Traditional teaching methods used to have long teaching sessions and, so did eLearning at the beginning. Nowadays people have busy schedules and want to spend less time on the things they don’t like. Social media evolution, especially reel features on YouTube and Instagram, has also changed learner behavior to consume smaller content. This is where Microlearning comes into action to solve the problem.
Modern-day learners need something that allows them to learn at their own pace with flexible sessions. The Microlearning approach meets the modern requirements, by breaking down the content into digestible lessons that learners can grasp at their pace and duration.
What is Microlearning?
Microlearning is an eLearning strategy to provide content in bite-sized units to the learners. This bite-size content is called the Microlearning Module. Each module has a small goal, teaching learners one small concept or topic.
When learners experience a module they receive only the relevant information they need to understand the module’s topic. These modules may include media such as infographics, videos, animations, and sometimes even quizzes.
Why Microlearning Works?
More Learning Retention
Research like “The Journal of Applied Psychology” has shown that when information is presented in small chunks and spaced intervals, learners are more likely to remember it.
A small and one-concept-focused learning module ensures successful knowledge retention along with not overwhelming learners with too much information.
Flexible Learning
As the Microlearning Modules are small and require very little time to learn, learners engage with the eLearning content whenever they have spare time. Modules being small also helps the learners leave the learning process whenever they want, as they won’t have to worry about restarting a mammoth lesson and understanding everything again.
Increased Engagement
Nowadays learners are very impatient in learning new things, they expect quick results. When they are presented with long lesson content or tutorials, they tend to leave if they don’t find it effective early on. microlearning modules are smaller and teach one concept in a small chunk of time. When learners complete such modules and learn a new concept quickly, this quick result drives them to engage more.
Including an assessment with an eLearning module will impact learning retention drastically. So, a quiz or other assessment content can be placed after each module to let the learner know how much they have learned. These assessment data can also be used for other eLearning strategies like Adaptive Learning.
Microlearning Application
- K-12 and Higher Education: Schools and universities have started to use microlearning. This has allowed them to reinforce difficult concepts with refresher modules.
- Corporate Training: The microlearning module serves as a very effective tool for onboarding, compliance training, and professional development of new employees.
- Self-Paced Learning: If you are looking to create courses and sell them online, you have to provide self-paced learning content. Microlearning can be a very important strategy for you to get better outcomes. Small modules will improve course completion rate and learning retention which result in better ratings and reviews of your course.
Best Practices for Implement Microlearning
Clear learning objective
Defining a clear learning objective is the first thing you do when you create learning content. In the case of microlearning, you have to define the objective for each module. These learning objectives should be specific and achievable.
A clear learning objective could be to understand a term, apply a concept, or complete a task and it should ensure learners understand the purpose of each lesson.
Interactive Elements
One of the purposes of any eLearning strategy is to improve engagement. So, including interactivity becomes important. You can use Authoring Tools to make interactive eLearning content and incorporate a microlearning strategy.
Use of Multimedia
Using only text-based learning modules will be ridiculous, as Microlearning thrives on multimedia. The whole idea of this strategy is to make lessons short, concise, focused on one topic, and make learners understand the topic completely. Uses of multimedia allows you to accomplish all of that. You can use video as a lesson, infographics, and animations to explain a concept.
Just in Time Learning
We talked about this earlier on how these modules can be used with other strategies. These modules are small and cover just a small piece of information. So, it can be used in Adaptive Learning or Just in Time Learning strategy to support learners with the lesson right when they need it.
Microlearning Tools and Platforms
Microlearning has been one of the widely adopted eLearning strategies. So, as it has a wide number of professionals it has attracted many eLearning developers to make its tools.
- Authoring Tools: Most of the Authoring tools provide tools and templates to create short lessons, micro-courses, and assessments. Authoring tools also provide many interactive elements that can help you make a lesson interactive and engaging.
- WordPress LMS: Learning Management Systems like LearnDash LMS, Lifter LMS, WP Courseware, etc allow you to create Micro-Courses and lessons with quiz assessments.
- Other eLearning Platforms: Platforms like EdApp and TalentCards provide you with tools to create an application microlearning strategy. You can create a card-based course using TalentCards that can be accessed through its app whereas EdApp allows you to export the course in the SCORM package.
Conclusion
Microlearning meets the requirements for modern fast-paced and flexible learning. It also opens the door for other eLearning strategies like Adaptive Learning or Just in Time Learning. It is such a basic backbone of eLearning that it doesn’t matter what sector you look at, from corporate to k-12, microlearning will benefit all backgrounds of learners. So, if you are getting into the field of eLearning as a professional, microlearning should be the first strategy on your list.
Don’t forget to comment, If you have any questions or want us to write on any eLearning topic. Also, tell us, what strategies you guys are incorporating in the eLearning content creation.