The more courses I create, the more I am intrigued by Microlearning. I have really come to realize the smaller form factors of smart phones and diminishing attention span of people provides a whole new opportunity for custom design and instructional modes that may have a more relevant impact. One instructional style does not work for all people or output devices and I think we are at the beginning of an important new instructional technique.

Microlearning is creating short learning objects that are stand-alone or can be combined to give a more fulsome understanding of the training. These lessons can be conveyed by graphics and text, video, podcasts, motion graphics or any combination of them all. The key is “short, bite size” learning objects, usually between 90 seconds and 3 minutes.   While not exclusively the domain of mobile devices, micro lessons are ideal for this device since they are lightweight, and the student always has the “classroom” with them.

This is where I think the new Fluid Boxes will play an important part moving forward. I really like the way they keep each learning object, separate but orderly, also their ability to scale multiple devices, seamlessly are awesome. I’m looking forward to playing with complimentary learning objects on the same slide and seeing how they work, if timed properly, on target devices.

I am planning on creating a dedicated micro learning module in the next couple of months. I will let you know how it goes.

Cheers,
Steve