Employee learning and training have gone through massive transformation in recent years. We are now prioritizing personalized learning and allowing individuals to learn at their pace.
In addition, a range of innovative learning trends are taking shape around the world. In this respect, microlearning is emerging as a game-changer. It is allowing businesses to reshape corporate training and achieve optimal learning outcomes.
However, what is microlearning? What does it entail?
Most importantly, how do you implement microlearning successfully?
Here are the most effective tips to make the most of microlearning for your organization.
What is Microlearning?
Microlearning lacks a standard definition. However, the most vital aspect of microlearning is conciseness.
It aims to make learning digestible by creating short courses, learning materials, and so on.
For example, you can split your training in short activities to help employees retain information longer.
Or, you may divide an eBook into different short chapters and deliver them one at a time.
Best of all, you can use a range of formats like texts and multimedia to make microlearning more engaging.
What are the Proven Microlearning Tools?
Microlearning is not just dividing your content into smaller parts. Instead, you should have clear outcomes or objectives you want to attain with microlearning.
Then, you can use a range of microlearning tools to achieve your objectives. Some of them are:
- eBooks: eBooks are excellent when you are following text-based content. However, you can try different formats for your eBooks and not just PDFs.
Therefore, you can create interactive eBooks with images and even animations. - Micro-Learning videos: 86% of viewers in the US rely on YouTube to learn new things. Additionally, most educational institutions use videos to optimize learning today.
As a result, you can use microlearning videos to explain complex concepts, steps, or processes. - Multimedia: Images and animations work great to engage learners. It is also more fun to learn visually, which improves learning outcomes.
In addition, training becomes more engaging and fun. - Quizzes: Quizzes are great microlearning tools. You can assess your learner’s performance and determine if they have achieved the learning outcome.
You can incorporate quizzes into your learning materials using a microlearning platform - Simulations: Simulations mimic real-world scenarios and fit microlearning perfectly. For example, you can create a simulation of how to greet customers at the door for your restaurant.
What is the Best Microlearning Platform?
You can use a range of platforms to deliver microlearning. However, it is necessary to choose microlearning software that aligns with your needs.
Moreover, you should choose a microlearning application that is easy to use. Your employees shouldn’t have to waste time finding their way around the microlearning app.
One of the best examples of microlearning platforms is Bites. It is made for today’s workforce and even suits remote teams.
Bite allows you to create social-media style grabs of videos to train your workers. You can create professional training content and implement it across your locations in simple steps.
Best of all, your employees don’t need to download any specific app. They can access your training videos in popular messaging apps.
In addition, you can create quizzes and assessments to evaluate learning. It goes a long way to track student performance and challenge their understanding.
Moreover, Bites comes with analytics to track the performance of your microlearning course. It is ideal to generate insights about your learning program and measure if you achieved your objectives.
You can try Bites today to implement microlearning training for your employees. The platform is even available to try out for free.
How to Create Microlearning Videos
As noted earlier, videos are great for your microlearning course to improve learning outcomes. We will take the example of Bites to show you how you can create microlearning videos for your teams.
You will be glad to know you don’t need to make any heavy investment to shoot microlearning videos. Bites allows you to make professional content using only your phone.
Therefore, you can save a big part of your budget dedicated to content creation and publishing.
Bites comes with a video editor to tweak your videos after shooting. You can edit your videos easily, like rearranging the scenes or joining clips together.
You may also:
- Incorporate images in your videos
- Use filters
- Add text to your videos to explain things
- Take advantage of slow motion or fast motion
- Add voice overs to your videos
Next, you may share the videos you created via messaging apps with your employees. Therefore, it is that easy to make videos and you don’t even need any microlearning templates.
How to Develop Microlearning
You should have a clear plan and process to deliver microlearning experiences. Follow the steps below to develop your microlearning training program:
- Choose a priority topic at one time. It should be highly relevant to your business objectives or performance.
- Know your audience deeply. It will help you develop content that aligns with their needs and learning styles.
- Move ahead with a single learning outcome. For example, teaching your staff how to make cocktails at the bar counter or handle machinery.
- Pick a microlearning platform that supports rapid content creation. You shouldn’t have to spend hours making something that focuses on brevity.
- Incorporate interactive elements to encourage learner participation. You can use videos, animations, or something as simple as a picture or diagram.
- Don’t forget to include assessments into your microlearning training. You should be able to implement methods like quizzes using your microlearning platform.
- Choose the right channels to deliver your microlearning course. It is best to prioritize mobile learning as the modern workforce is highly tech savvy.
- Measure the performance of your microlearning training. Establish the metrics you need to track and add cues from your microlearning app’s analytics.
Refine your microlearning course based on your insights to improve learning outcomes.
What are the Benefits of Microlearning
Microlearning brings instant benefits for your organization. You can achieve your learning targets more effectively and make learning more digestible for your staff.
Some of the advantages of microlearning you may be able to enjoy are:
Made for Modern Learners
The boom of information technology has shortened the human attention span. As a result, keeping learning short is a great way to ensure success.
Moreover, employees have to work and cannot focus on training throughout the day. So, microlearning is the ideal trend to follow for employee training.
Employees Retain Information Longer
Microlearning prioritizes singular learning outcomes. You also keep your content concise to help your staff learn effectively.
For example, you teach your employee how to use the intercom on day one. You don’t burden them with how to use everything in the office on the same day.
As a result, learners can digest information easily and retain it longer.
Great for Hands-On Training
Microlearning is excellent to teach practical steps or processes. For example, you may train your teams on how to use your project management software.
Similarly, microlearning is perfect for sales training, building negotiation skills, and so on.
Another important area where microlearning shines is on-the-job training. Your employees can utilize their workday to learn and contribute towards your business objectives simultaneously.
Makes Your Training a Success
You can incorporate microlearning to make any training program a success. However, you may need to work with an expert to convert your program to suit microlearning.
Most businesses have already implemented some form of microlearning for their employee training. You can also enjoy similar benefits by incorporating the approach in your learning initiatives.
How Do You Measure Microlearning?
Microlearning is very easy to measure. You create microlearning training focusing on a single learning outcome.
Therefore, your microlearning is effective if your employees achieve the learning outcome.
Let’s say you want to teach your staff how to use the printer. Therefore, you can measure the effectiveness of your training based on whether your employees can take a printout successfully.
In addition, you can track the performance of your employees. Let’s say you are training your staff on workplace safety.
Therefore, you can measure your program’s effectiveness by tracking if your employees are getting injured more or less frequently.
Moreover, microlearning platforms may help you measure your microlearning training. You may put a like and dislike button on each course or chapter to find out if your employees like it.
In addition, try to gather the feedback of your learners. It is a great way to measure and find out how your course is doing.
Final Thoughts
Microlearning has emerged as one of the top learning trends of the decade. It focuses on brevity to make learning effective and engaging. Most importantly, microlearning ensures your employees achieve the learning objectives.
You can choose a reliable microlearning platform to help your employees learn better. However, ensure you pick a platform that lets you create and distribute content easily.
Businesses may try Bites to incorporate microlearning into their training. Our platform lets you create content rapidly and share it with your teams to facilitate learning.
You may even track and measure your program’s performance.