It’s Time To Convert Long eLearning Courses To Microlearning – Why?
Lengthy eLearning courses are a problem not just for learners but also for organizations, as they make it difficult for learners to find the desired piece of content needed when they are stuck with a task at work. This is especially the case for training such as Sales & Product training, or compliance training, where not only staying up-to-date with the current knowledge always is key to organizational success, but also where employees work in strict time constraints. Besides, updating lengthy courses is time-consuming and therefore a hurdle for quick course rollouts.
How, then, to get around the problem of boring lengthy courses? What needs to be done to ensure a "quick access route" learners can take advantage of and equip themselves with the necessary knowledge? There is one way out—microlearning often called bite-sized learning. In this article, we will look at 4 reasons it is time to ditch lengthy eLearning in favor of microlearning, which is ideal option to solve this problem.
1. Microlearning Is Mobile-Friendly
Learners live in the mobile age. As each day passes, these learners are accessing web-based information (which includes eLearning courses) using smartphones and tablets. Legacy courses cannot be conveniently accessed on mobile devices. The small screen-size of these varied devices makes lengthy courses clumsy, cumbersome, and unwieldy.
These courses can be converted to microlearning modules which means delivering the same content, in the form of several chunks called information nuggets which are 3 to 5 minutes long. Microlearning modules contain less clutter as opposed to a bulky eLearning course and can be easily viewed on a mobile device.
Each of these microlearning modules will address one specific learning objective comprehensively. Organizations can achieve best results by chunking the content into sizeable bite-sized learning nuggets and giving learners the complete freedom to take them in the order of their choice.
2. Microlearning Offers "Moment-Of-Need" Support
On a daily basis, an average learner would turn to their smartphone at some point because they: (a) want to learn something, (b) want to do something. This does not happen once, it happens every day, on a continuous basis. Learners who turn to their smartphones in "want-to-do-something" moments are looking for quick access to information that solves their problem at hand immediately.
For example, a sales rep who wants to look for some important information before a sales pitch at a customer site would not prefer going through a 60-slide online learning course or plod through a 20-minute video. This person wants and needs to find the answer quickly.
Given their short running lengths, microlearning modules can be used to offer Performance Support to learners, exactly at the moment of their need (using a learning portal, ideally an LMS) and more importantly within their workflow. Compared to traditional eLearning courses, these modules would be ideal to fill the short learning gaps, like in the case of the sales rep.
3. Microlearning Includes Rich Multimedia Formats
When it comes to microlearning, there is an entire buffet of solutions. Microlearning modules in corporate training are delivered in rich formats such as of videos, animations, interactive videos, PDFs, eBooks, providing a high impact, engaging and immersive training experience.
The microlearning in these formats is designed to meet a specific learning objective, which is to say the format can be selected depending on your learning objectives and the environment in which the learners will be working in. For example, if the learner is working in a noisy environment, watching a video, or listening to a podcast would not make much sense. An infographic would be the right choice.
4. Microlearning Courses Are Easier To Develop And Update
Considering that microlearning assets are shorter than traditional training, content can be created much more quickly, reducing development costs. It usually takes weeks to create a full-fledged online learning course. However, when it comes to microlearning "less information is produced at a time". Less content, in this case, means shorter development cycles. What does this mean? Well, consider this. An hour-long eLearning course would take, like I mentioned, weeks to be developed and is rolled out all at once. On the other hand, when the same course is broken into 3-4 smaller modules, these can be developed and rolled out at different times, or even simultaneously.
If anybody were to ask me how long an ideal online learning course should be, my immediate response would be that it must be long enough to meet your learning objectives. Anything beyond this would surely bore the learner, leading to lesser engagement levels and completion rates. Microlearning gets around this problem by doing away with nice-to-know information. It provides employees with only the need-to-know information at their fingertips, enabling them to do their jobs better. It is concise, focused on achieving a specific learning objective, and can be delivered in different styles.
