How To Get Started With Microlearning
If you are interested in creating eLearning or mobile learning solutions for your teams, then consider the following tips to get started with microlearning when building your courses:
1. Use Shorter Videos
Boredom might be the number one obstacle that companies face when trying to train their employees. Once your learners get bored then they are not going to retain the information and you have lost the battle.
This means that the way you deliver your content is extremely important. You must be able to keep your people engaged while they are learning and videos provide the perfect solution to do this. However, you cannot simply ask your team members to sit down for 90-minute videos and expect them to learn something.
The best approach is to break the information down into smaller videos that can be viewed over time. For example, a module or lecture can be segmented into 10-minute sections that are much easier for people to digest and retain. This is microlearning in action.
2. Make Use Of Games
Gamification is the process of taking learning material and making a game out of it. Research has proven that we retain information better when it is delivered in a novel way and micro-games take this concept and shrink it down into an even easier to access platform.
One way to do this is to build a quiz-based game at the end of each module. The game can reward performance with badges or other virtual prizes to keep learners on track with their performance. Imagine, for example, an avatar that can be dressed in more elaborate clothing and granted accessories depending on how well the learner does on each individual quiz. The more creative you get with it, the more fun your learners will have.
3. Use Simulations
Simulations are a great way to reinforce the material and give the learner an opportunity to use the information exactly how it would be in the work environment. Microlearning makes simulations easier to teach and evaluate a particular skill set to your learners. In this case, you can create simple animation-based simulations that can be completed in a matter of minutes. If you are teaching your customer service staff, for example, you can have them go through a simulated call and use the script and tactics you have provided them.
4. Incorporate Podcasts
Podcasts are excellent options for delivering microlearning content because they are easy to produce and can be delivered to any mobile device or tablet in a snap. This means that your learners can access these short lectures from anywhere and learn at their own pace. With so many people getting their entertainment from podcasts these days, it only makes sense to capitalize on this technology from the microlearning perspective.
5. Use Slideshows For Smaller Interactive Learning Modules
Slideshows appeal to a wide variety of learners and typically deliver content in a much more engaging way. This tools use multimedia like pictures, sound clips, video clips, and more to help teach the information. When your material relies heavily on data, then sideshows are particularly useful way to deliver the mission-critical information.
6. Take Advantage Of Quizzes
You don't need to create large exams in order to evaluate your learner’s performance. In many cases, it’s much more effective to take a microlearning approach and evaluate your learner using quizzes at the end of each module.
These can be administered in just a few minutes and can provide you with important information about how well your learners are doing. Larger quizzes can be broken down into smaller ones and your learners will grow accustomed to the process of recalling the information in shorter periods of time. This will help you ensure that your people are actually retaining the information.
7. Don’t Be Afraid To Blog
For many of us, blogs have provided a key resource for learning and entertainment for many years now. But blogs don't have to be dense essays with thousands of words to wade through. In fact, you can simply create “microblogs” that provide a word of the day for your sales teams, for example.
This is a great way to keep your learners informed and accessing the material on a daily basis. You can even use a micro-blogging platform like Twitter to deliver your material in a faster, bite-sized way.
Microlearning is the way of the future when it comes to training. If you want to ensure that your learners stay engaged and actually retain and use the information you provide them, then the way that you deliver this information is critical.
Microlearning has been proven time and time again to be one of the most effective ways to train staff in this increasingly complex and diverse workforce.
