UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Microsoft IT Academy, an eLearning service available to faculty and staff, is set to retire this June. Users will be contacted when a shutdown date is finalized.
The service was originally made available as part of the University's Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES) agreement, but Penn State IT recently determined that the number of people using Microsoft IT Academy was too low to justify the cost of maintaining the service during an 18-month evaluation for the upcoming Microsoft contract negotiations.
For Penn State students, faculty and staff who are interested in continuing to improve their Microsoft skills or are preparing for Microsoft Certification, lynda.com — a free, on-demand library expert-led video tutorials — is a comparable service that currently has 28,738 videos covering Microsoft products. With lynda.com, tutorials for professional development and highly specialized skill-building are available from your computer or mobile device.
For additional questions or feedback, contact IT Training Services at itstraining@psu.edu. Additional announcements about the Microsoft IT Academy retirement as well as alternative services for technology skill-building will be made available through the Training Services Newsletter and news blog.