Microlearning for Beginners: The Basics, Benefits & 5 Steps to Get It Right
Use of microlearning is on the rise in organisations globally. But if you’re new to microlearning, how do you go about it safely and confidently?
At a Glance
- Microlearning breaks down bigger topics into short, focused learning chunks.
- Each lesson needs clear learning objective(s) or Key Learning Points (KLPs)
- Knowing your learners helps you decide on the right content, design and learning assets (videos, infographics, flashcards, podcast etc..)
- Trainers must know how to create a microlearning map (the blueprint) to design each lesson.
- A robust microlearning platform makes life easy. It enables content creation, personalization, engagement, reinforcement and analytics.
- Shorter training isn’t the goal. It is quick, focused learning to improve knowledge, skills and performance at work.
This article aims at giving you a clear direction to get microlearning right the first time…as well as each time thereafter!
Let’s make it easy for those new to microlearning with the right set of questions, benefits and tips.
Why is microlearning a must-have? Microlearning lessons usually serve one of the 4 major training purposes viz. to supplement, reinforce, augment, or remediate learning.
| Training purpose | What it means |
|---|---|
| Supplement | Enabling you in supplementing your current training efforts |
| Reinforce | Helping you in reinforcing critical work-related learning content |
| Augment | Supporting you in augmenting current learning materials, and to boost employee confidence in performing work-related tasks |
| Remediation | Making remediation of poor performance and behaviors effortless |
What makes it work? A good, robust microlearning platform makes life easier for trainers, learners and management.
Small and quick lessons fit very well into today’s learner’s busy lives. Microlearning lessons are delivered in a short span of time, and without being boring. This makes it work!
People don’t want lengthy, boring lessons. They want things told quickly, and things that are relevant for work, not just for the sake of completion.
A user-friendly microlearning LMS is what learners want. For trainers, it should make the job of creating lessons, and implementing the entire microlearning initiative easier across the organistion. Faster, the better.
To do that, you need to understand how to get the most out of microlearning.
Let’s explore the basics followed by five powerful tips to make microlearning work for you…
Microlearning: the Basics
For effective microlearning lessons, you break down your topics of interest into short, standalone units. Once that’s done, you need to arrive at the Key Learning Points (KLPs) for each microlearning snippet. This is akin to setting-up learning objectives for each microlearning lesson. Thereafter, you decide upon the approach, design, tools and content to make your lesson.
A good microlearning platform is a must-have to make life easier for you. It does 3 important things for you:
- Creating content using both in-house and external sources with the help of AI,
- Enabling personalized learning, including fun elements like games, based on what each learner wants and needs, and,
- making it easy to keep track of learning goals of each learner on real-time basis.
Your lesson must be engaging enough to make your workforce genuinely happy to learn. If that happens, then your learners’ skills get enhanced, and errors and lapses are contained.
Top management also is more than happy to see a transformed/superior workforce with microlearning implemented right! Join our webinar to know more…
How Microlearning Benefits Learners
Microlearning is based on important principles like spaced repetition, retrieval practice, proven learning theories and best practices.
Benefits of microlearning for learners:
- Learners can conveniently access these lessons on their mobile phones or other work devices. It gives them anytime and anywhere learning flexibility. Plus, a chance to practice when comfortable.
- Learning is made enjoyable with interactive elements like gamification, scores, rewards, levels, badges, leaderboards, and more.
- Short assessments and quizzes engage learners. They reinforce what they’ve learned, and prevents them from forgetting things over time. Additionally, microlearning lessons work like real-life work assistants.
How Microlearning Benefits an Organization
The benefits:
- Acceptance of learning among learners becomes high. This fosters a culture of learning. Job competencies of the workforce become a big strength.
- Reduction in operational and strategic business risks. This means a sustainable and high Training ROI.
- Managers are happy as microlearning lessons are short, unlike long training sessions.
- Supporting global training in diverse organizations becomes so much easier. Microlessons get quickly translated for global teams speaking different languages.
5 Powerful Tips to Implementing Microlearning Confidently
Once you know the basics of microlearning, you need to pay extra attention on the 5 things given below to get microlearning right…
- Defining your KLPs or Learning Objectives for Each Lesson
Your microlearning efforts should align with the overall learning and development goals of the organization. Each microlearning lesson needs to focus on a specific learning objective, resulting in Key Learning Points (KLPs). These KLPs can relate to behavior change, skill development, knowledge transfer, memory building, improved decision-making, on-the-job expertise, and more.
For KLPs to be meaningful, you need to know what your learner should do differently after the lesson is learned. With clear KLPs, effectively reinforcing your microlearning content, reinforcement becomes easier, and memory decay can be avoided for each learner.
A precursor to microlearning remains a well-defined microlearning strategy. Your microlearning strategy can be based on the ADDIE training model.
2. Understanding Your Learners’ Profile
Having a clear understanding of your audience is crucial for tailoring content to their specific competencies and needs. It’s all about finding the perfect match!
Understanding how each learner grasps information, what they need to learn (domain, skill, or information), and their individual capacity for handling complexity allows us to align our microlearning lessons with each learner’s profile.
So, ask yourself, “Will the content, design, and format genuinely assist the learner in achieving the learning objective?” If not, it’s essential to reassess our entire strategy. Besides, storyboarding becomes easy when you know who your learners are!
Plus, getting the design format right too gets easier while creating games in your gamification efforts.
It also helps you write engaging content as you create your microlearning assets like videos, gamification, short sims, podcasts etc. with a production mindset.
3. Going with a Robust Microlearning Platform
A good microlearning platform needs to function like a proficient assistant, making things easy for you. Here are some questions to consider before you procure you microlearning LMS:
- Does the microlearning platform meet your needs?
- Can it help you create content quickly with an AI-powered authoring tool?
- Can the microlearning platform personalize learning?
- Does it support interactive content?
- Can trainers use it easily?
The answers to these questions help make your microlearning initiative a success.
4. Creating a Clear Blueprint for Each Microlearning Lesson
A microlearning map serves as the plan for designing, scripting, and presenting your lesson. It acts as the blueprint for your content.
Additionally, the quality of your assets, including visuals, animations, short simulations, gamification elements, videos, etc. must be attractive.
To do this, what you need is a microlearning strategy that conveniently translates into a practical microlearning map for each microlearning lesson.
After all, microlearning cannot be an afterthought. It’s got to be part of your overall training plan.
3 step Approach to a Microlearning Map
- Know the desired learning outcomes you seek
- Comprehend curriculum that must be on microlearning i.e. number of lessons
- Create a microlearning map for each identified lesson
Step 1: Define the desired learning outcomes from the training
Once you do the training needs analysis (TNA) and identify the desired outcomes of the training, you need to define the learning objectives that will help achieve those outcomes (knowledge, skills, or attitudes).
Step 2: Decide on lessons/ topics that need to be developed as microlearning
Microlearning may not be the solution for all your training needs. That’s why this step of deciding on which topics should be delivered as microlearning modules is so critical.
Step 3: Create a microlearning map for each microlearning lesson
Each microlearning map must be based on outcome, objectives and assessments.
| Department: Risk | Job position: Banking manager, level 3 |
| KPI segment: Operation Risk | Key performance Indicator: Quality adherence & Risk assessment |
A three-blocker chart below is an example of a microlearning map. It tells you how you can align the outcome, the objectives, and assessment. The three columns given below will help you create a very specific and focused microlearning lesson.
Example of a microlearning map: A decision-making learning scenario in the banking industry.
| Task | Performance | Objective- (less than 3) |
|---|---|---|
| Audit and approve high-risk financial transactions. This is done by checking if they meet compliance(Risk) and process related Critical-To-Quality (CTQ) parameters. | A financial transaction from a bank account is shown on the screen. The learner is required to accurately identify the risk and quality parameters(100% accuracy) within 6minutes, and make a decision. | Recall the 12 CTQ (Quality parameters and 9 Risk criteria. Decide whether or not to approve the financial transaction. |
- Having a Microlearning Platform with Strong ‘Analytics Capabilities’
Completion rates tell you about finished training. You don’t want just that. What you need is sound ‘Analytics’ that helps you understand what your learners truly learned, and where learning gaps still exist.
A microlearning LMS with robust analytics capabilities forms the backbone of its effectiveness.
Questions to ask while picking your microlearning platform:
- Does it enable real-time monitoring of learning progress?
- Can it effectively track the learning gaps of each learner, and implement spaced repetition efficiently?
- Does your microlearning platform include a comprehensive data analytics suite for real-time verification of key parameters for each learner at a ‘topic-level’?
- Is it equipped with measurement tools that provide details such as extent-of-participation by a learner, learner-engagement, completion rates, scores, errors, confidence levels, ?
- Can the microlearning platform simplify tasks like tracking changes in learners’ behavior, skill enhancements, evidence of information retrieval, application orientation, increased decision-making capabilities, accuracy, and the quality of work?
Answers to these help you alleviate learning, engagement and application related pain areas, and choosing the right microlearning LMS for yourself gets easier.
- Learning
- Progress, scores, errors, confidence, knowledge gaps
- Engagement
- Participation, completion, learner interaction
- Application
- Behavior change, skill improvement, decision-making, work quality
Basically, the sequence to follow is:
Strategy a Learner a KLP a Microlearning Map a Delivery a Analytics a Reinforcement
A Summary:
| Step | Trainer decides | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. KLPs | What your learner must know/do | Gives your lesson the right focus |
| 2. Learner profile | Who’s learning and what’s needed | Learning becomes relevant |
| 3. Platform | Capabilities that support delivery | Implementation becomes manageable |
| 4. Microlearning map | How a lesson should work | Gives it a blueprint |
| 5. Analytics | What to measure? | Helps understand what’s truly learned |
How MaxLearn Supports the Microlearning Journey
| Your microlearning journey | How MaxLearn supports it |
|---|---|
| KLPs / Learning Objectives | AI Authoring tool generates Key Learning Points (KLPs). Creates microlearning content like flashcards and questions of different difficulty levels around those KLPs. |
| Learner Profile | Automated Learning Assignments micro target content as per their departments, job roles, hire dates and other learning attributes. Learning Goals are assigned based on the knowledge-gap risk. |
| Microlearning Map | The microlearning map remains a trainer’s blueprint for each lesson. It defines the outcome, objectives, assessment, assets and reinforcement. MaxLearn provides the authoring and delivery capabilities that converts the map into a real lesson. |
| Assets / Learning Formats | Learning Paths include questions, learning cards, existing courses, videos and other media. MaxLearn’s flashcards are produced using its built-in authoring system. |
| Delivery | Learners engage with content through Team Challenges, Goal Assignments, Learning Paths and Certifications. MaxLearn's Automated Learning Assignments help deliver risk- and role-specific training to individual learners. |
| Reinforcement | Spaced Repetition of Key Concepts uses Challenges and Goal Assignments to review content periodically. The Adaptive Learning feature helps adjust question difficulty based on learner performance. |
| Analytics / Verification | MaxLearn provides real-time analysis of learning growth and learning gaps at individual topic level. It measures knowledge on a ‘before and after’ basis so that progress can be monitored over time. |
To conclude, your microlearning journey becomes much easier once you get these 5 things right.
