You will no doubt agree that in the current environment it’s pretty challenging to get people’s full attention. Most of us habitually scroll through a social media feed while watching TV, or text and check our phones during conference calls. We definitely live in a world of multitasking and short attention spans.
The days of getting learners to focus on one thing for hours are long gone. Distractions are louder and more invasive, and even when the information stimuli are relevant to us, we still don’t give ourselves permission for undivided attention.
Here is where microlearning can assist us, we can demand the attention of our audience – and with the right context, we can create a powerful emotional response that connects us to our learners.
Here are some principles you need to follow to design and implement a Microlearning learning experience:
Make the content worth the learner’s time
Even if the training is mandatory.
With so many things competing for your learner’s time and attention, the quality and the relevance of the information to them – and the way you are delivering it needs to be worth their time. If learners perceive that their time is being wasted – or they can’t immediately perceive what is in it for them – their attention, interest, motivation, and engagement will drop significantly.
Microlearning chunks down information so learners can absorb it in bite-sized, manageable ways. Most people are already busy; microlearning reduces the load so it’s easier to process, and along with spaced repetition you will be able to boost knowledge retention.
Continuous Updates
Traditional training programs have a clear start and stop, and after that information can easily go stale over time. If learners need to redo a course each time information is updated or policies change, it makes every preceding learning like a waste of time. However, microlearning can be a continuous process, sending out bits of distilled, timely information to ensure your learners always stay up-to-date, without having to stop what they’re doing. Microlearning makes training less of an event and more of an organic experience.
Learner Buy-In
Learners are the ultimate critics, and it’s hard to get two thumbs up when you’re asking for hours of their schedule. Time, distractions, and boredom are the enemies of good eLearning. By designing and packaging content so that it’s quick, relevant to the learner, interactive, fun, and clever, you can be certain that learners will become more satisfied and more likely to fully emerge and participate.
Total Autonomy
Every learner is different and autonomy is the key to making learners feel respected. Learners are able to pick, choose, and plan their own learning paths based on what they already know.
They can repeat modules that address self-perceived weak skills, and quickly skip through content on subjects that they’ve already mastered. With bite-sized learning, creating a personalized experience gives every employee the chance to be an active participant, rather than a passive (and distracted) viewer.
