: $50 Amazon gift card
Mike Elder: $25 Amazon gift card
Taylor Manuele: Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch input tablet
Richard Ponce: $25 Amazon gift card
Becky Gardner: Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Student with Office 2010 training
Corey Krumpelman: $50 Amazon gift card
Julie Smith: $50 Amazon gift card
alisha snyder: $25 Amazon gift card
Logan Hall: Western Digital 1TB external hard drive

Once again, thank you to everyone who participated. Be sure to keep an eye out for future promotions!

Applying for Jobs in the Modern World

I’m going to be honest here, I absolutely despise job hunting. Sitting in interviews and going through the formalities stresses me out just thinking about it. When the job hunt begins, all kinds of questions run through my head; Am I dressed as professionally as I need to be? Will I come across as too professional, and seem fake? Do I have enough references on my résumé? These are all valid concerns, but according to a recent article by CareerBuilder, Job advice that was true 20 years ago, but not today, it may be unnecessary worry.

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Summer Giveaway Winners, So Far…

Enter LearnKey's Summer Giveaway on Facebook!

If you haven’t heard yet, LearnKey is running a Facebook contest and giving away some great prizes. So far our winners are:

  • Michael Cruz from Denver, CO – $50 Amazon gift card
  • Logan Hall from Dammeron Valley, UT – Western Digital 1 TB External hard drive.

Don’t worry, that’s not all we have to giveaway. We saved some great prizes to give away all month long! We still have more Amazon gift cards, a WACOM Bamboo Pen & Touch input tablet with LearnKey’s Photoshop CS5 training, and a Microsoft Office 2010 for Home and Student suite with LearnKey’s Office 2010 training. View our previous blog for contest details.

Be sure to visit our Facebook page and enter the LearnKey Giveaway – you could be our next lucky winner!

LearnKey’s Summer Giveaway – Enter now!

Enter LearnKey's Summer Giveaway on Facebook!

We are launching an exciting new contest, and you are invited to participate.

To Enter:

Visit our Facebook page and "Like" us

Fill out the short form to enter the current contest.
Click on the "LK Giveaway" tab to access the contest, fill out the short entry form and you will be entered to win the current prize, as well as the Grand Prize. All month long we are giving away different prizes, such as:

  • Amazon® gift cards
  • Western Digital® 1TB External hard drive
  • Microsoft® Office 2010 for Home and Student suite, with LearnKey's Office 2010 training
  • WACOM® Bamboo Pen & Touch input tablet with LearnKey's Photoshop CS5 training

Be sure to check back often to see the current prizes. You can enter every day for more chances to win!

Each entry qualifies you for the Grand Prize: an Acer® Aspire 15.6" Laptop and your choice of LearnKey training bundles.
Each and every entry into our any of our contests during this promotion enters you into the Grand Prize drawing of an Acer® Laptop with LearnKey training.

Choose from:

  • Office 2010 Training Bundle: Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010
  • Adobe CS5 Training Bundle: Photoshop CS5, Flash CS5, Dreamweaver CS5
  • CompTIA A+ Training Bundle: A+ 2009 Certification Series

Individual contest dates will be announced on Facebook
Don't wait, "Like" us now to participate!

LearnKey’s Video Production Courses – What Are the Differences?

Are you looking for training to help you pass your Visual Communication using Premiere Pro CS5 ACA exam? Or maybe you aren’t looking to certify, but still want to learn the basics of video production? Either way, our new course releases have you covered.

We recently released 3 new courses: Video Production 101, Video Editing 101, and Premiere Pro CS5.

If you’re reading this post, you might be wondering which one is right for your needs. All three courses provide training on various aspects of video production, and all three are presented by expert Ryan James, but they are not meant to be purchased together. Video Production 101 takes you through the basics of video production, covering everything from storyboards to lighting and camera techniques. Video Editing 101 teaches you techniques used in the editing process, using programs like Adobe OnLocation, Premiere Pro CS5 and Adobe Media Encoder to create a finished product. Premiere Pro CS5 includes the topics in the previous two courses, but is geared to prepare you for the Visual Communication using Premiere Pro CS5 ACA exam.

So, depending on your goals, we suggest a couple different options.

Option 1: If you are looking for basic training for video production or video editing (one or the other, not both), you can purchase eitherVideo Production 101 or Video Editing 101 for $180.

Option 2: If you are looking for both of these training courses, or are looking to get your ACA certification, you can purchase Premiere Pro CS5, for $280. You get the same content used in the other two courses plus certification objectives for $80 less than if you bought them separately.

Basically, think of Video Production 101 and Video Editing 101 as the À la carte versions of the training, where Premiere Pro CS5 is the complete package.

Web Browsing Tips – Tab Groups

Personally, I usually use Chrome for the majority of my web browsing. Being LearnKey’s webmaster though, I need to at least have a copy of the major browsers around to test things, and I recently installed an update to Firefox 5. Our graphic designer Kari pointed out a pretty cool and useful feature Firefox recently added to their updates – Tab Groups.

Say you’re working on a few different projects at once, and you don’t want to mix up the different tabs you have open between projects. You could open a new browser window and separate them that way, but Firefox’s Tab Groups feature lets you keep it all in one window, and switch between groups easily. It’s fairly similar to the Spaces feature in Mac OS X.

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Premiere Pro CS5 with Ryan James

It’s time for another piece of the Adobe CS5 training puzzle – Premiere Pro CS5 featuring expert Ryan James. Not only is this course made to teach you how to use Premiere Pro CS5, but it walks you through the video creation method, from pre-production all the way to the final steps, all while preparing you to earn your ACA certification by passing the Visual Communication using Premiere Pro CS5 exam.

Find out more about our Premiere Pro CS5 course, or check out the video below for a preview.

Also, if you purchase this course on our website between now and June 30, you can receive 20% off by entering coupon code NEW20 at checkout. Coupon only applies to single-user web purchases.