Alternatives to Skillfeed | Skillfeed is Shutting It’s Doors
Finding an Alternative to Skillfeed
If you’re reading this article you may know that Skillfeed is shutting its virtual doors, and current student subscribers will need to look elsewhere for their online learning needs.
This article is intended to let you know what’s happened with Skillfeed and offer you some guidance on what your other options are for online learning subscriptions as an alternative to Skillfeed.
Skillfeed Shutdown Notice
The team at Skillfeed released the Skillfeed Shutdown Notice with more information on what will happen to customers and teachers alike.
This is from the Skillfeed Shutdown Notice:
“Two years ago, we launched Skillfeed to help develop new and existing skills through curating online tutorials. We’re grateful for your part in this community and for the feedback and guidance you offered us. Skillfeed is at a crossroads and, after thoughtful consideration and exhausting many different ideas, we have decided to no longer accept new customers or instructors as of today. Skillfeed will continue to offer access to the site for our existing customers through September 30, 2015 before ending our service.
We want to thank you for choosing Skillfeed to advance your skills and for your continued support through this transition.”
Privacy Concerns with Skillfeed
As a customer, you really have to wonder what will become of the personal information you handed over to Skillfeed, including your credit card number. One thing is for sure – Skillfeed’s parent company, Shutterstock, will very likely keep your personal information as a sales tool for their next business venture. After all, many of Skillfeed’s customers were Shutterstock customers who were then marketed to in order to feed Skillfeed’s subscription base.
Will they be keeping your credit card information too? Most likely the answer is yes. With hackers in the news nearly every day grabbing your personal information from one company or another, that’s a scary thought.
What to Do Now If You’re a Skillfeed Customer?
If you’re still interested in learning and like the subscription approach there are several good options for you. Which one you choose really depends on what you’re most interested in learning, how much you’re willing to pay, the ability to get your money back if dissatisfied and whether or not you require a certificate of completion for the courses you take.
Next, we’ll go over some of the options Skillfeed customers have for subscription based learning in the wake of Skillfeed’s demise.
Stone River eLearning
Stone River eLearning specializes in technology courses currently carries over 100 online courses and their catalog is growing all the time. New courses are developed based on student feedback and market analysis of the most in-demand technology skills.
Courses Offered
Stone River eLearning is a bit unique in video based learning in that it offers courses across a broad spectrum of technology related skills. Course categories range from Programming to Graphic Design, and Web Design to IT Certifications. Whether you’re interested in learning to code or learning to design beautiful things on the web, they may be a good option for you.
Pricing
Stone River is offering an affordable alternative to Skillfeed’s $19/month. Since Skillfeed customers now need to find an alternative online learning environment, Stone River is offering a limited time $7/month subscription option for the life of your subscription (regularly $29/month). This plan includes all project files, source codes and assessments. They also offer a one-time fee for lifetime access to their catalog for $997.
You also have the option to purchase one course at a time at Stone River if you’re not interested in the subscription model.
Money Back Guarantee
Stone River eLearning offers a 30 day money back guarantee with no questions asked and no hassles on all of its courses and subscriptions. You have absolutely nothing to lose by trying them out.
Certificate of Completion
Yes, Stone River eLearning provides a verifiable certificate of completion for all courses, and they can be uploaded to your LinkedIn profile so potential employers can verify you have specific skill sets.
CodeSchool
CodeSchool offers video based learning on a relatively small set of technologies related mainly to web development and iOS development.
Courses Offered
CodeSchool offers a fair number of courses categorized into learning paths. They lean heavily on web development programming languages and technologies. They also cover iOS development, but this is not as in depth. As of the writing of this article, iOS9 is out and their most recent course is on iOS7.
Pricing
They offer a $29/month subscription plan, slightly less if you pay yearly. There is currently no option to purchase courses individually. They also offer a few of their introductory level courses for free so you can try before you buy.
Money Back Guarantee
Nowhere to be found on their site is any sort of money back guarantee. However, they do offer the option to ‘pause’ your account and begin paying again later. You can also deactivate your subscription at any time, but you will not receive your money back.
Certificate of Completion
CodeSchool does not offer certificates of completion that can travel with you. Instead they’ve opted for a points system where you earn points for completing courses and learning paths. This idea stems from the ‘gamification’ of learning concept that’s popular with eLearning technology professionals today.
Lynda
Lynda.com, the grandmother of on-demand online learning, has been around since the dawn of the internet. Recently purchased by LinkedIn, Lynda’s next phase seems to be linking its learning catalog with the infrastructure of LinkedIn, which brings up very interesting possibilities.
Courses Offered
Simply put, Lynda has everything. They’ve been around so long that if you want to learn something, you’ll likely find it on Lynda.
Pricing
They make it easy to sign up for their 10 day free trial, but require your email address to even see their pricing. I’ve done that for you, and they offer two plans, a $25/month plan and a yearly plan at $240/year.
Money Back Guarantee
If you live in a European Union company, good news – you have a 14 day money back option. If you live elsewhere in the world you’re out of luck. You can cancel your subscription at any time, but you won’t get your money back.
Certificate of Completion
Lynda offers certificates of completion for watching all the videos in a course. No assessments or other proof of learning are required.
Digital Tutors
Digital Tutors has a really neat looking website that honestly makes me want to become a video game developer. They’ve partnered with Pluralsight to offer a wider range of course topics than the company originally had intended.
Courses Offered
They focus mainly on animation and game development with a bit of software and web development sprinkled in for good measure. Their catalog leans heavily on teaching specific software skills needed to work in the game development field
Pricing
Digital Tutors offers a Basic plan $29/month subscription which gets you access to their courses. If you want any project files (which come with all other subscriptions mentioned here), assessments or certificates of completion you’ll need to spend a whopping $49/month for their Plus plan. They don’t offer a yearly plan option or the ability to purchase courses individually.
Money Back Guarantee
They offer a 10 day money back guarantee on their subscriptions. This offer is only good for first time subscribers.
As previously mentioned, they do offer certificates of completion. In order to access your certificate you’ll need to be on the Plus plan at $49/month.
Certificate of Completion
Digital Tutors actually offers two types of certificates. A certificate of completion for watching all the videos in a course, and a certificate of achievement for passing the course assessments.
Pluralsight
Pluralsight has been around since 2004, and has had a successful run as a subscription-based online learning platform. In fact, they’ve either bought or partnered with several other subscription learning sites, including Digital Tutors. Pluralsight seems to stay on top of new course development by getting emerging technologies into online course form earlier than many other online learning sites.
Courses Offered
Through its various acquisitions used to increase the size of its online course catalog, Pluralsight now offers over 4,000 courses covering all areas of technology, IT and design.
Pricing
Pluralsight offers a basic monthly plan for $30/month, with the yearly plan slightly discounted. Just like Digital Tutors, Pluralsight offers a monthly Plus subscription for $50/month which includes the project files, assessments and other course materials. If you really want to get anything out of Pluralsight, expect to pony up $50/month. It’s quite a bit of money, but it may be worth it if you’re looking to learn a lot of new skills.
Money Back Guarantee
Pluralsight does not offer a money back guarantee. They do allow you to cancel at any time, but they’re keeping your payment.
Certificate of Completion
Yes, Pluralsight offers certificates of completion for all courses in their library.