Online Induction >> Microlearning Platform
Published 13/03/2022
Microlearning Platform: What is Microlearning?
In recent decades, the influx of millennials and Generation Z has brought a paradigm shift into the learner profile, expectations, and training requirements. The focus has changed from volume of content to accessibility, engagement, and flexibility. Additionally, access to mobile phones has encouraged off-the-desk activities hence necessitating Microlearning at the reader's comfort.
Microlearning is an educational approach to providing readily available (where and when needed) small and highly focused pieces of content to learners. It relatively constitutes short courses and bite-sized learning activities.
Unlike the Macro learning strategy where rich content is taught in schools, Microlearning usually delivers short units at the convenience of the learner.
Microlearning Courses and Beneifts
Microlearning has been the emerging learning approach for many organizations. The main reasons why these small chunks of the content of Microlearning are gaining popularity in today's world include:
- Increases Return on Investment (ROI) with the increased use of mobile learning platforms, Microlearning creates better ROI for an organization due to minimal resources invested in implementing the learning strategies.
- Improves efficiency unlike the old training methods where employees were subjected to a volume of materials, Microlearning enables the gaining of new skills that correspond with specific organizational requirements, making the employees more focused on implementing what they learn.
- Promotes engagement in training using elements that employees can comprehend easily, including games, graphics, and quizzes. Therefore, it captures the learner's attention in a short span without interference with desk work. It's just as simple as referring to your favorite social media app.
- Saves time and money, Microlearning modules are less costly to produce. There are no specific tools and resources required in content creation. Therefore, organizations can update the required materials online without engaging in person-to-person training, which needs more time and resources.
- Easy to update. In case of changes in the information, the learning nuggets can be quickly updated in less than 10 minutes, saving on cost and time. As a result, it keeps track of workforce changes and ensuring millennial engagement.
When your organization faces a challenge in training your employees, consider adopting this approach as it's among the best solutions. It's less time-consuming, more engaging, and inexpensive to produce regular e-learning content.
Microlearning usually works under three basic principles: less is more, deliver in small segments, and engage the learner. A popular platform for delivering microlearning is via a
mobile training app where you can create and assign bite sized digestible training content for easy adoption and completion on common mobile devices that everyone is using for every day purposes. Enabling them to complete their learning through the platform they use every day.
Microlearning Examples
Below are the typical applications of Microlearning in an organization.
1. Educational videos
Short, specific videos are designed to meet the learning criteria. For instance, use micro-lecture videos and explainer videos to deliver focused nuggets as a form of a longer learning objective.
2. Social learning
Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are used to disburse the learning material for employees across the world daily, where they quickly log in and access the information.
3. Use of Microlearning as a means to measure the impact of training
Sometimes it isn't easy to know how much of the instruction has been absorbed by the employees even after gathering them in one room. Microlearning helps in assessing how the employees are interacting with the content. It uses quizzes and course completion rates as metrics to measure impact.
4. Onboarding new employee
Organizations can use a Microlearning platform to make an introductory video outlining the organization's timeline and history to guide a new hire or employee quickly.
5. Use of Microlearning to make the training more agile
It is impractical to train the whole team in a single place effectively. Microlearning is used to deliver focused information on a specific topic boosting retention and easy traceability of the information. For instance, training of employees on post-COVID-19 sanitation processes.
Other examples include product tutorials on sales training and the use of podcasts for software skills training.
Sample Microlearning Online Course using QR Code
Try scanning this QR code for an example Microlearning course you could setup and issue via QR codes
Create your own QR code Microlearning course here
What should you include in your Microlearning platform?
Have a clear definition of how you will execute the asset of Microlearning. Then, identify the performance objective, which is the core purpose of Microlearning. After the explicit purpose, identify the best medium, for instance, infographic or podcast. Finally, focus on learners by considering their needs to create a better solution.
The popular Microlearning content examples include:
- A short variety of videos
- Text; phrases, and short paragraphs
- Audio; music or short snippets of speech
- Images; illustrations, and photos
- Tests and quizzes
- Games such as simple screen challenges
As we have seen, Microlearning focuses on delivering short bursts of content for the learners to go through at their own convenience. The content may take various forms, from interactive multimedia to texts, but it should always be short.
In conclusion, the changing market requires dynamic training content and programs. If you need to update the existing content, then Microlearning is the best platform to quickly develop a flexible content for day-to-day learning in your organization.
Try setting up a Microlearning Courses
Using our Microlearning course builder you can create and distribute short microlearning courses easily online: