Microlearning Pros and Cons

Microlearning Pros and Cons
Summary: Microlearning has its own pros and cons. The pros outweigh the cons significantly. It encourages short-term learning and helps students to remember things.

It’s no more the classroom way when it comes to learning these days. eLearning has become popular. And along with it, a lot of other forms of education are also gaining ground. Among these, microlearning is carving out a niche for itself fast. It is a form of short-term learning that is being embraced by educational institutions as well as corporate organizations across the globe.

According to MarketingProfs, the new millennials cannot think more than 140 characters at a stretch. They have the attention span of a hyperactive weasel. So, the next time you teach something to a millennial kid, be assured that she will be paying uninterrupted attention only the maximum length of a tweet. So, one of the major aims of planning the ways to impart education these days is by short-term methods. This is what is driving the popularity of microlearning with every passing day.

Pros of Implementing Microlearning

Microlearning surely has some amazing advantages. Here’s a quick look at some of them.

Drives Innovation
This is driven by the fact that microlearning itself needs innovation. To learn more about this, it is important to have some basic knowledge about this form of learning.

How does microlearning work?

It is one of the most innovative ways of imparting education. You have to think of ways to make education fun and interesting for the students. For example, you can think of a few things, like:

  • Holding quizzes on a weekly basis
  • Allowing the use of gadgets in the classroom
  • Encouraging special interests
  • Conducting group discussions

All these are really innovative ways of imparting education and have hardly been practiced in the classroom earlier.

Easy to remember
This is actually one of the primary reasons why this concept of microlearning has been implemented. This form of learning makes it easy for the students to remember what they have learned. The whole syllabus has to be divided into smaller sections. Thus, the students can learn these sections separately. This is sure to help them remember the things more easily than they would have done if the classes were longer.

Classes can be Attended Almost from Anywhere
Microlearning can be offered through a wide range of platforms. Classes can be conducted online. Some of these platforms, which can be used for the classes, include social media, the online forums, and so on. So, even if you are staying at home, you can attend the classes that have been designed in a microlearning format.

Media Makes the Process Interesting
Microlearning needs to be imparted fast. It saves time. But that’s not all. To perform that, different types of media, such as video, PowerPoint presentations, audio clips, and others need to be used as well. This makes the learning process more interesting.

Cons as Well

Microlearning has its own share of disadvantages as well.

Let’s have a look at some of them.

Difficult to Cover a Wide Range of Subjects at One Go

Microlearning has to be completed within a short time. So, it’s never possible to complete a topic at one go. You might not be able to discuss a topic in complete detail in a single class. For example, if you are planning to teach a topic, which is likely to take up a bit of time, you might not be able to complete it in a single class. You will have to take two or even three classes to make the students know the details of the whole topic.

No Need of Focusing Dedicatedly

Does it require a lot of concentration and dedication for small sessions of studies?

Not at all.

When you already know that the sessions are going to end within a short time, you will hardly pay any attention to it. The commitment will not be too much dedicated. So, the process of imparting education, which was designed because of shorter attention span of the learners won’t help to increase it in any manner.

Casual Ambiance Might Hinder Learning New Things

The concept of classroom is driven by the fact that students learning new topics need a formal ambiance. This is not available when you are going for microlearning. It is somewhat a casual ambiance, which might help you revise what you had learned earlier. So, students might find it difficult to learn new things in a class that embraces microlearning.

Microlearning is a new concept in the world of education. It has a number of pros as well as cons. The pros, however, outweigh the cons by a certain extent. Hence, microlearning is being embraced by institutions as well as corporate bodies to impart training and education to students.

Originally published on November 11, 2014