Lynda.com launches a Roku channel to bring its lessons to your television

LinkedIn is bringing the power of Lynda.com right to your living room with the launch of a Roku channel. Starting today, all the courses available on the online education service can be viewed on the largest screen in your home — all you need is a Lynda.com membership and a Roku device.

It’s been eight months since LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com for $1.5 billion, and this is the first major update since then. By making the site’s 4,000 courses available right on the Roku device, the company is hoping that you no longer feel resigned to huddling around a small laptop or desktop monitor screen. Instead you can sit on your couch with your friends or family, watching comfortably as you learn a new skill.

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Within Roku’s service, find the Lynda.com channel under the “Educational” category. From there, add it to your dashboard and then authenticate using your existing username and password. Having a subscription is mandatory, but after logging in, you’ll be able to scroll through various categories such as 3D and animation, audio and music, business, and others. The experience should be exactly like you had before, but now on a bigger screen.

This isn’t the first time that LinkedIn-owned Lynda.com has come to the small screen. In 2014, the company built a way to bring its courses to the television through Google’s Chromecast. So it’s likely that we will soon see other supported devices, such as the new Apple TV.

Membership in Lynda.com starts at $25 a month per person, but what’s interesting is that with television support, more people will be able to take advantage of classes. Is Lynda.com looking to establish co-learning sessions? For example, if I’m going to be brushing up on my accounting skills and I know friends that want to learn as well, instead of having them subscribe to Lynda.com, I can invite them over and we’ll broadcast lessons right from my living room. Perhaps that’s LinkedIn’s plan to try to get more subscribers — if you like what you saw at your friend’s house, then you may subscribe to enjoy private lessons.

The Lynda.com Roku channel is now available.