Top 4 Best Practices for a Successful Microlearning Strategy

Corporate environments are becoming more fast-paced than ever. In such a situation, honing a new skill is almost impossible due to time scarcity. Every employee is in a rush to become better than what they were yesterday but has absolutely no time to develop new skills or refine the existing ones due to work commitments. Many organizations have recognized this problem and have started incorporating microlearning into their L&D programs.

Microlearning is an approach that aims to deliver relevant information to the learner quickly through crisp and concise content. However, it is important to note that for the microlearning strategies to be effective, organizations need to keep in mind the best practices. Simply implementing microlearning strategies won’t be very effective unless one implements them with due consideration of the best practices. So, what are these best practices? The following article discusses them in detail.

An Introduction to Microlearning

Learning is a lifelong process, and even when your employees are working to the best of their abilities, it is never a bad idea to enable them to learn new skills and brush up on their existing ones. One way to help them learn new skills in between their busy schedules is to provide them with microlearning modules.

Microlearning is a training approach that aims to deliver small-bite content to the learners so that it is easier for them to grasp the topic and retain knowledge. The content is generally a few minutes long, usually seven to ten minutes, which ensures learners don’t experience information overload and that even complex topics and ideas are easier to understand.

With the constant bombardment of information that an individual experiences every day, it is highly likely that the learner will get easily distracted if they are provided with long-form content. Moreover, providing them with a lot of information all at once also means that they are hardly going to retain what is being imparted through the video. Along with this, the attention span of individuals is decreasing day by day. Hence, microlearning approaches to corporate training are a great way to ensure that information is imparted at the right pace to the learners, making it easier for them to retain the information and incorporate it into their work lives.

Microlearning Best Practices

Research has shown that employees are most likely to actively engage with a learning module when it is of a shorter duration. Now that you know how efficient microlearning is in corporate training programs, let us look at the best practices that maximize its impact:

1. Making It Easily Accessible to Mobile Devices

Most of us are addicted to our smartphones and continuously reach for them to search for information. So, if you make your microlearning modules easily accessible for your employees through their mobile devices, there is a better chance that they will engage with the videos and refer to them whenever they are looking for information.

Now, to understand why making learning accessible on mobile devices is so important, let us take this simple example. Most employees take the tube or a bus to commute to work, which means wasting at least two hours every day on public transport. In such a situation, when you make microlearning modules easily available through their smartphones, they can spend their time learning about new topics and ideas on their way to work.

2. One Module Should Focus on One Single Idea

You must have noticed that reading a long textbook seems like a tedious task, but when the same information is imparted through visually appealing short videos, it is easier to understand and grasp. So, the second best practice that an individual must incorporate into their microlearning modules is focusing on just one topic in each module.

If you try to combine multiple pieces of information in one module, you fail to grab your audience’s attention. And, since there is too much information to grasp, the microlearning module fails to deliver what it was intended to.

Now, this doesn’t mean that microlearning modules shouldn’t be elaborate, but you must ensure that you focus on one single topic rather than multiple topics in one module.

3. Use Appropriate Visuals and Media

Appealing visuals and media are the lifeblood of a microlearning module. You must have noticed that kids are more inclined towards videos that have interesting characters and visuals. Well, nothing has changed as adults as well. Every individual is attracted to visually appealing content. So, ensuring that the module has interesting visuals that easily grab the attention of adults is important if you want to ensure that your videos are engaging. But remember to focus on one idea and portray it accurately through images and other visuals for maximum impact.

4. Make It Precise

The basic idea behind providing employees with microlearning modules is to enable them to view a small informative clip or video in between their busy schedules. So, instead of beating the bush, your content should be as precise as possible.

As a rule of thumb, the content you provide must be seven to ten minutes long and contain only the information that the employee needs rather than having too many details that are of no use. This way, if they wish to dedicate twenty minutes of their day to learning and development, they can easily view two to three videos in a day.

Conclusion

Microlearning is a great approach that helps individuals grasp complex information efficiently and ensures that they retain the information as well. Moreover, since microlearning doesn’t require a lot of time, it can also fit into your employees' busy schedule.

There are numerous benefits offered by microlearning. However, the real challenge is to implement it effectively to maximize the benefits. Organizations must keep the best practices for implementing microlearning in mind to ensure that it has the maximum impact. To sum up, the best practices include making the content easily available through mobile devices and ensuring that it focuses on one topic per video and is crisp and precise. Lastly, one must use appropriate visuals and media to make it more appealing. When one includes these practices when crafting a microlearning module, one can ensure that this learning strategy will positively impact the productivity of each employee working in the organization.