In today’s busy and content crowded world, microlearning is an effective way to deliver information which people can more easily understand.
The term “microlearning” dates as far back as 1963 in Hector Correa’s book The Economics of Human Resources. With the advent of the internet, the term later became common in e-learning.
In the current age of big data, humans get information daily from blogs, training videos, social media, news, and lots more.
However, this constant influx of data is not always beneficial. After all, the brain’s capacity to retain information is limited.
Weird fact:
The average human’s attention span is around 8-10 seconds — a few seconds less than a goldfish!
With this in mind, microlearning strategies are now necessary to grasp as much information as possible.
I’m such a fan of microlearning I applied this strategy to each of my life improving video courses. Each of my life improving online courses delivers the content in short bursts of 2 to 10 minute videos.
I even gave a TedX Talk about “fun is a high performance fuel.”
Coming up in this article I describe what microlearning is, its importance, and how to implement strategies that would make it work for you.
Microlearning is bite-sized learning.
It is a means of delivering relevant, easy-to-digest, and engaging pieces of information interactively.
Instead of lengthy manuals and confusing texts, microlearning breaks down information into tiny bits that can be easily understood, implemented, and shared.
Brevity is the keyword when you think of microlearning.
For example, any student that wants to write an essay can now quickly gather information on the topic online without the hassle of consulting multiple sources. Just as easily, any student can now hire a do my essay for me service and have them write an essay instead.
While microlearning might not be the best fit for complicated ideas, it still trumps other forms of e-learning. Humans retain information better and engage with a particular topic when it is offered in digestible chunks.
A recent study by the Journal of Applied Psychology shows that microlearning is 17% more efficient at sharing knowledge and ideas than traditional classroom learning. Unfortunately, our humans attention span has decreased. But happily our learning capacity and processing power have significantly improved. As a result, we now seek fast, understandable, and easy-to-digest materials.
So let’s imagine that students are given a complex project to complete within a short time frame. They would have to scramble in search of relevant and valuable information on learning platforms. If they find this information, the sheer length and complexity will make it hard to do everything on time. With microlearning, employees and students can access valuable information faster.
Microlearning also costs less than conventional e-learning methods. For instance, you can subscribe to YouTube and gain access to free tutorials.
Microlearning allows students to learn seamlessly from any part of the world. As a result, they can cultivate and improve a culture of productivity in the remote learning environment.
With a better understanding of the benefits of microlearning, let’s check out the best microlearning strategies.
Gamification is an excellent strategy for improving learners’ retention. You gotta try to make learning fun.
Tutors can also take it a step further by introducing rewards or leadership boards to foster competition among students and improve their learning ability.
Mobile learning is an essential form of microlearning because most people own a smartphone in this modern age. This makes it easier to get the micro-lessons.
Besides, most internet users feel more comfortable with their smartphones than with a computer. Since they spend most of their time on mobile devices, they can switch through tabs without breaking stride.
Unlike books and manuals, mobile phones offer a vibrant, engaging, and interactive learning experience. And above all, mobile phones aren’t restricted by locations or time zones. Information can be published globally, and learners can learn at their own pace.
Conventional e-learning courses usually take a few weeks to prepare without considering different learners’ abilities to learn. They usually create one-size-fits-all courses for everybody. This strategy leads to boring and difficult-to-understand content.
However, you can integrate agility into your microlearning strategy through learning management systems (LMS), which use template-based authoring tools. These platforms can help you create courses instantly by using ready-made knowledge templates and questions.
Spaced distribution is a way of implanting knowledge into a learner with the aid of microlearning. This approach involves constant learning over a long time frame until the information gets stored in the long-term memory. Spaced learning can also be adjusted to identify common errors and focus on correcting them, which speeds up the learning process.
As technology advances, students no longer need to invest their time in tedious and outdated learning methods. Companies have also started searching for a better means to educate their employees and give their companies a competitive edge.
Microlearning is the present and future of e-learning, and institutions now see the advantages of this paradigm change. Hopefully, this article will give you strategies you need to implement to make the most of this new method.
Think about subscribing for free weekly tools here.
No SPAM, ever! Read the Privacy Policy for more information.
