Efficiency and Effectiveness: How to Put Microlearning into Practice

By

Karle Stinehour

(Estimated Reading Time 4.5 min.)

According to a 2016 study, the eLearning industry is projected to grow by 17.81% during the years 2016-2020 (Source). Whether you are a trainer or selling your courses, you want to take advantage of this growth. But, are you caught up on the current trends and developments in eLearning? If not, that’s ok. We’ve done the research, so let us be your guide to innovative, emerging technologies and strategies in the industry. In this post, we’ll explore microlearning and how you can use it to streamline your online training.

What is Microlearning?

Few experts actually agree on the exact definition of microlearning, but these general principles are agreed on across the board. Microlearning activities consist of short content focused on one topic, which is called microcontent. The typical format for a microlearning activity is a video that usually lasts no longer than four minutes followed by a brief assessment or other follow-up activity. The purpose of such an activity is to deliver content to learners that is in small, easily-digestible, and retainable chunks. Microlearning is all about retention.

Why Choose Microlearning?

It is estimated that Millennials, with an attention span of 90 seconds on average, will make up 75% of the workforce by 2025 (Source: Bryan Eldridge, “Developing a Microlearning Strategy With or Without an LMS”). With a population that is increasingly more familiar with the high speed of the digital world, the eLearning industry must adapt its learning strategy to the pace of the world around it. Microlearning can help fill that need for the following reasons:

Are There Any Limitations?

Microlearning, while excellent for short focused learning activities, is not intended to replace all types of learning, and does have limitations of which you should be aware.

• The possibility of disjointed content. When learners switch between activities, depending on the order in which they choose to do them, it is possible that they will come out of their training with a fragmented view of the skill they just learned.
• Not great for long-term learning. Simply put, some skills cannot be learned through microlearning activities. Any skill that requires more long-term attention is better suited to another type of learning activity.

Don’t let these limitations be drawbacks. Instead, incorporate microlearning activities into your overall online learning strategy where they will most benefit your learners.

Microlearning in Practice

If you are a trainer, you want to ensure that your online training program is cost-efficient, effective, and produces measurable results. To achieve these goals, we suggest the following strategies when implementing microlearning into your training program:

• Make sure that your microlearning activities align well with your overall training strategy.
• To take full advantage of the benefits of microcontent, course delivery time should not exceed 3-4 minutes.
• To avoid presenting disjointed learning content, don’t convert larger concepts that require long-term mastery to microlearning activities, unless the logic of that choice is immediately obvious.

If you develop course content, Christopher Pappas, in his blog 7 Tips To Create Memorable Microlearning Online Training, offers the following tips:

1. Use a responsive eLearning authoring tool
2. Create targeted online training videos
3. Focus on the task at hand, but always provide additional resources
4. Repetition is NOT always the answer
5. Develop visually appealing infographics
6. Say it all with a story
7. Increase knowledge retention with an interactive online training demo

DigitalChalk can help. Are you looking for great microlearning course for your training program? Maybe you’ve designed your own microlearning courses and are looking for a platform to sell them.
No matter who you train, we’ve got your back with a total online learning solution.

https://elearningindustry.com/microlearning-in-online-training-5-advantages-and-3-disadvantages
https://elearningindustry.com/7-tips-create-memorable-microlearning-online-training