Significant Signs To Measure The Effectiveness Of Microlearning For Your Corporate Training Strategy

Today, microlearning has set a niche as one of the hottest topics in training the new-age learners. It has been adopted as the latest approach to employee training, resulting in a major shift of learning & development landscape. Bite-sized content is delivered in the form of interactive graphics and videos across laptops, smartphones and tablets.

Microlearning presumes that modern learners have shorter attention spans and they retain less when information is delivered in big chunks. There has been around 22% improvement in retaining learners over traditional training approach. [Source:Dresden University Study].

When organizations consider developing an effective online learning strategy, adopting the new workplace culture is the key. For this, microlearning is widely accepted as an effective solution to cater to personalized learning needs. Outlined below are few signs that decide microlearning is an optimum choice:

1. Manage Timings

Modern learners are distracted and impatient. They want to learn at their own pace and work upon their own development scale. Once employees go through their learning curves, the prime aim is to dwell their retention levels naturally over time. To avoid delivery of bigger information blocks, spaced learning approach is followed: divide content into bites and space out delivery over time. Educators can space out a specific topic, provide it and then send surveys, asking learners to revise what they learned. The importance of spaced learning is that content is chunked into small bursts which are easy to access, review, thereby reinforcing overall learning. For instance, courses are designed as short & crisp lessons, engaging games or interactive videos. Each piece of content can be looped with each other to create short duration courses. Then, learners can be prompted to access those pieces as per their conveniences.

2. Manage Cognitive Load

Length of training program matters when it comes to learner efficiency achieved through microlearning. Apart from providing crisp content, the goal should be to impart learning which uses optimum cognitive resources. Too much of content creates a problem for learners to recall much information. Therefore, the Cognitive Load Model was introduced to understand it better:

• Learners retain more when their memory and thinking ability are put towards providing an experience which is relevant. For this, content is divided into pieces and addition of unnecessary content is avoided.
• If images and narratives are to be used with e-courses, then learners need to communicate with those channels directly as much as possible.

Designing courses that are easy to digest and retain for long is one of the crucial aspects of implementing a successful corporate learning strategy.

3. Manage Learning to Align with Training Needs

Microlearning is not merely accessing small pieces of content, but also supports learning intervention, including game-based learning, daily delivery schedules and more. It also signifies analysis of pertinent learning needs and plan the delivery process accordingly. This can be done by embedding the learning concept into different strategies that fulfil varied needs-

• Effective orientation of employees engaged in a new task.
• Just-in-time performance support to aid learners accomplish their goals on time.
• To organize campaigns for awareness and security of organizational workforce.

Consider an example, lengthy safety training sessions can interrupt employees’ workflow and performance. So, it is better to impart crisp content to familiarize employees with their company’ goals and then provide training tailored to their learning needs.

Discussed above are some of the essential factors taken into consideration when measuring microlearning as a workplace learning strategy. Today, microlearning meets the need to deliver content as per customized learning styles and preferences, helping to digest and retain what employees have learned. It requires less or no effort from individuals by allowing them to access courses at their own pace.

Suggested Further Reading: https://pages.mediapro.com/rs/889-LYM-560/images/Microlearning_4_Signposts_MediaPro_White_Paper_FINAL.pdf?aliId=14627617