/ Published in Squigl for Business

How Microlearning Can Help Your Organization with Time Management

What, exactly, is microlearning? Jack Makhlouf defines it as “a teaching style that involves short bursts of highly engaging and interactive information,” and relates it to the type of information you receive from blurbs and short posts on social media. While his argument that “the information you read on Twitter can be considered learning” might seem a bit suspect, Makhlouf does give us a good place to start.
 
Nikos Andriotis provides a bit more nuance in his definition, departing from Makhlouf’s description while maintaining its broad scope: “While there’s no official microlearning definition, all microlearning-based training shares one characteristic: brevity. This could either be small learning units or short-term learning activities.”
 
Among the examples of microlearning content cited by Andriotis, we find “text (phrases, short paragraphs),” “images (photos, illustrations),”“videos (of the short variety),” and “tests and quizzes.” The brevity of these approaches, Andriotis argues, enables a host of benefits. The speed of delivery and flexibility of microlearning modules is a major boon to training and other topics, as “you can build a course with dozens of units in an hour” and “respond faster to changing business goals and new training demands.”
 

Think of how many times you’ve been forced to substantially rewrite training materials as your organization goes through changes—particularly throughout the turbulent recent year.

 

With a focus on microlearning, you’ll no longer need to rewrite a full pamphlet or presentation. You’ll have instead a collection of short units, and will simply need to remove those that are no longer applicable and write new ones. Both of these activities will be quick and straightforward with micro-units.

 
And the benefits don’t just apply to the creator of microlearning units—“Learners find it more engaging” as well, Andriotis points out. Since the experience of microlearning mirrors the ‘short bursts’ of information referenced by Makhlouf, it’s easier for learners to feel like they’re doing something quick, easy, and normal.
 
Unlike settling in for an intensive, lengthy learning session, which might feel daunting or frustrating to many learners, learners approaching a microlearning unit will be more willing and ready to engage immediately with the material. The time you might’ve wasted in the past repeating sessions or requesting that employees review materials will come back in the form of productive employees working with well-retained information.
 
Understandably, microlearning might not work for every topic or concept you need to communicate. The great thing about microlearning, though, is that it can be used to reinforce even topics that require more traditional methods of learning and teaching. Sheryl McAtee points to the ability of microlearning to “be blended into a broader learning program” as one of the approach’s best attributes.
 
From creating short interactions that reinforce a presentation’s key concepts to adding a new case study or real-world scenario to a training course, McAtee finds numerous ways to use microlearning as a powerful supplemental tool. This synthesis is a fantastic time-saver for organizations who already have strong training materials, and want to improve them without fully starting over.
 

Incorporating microlearning doesn’t mean your organization needs to abandon its existing training efforts. Instead, it means you can enable a broader and better understanding of those efforts.

Let’s shift from the conceptual to the concrete with Karla Gutierrez’s article “Numbers Don’t Lie: Why Microlearning is Better for Your Learners (and You Too).” As her title suggests, Gutierrez provides some quantifiable data on microlearning that further underscores its value to time management, learner engagement, and learner retention.

Referencing a study by the Journal Applied Psychology, Gutierrez reveals that microlearning enhances the efficiency of the transfer of learning by 17%. Among previously-mentioned factors like the ease of comprehension that comes with small chunks of information, she points out this efficiency bonus comes from and with more takeaways from learning session—4-5 on average, as “microlearning content addresses only 1-2 learning objectives.” This heightened retention of information explains one of the reasons that L&D professionals love microlearning.

Another reason 8 out of 10 L&D professionals prefer microlearning is that their learners prefer it. Explaining that Millennial learners want content that is “customized to their needs,” “on-demand”, and “informal,” Gutierrez concludes that “Microlearning fits the bill perfectly” for modern learners. Engagement and retention are certainly improvable without this kind of affinity for the materials, so imagine the improvements that can be achieved when the learning format is welcomed and preferred. Gutierrez also makes an interesting point on the science of learning—“The human brain is not wired to maintain focus for hours on end.” According to the data, “Learning in stretches of 3-7 minutes matches the working memory capacity and attention spans of humans.” Microlearning units are inherently catering to the brain’s best and preferred way of learning.
 
Finally, you can “Reduce development costs by 50% and increase the speed of development by 300% with micro eLearning courses.” These are the kinds of numbers that can truly revolutionize an L&D department, saving not only substantial funds but substantial amounts of time. It makes sense: if your content is shorter, it’ll be faster to produce and require fewer resources. Combine these benefits with the clear success of the approach, and it becomes increasingly difficult to see a downside to microlearning experimentation.
 
Again, microlearning needn’t fully supplant your current methods of teaching, and might not be suited to each and every topic you need to communicate. It can, however, provide major benefits in engagement and retention in your learners, and save you organization considerable time in creating, revising, and supporting your learning materials.
 
Does your organization use bite-sized teaching modules? Do you think the approach could be as useful in your organization as the research seems to show? What might be your first steps on incorporating microlearning into your business?

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