Just stepping up to the plate with microlearning? Here are 9 tips to help you start your microlearning journey confidently and clearly!
Key Pre-Requisites for Microlearning
- Understand the Game: Before diving in, know what microlearning is, what it can and can’t do, and how to integrate it into your overall training initiative as an ongoing effort. Just like a chef knows their ingredients and tools before creating a masterpiece, you need to understand microlearning thoroughly.
- Equip Yourself with the Right Tools: Ensure you’re backed by a state-of-the-art microlearning platform that alleviates your pain points—be it content creation, time constraints for learners and trainers, or design and implementation challenges. Think of this as having a top-notch kitchen with all the latest gadgets that make cooking a breeze.
With these bases covered, rolling out your microlearning lessons becomes a home run!
Microlearning: The Basics
Designing, developing, and implementing microlearning lessons isn’t much different from creating more elaborate eLearning initiatives. However, microlearning hits a grand slam with its bite-sized approach and inherent capabilities like spaced repetition and retrieval practice (questions/assessments) tailored to individual learning capabilities. This personalized approach moves away from a one-size-fits-all method, making it a winner in combating the forgetting curve at an individual level.
The key differences with microlearning are its duration, platform, and specific job-related objectives. Micro-targeting learning objectives becomes much easier with a robust microlearning platform.
A microlearning lesson equips your learners with the necessary knowledge quickly and effectively, without being tedious. Learners love microlearning for its relevant, timely, and short lessons that they can access on the go. Plus, they can refer to these lessons in real-life work scenarios, making the microlearning platform their reliable teammate.
For trainers, an AI-enabled microlearning platform is like having a sous-chef who handles the prep work, giving you the flexibility to use your in-house material or external sources to quickly ideate, generate lessons, edit, approve, and launch them in minutes.
With the right understanding and tools, microlearning becomes a seamless, effective, and enjoyable part of your training program. Step up to the plate and knock it out of the park!
9 Powerful Tips: Launching Microlearning Initiatives Made Easy!
- Identifying the ‘Knowledge Gaps’ with a Pre-planned Risk Assessment Exercise Before you set learning goals for a specific job role, it’s essential to understand the knowledge gaps of your learners. This approach allows you to prioritize lessons, measure individual progress, and set the right frequency for ‘spaced repetition.’ Launching your initiatives without this understanding is like setting off on a road trip without a map, unaware of potential detours or challenges ahead. Grading the likelihood and impact of a topic or knowledge area helps you identify the risk rating of knowledge gaps, keeping business-critical lapses, operational, and reputational risks at bay. This helps you keep business critical lapses, operational and reputational risks at bay.
Let’s break this down with an example:
If one of your microlearning snippets is aimed at your sales team to explain the additional features or benefits of an upgraded product, you must first identify their knowledge gaps. Maybe they struggle with understanding these new features. Just like a chef needs to know which ingredients are missing before perfecting a recipe, you need to understand these gaps to make your training impactful.
In this scenario, your microlearning content should be designed to motivate the salespeople by:
- highlighting the relevance and impact of the new product features.
- explaining how these features can boost their sales, improve customer satisfaction.
- clearly explaining implications on pricing and sales incentives.
Essentially, your microlearning lesson need to answer two questions for a learner:
i) “what’s in it for me?”
ii) “is the lesson relevant from me?”.
While crafting content using inhouse content, and a powerful authoring tool in a microlearning platform, you could factor-in details like:
- specify which market segment the new features will appeal to. For instance, telling your sales team that the upgraded product will be a hit with tech-savvy customers in the 25-35 age group helps them target their pitches effectively.
- avoid undermining your salespeople by presenting information that’s too basic. It’s like giving a seasoned chef a recipe for boiling eggs – they already know it, and it feels like a waste of time.
- be sure to get straight to the point with important, relevant, and new information they didn’t know. In a microlearning lesson, time is precious, and every second counts.
By conducting a ‘knowledge gap’ risk assessment exercise at the enterprise level, you can better prioritize your microlearning initiatives. It’s akin to a doctor diagnosing a patient before prescribing treatment; understanding the specific knowledge gaps allows you to target the precise learning objectives (Key Learning Points) for your learners. This ensures that your microlearning initiatives are effective, relevant, and well-received.
Identify the Key Learning Points (Objectives) of a Lesson
Let’s dive into lesson-level thinking! Setting too many goals in a microlearning lesson can be confusing, so you need to know the specific goals for the expected outcome of each lesson. Lesser, the better!
Using a good microlearning platform, the technology enables you to identify, modify, and edit these learning goals. As training managers, you have complete control over the goals based on your workforce and individual learning levels.
Once you have set your goals, creating content with flashcards (an important microlearning lesson platform feature) becomes easy. You can enhance your microlearning assets by uploading relevant videos, podcasts, infographics, and other content offered by the microlearning platform. Just like a chef, you begin preparing a meal: you start with the main ingredients and then add spices and garnishes (videos, infographics, podcasts etc.) to create a delicious dish.
Cutting edge microlearning platforms also help you generate and administer assessments, quizzes, and questions tailored to each learner’s capabilities. Key Learning Points (KLPs) in a microlearning platform allow you to establish SMART learning goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based) for individual learners based on their job role, department, and learning curve. This ensures that your training is effective and targeted, like a precision tool that hits the mark every time.
Asking the Right Questions While Planning Your Lesson
To design a microlearning lesson effectively, start by asking the right questions. This gives you clarity and confidence about your approach based on your learners’ unique needs.
Here are some key and indicative questions to guide your lesson planning:- What type of microlearning content, design, and assets do you need? Think of this like choosing the right treatment plan for a patient. Will the chosen content effectively address the learning goals for your learner group? What’s the most effective way to deliver this content?
- How will you engage and motivate the learner? Consider this as ensuring patient compliance with their medication regimen. How will you keep the learner engaged and motivated?
- How will you measure the learner’s success or achievement? This is akin to tracking a patient’s recovery progress. You need clear criteria to assess whether the learner has grasped the material.
- How will your lesson consistently deliver a superb microlearning experience? Think of this as maintaining a high standard of patient care, ensuring each learning session is effective and valuable.
Such questions help you align your training with the identified knowledge gaps and your overall training goals.
- Micro Targeting The Right Content: Relevant to a ‘Job Role’ and ‘Risk Specific’
When creating microlearning content, precision is the key. This is similar to a doctor prescribing the right medication for a specific condition. Use both existing content and external resources to refine, improvise, and generate the final approved version of your microlearning lesson.A robust microlearning platform with a powerful authoring tool and AI capabilities is a must for definitive success of your initiatives. It’s just like having access to advanced diagnostic equipment in healthcare, offering you tremendous flexibility and options.This technology makes it easy to create designs and formats that align with your learners’ objectives and Key Learning Points (KLPs). Just as having the right medication simplifies patient care, having the right content streamlines the process of fine-tuning and finalizing your microlearning lessons. - Questions to Ask while Creating Additional Microlearning Assets: Video, Podcasts, Infographics
If you need to create and embed microlearning assets like videos, podcasts, infographics, etc., beyond what’s available on your platform, you need a production mindset. This involves pre- and post-production rigor to create assets such as videos, animations, gamified content, or podcasts.- For example, when creating an explainer video for compliance training in a manufacturing setup, consider the following:
Source of Content: Identify the original content source. Who authored it? Develop a concise script that fits the content into a 5-minute microlearning snippet, tailored to the worker’s level of understanding. - Engagement and Design: Ensure the content and design of the snippet are engaging and seamless.
- In-house vs. Outsourcing: Decide if the microlearning assets like videos, podcasts, infographics etc. will be developed in-house or outsourced. Ensure the team involved is equipped to deliver high-quality content effectively, much like ensuring your manufacturing team is trained and skilled for a specific production process.
- Platform Integration: Ensure your microlearning platform can integrate these assets smoothly into the lesson.
- For example, when creating an explainer video for compliance training in a manufacturing setup, consider the following:
By addressing these specifics, you can create effective and engaging microlearning assets that enhance your overall training program in any business set-up.
- Be Well-Equipped to Outsource
Creating microlearning lessons is easy when you approach it the right way. If you’re outsourcing tasks like short video creation, guide your service providers with mock-ups, storyboards, and detailed content, ensuring these align with your Key Learning Points (KLPs). This is like a theatre’s director setting the stage for a play, ensuring every scene flows seamlessly. Here’s how to make it smooth:- Guide Your Providers: When outsourcing, you need to provide clear guidance on mock-ups and storyboards, specifying audio-video elements to ensure everything aligns with your KLPs.
- Script and Storyboard: Provide a clearly written script and storyboard. This is crucial for creating assets like videos and podcasts.
- Collaborate Effectively: Work closely with developers, animators, and creative personnel. Coordinate the design, graphics, and other creative modules
- Instructional Strategies: Ensure instructional strategies like scenario-building, branching, and narrators are in place.
- Holistic Integration: Seamlessly stitch together separately created videos, animations, and pictures. Specify the duration of each element in your storyboard, fitting everything within a short 5 to 7 minutes.
Holistic Integration: Seamlessly stitch together separately created videos, animations, and pictures. Specify the duration of each element in your storyboard, fitting everything within a short 5 to 7 minutes.
- Knowledge of Learning Theories Always Come Handy
When crafting engaging microlearning lessons, understanding learning theories is crucial. Just like a chef must master different cooking techniques to create a perfect dish, you need to grasp various learning theories to effectively use microlearning platforms.Some key theories include Bloom’s Taxonomy, Skinner’s Theory, Gardner’s Theory, Vygotsky’s Scaffolding theory, Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology, Glaserfeld’s Constructivism, Millwood’s Expressive Constructivism, Dewey’s Experiential Learning, Maria Montessori’s Theory, Gagne’s 9 Events Theory, and Hunicke’s MDA Framework.
Knowledge of these theories helps you design lessons that align with how people learn and process information.
For instance, applying principles from Gagne’s 9 Events Theory or Dewey’s Experiential Learning can enhance the interactivity and engagement of your microlearning content, making it both effective and enjoyable. Just like combining ingredients in the right way leads to a delicious meal, blending learning theories with microlearning technology ensures that lessons are impactful and cater to the cognitive needs of your learners.
- Pre-test your Microlearning lesson Before Finalizing & Roll-out
You can think of creating a microlearning lesson like baking a cake. Just as a baker must taste and adjust the recipe before serving it, you need to pre-test your microlearning content against specific ‘Critical-To-Quality’ (CTQ) parameters. This ensures that you don’t miss any key elements that might impact the lesson’s effectiveness.Before rolling out your microlearning lesson to the wider audience, you could run it through a focus group test. This step helps you verify that all essential components are included and functioning as intended. Once you’ve made any necessary adjustments and are confident in the quality, you can confidently deliver the lesson to your learners.
- Use Active Feedback to Make Corrections, Edits, Improvisations
A top-notch microlearning platform with robust technology allows for active feedback from learners within each lesson, enabling them to point out mistakes or outdated information. This feedback loop is like having a quality control checkpoint in a bakery where each batch of dough is tested to ensure perfection.By actively seeking and incorporating criticism, you ensure your microlearning initiatives remain relevant and useful. Just as the ‘kaizen’ process of continuous improvement in manufacturing helps refine and enhance products, this active feedback feature helps you keep your lessons up-to-date and effective. It prevents complacency and ensures you don’t rest on your past achievements, keeping your microlearning content fresh and valuable.
These 9 tips will give you the clarity and conviction you need to confidently lead your microlearning initiative!
