Overview

Microlearning is becoming a crucial method to either reinforce training sessions, as guided practice or as a pre-test or pre-work for the formal training session. In my experience, I have seen microlearning strategy works well when it acts as a learning aid targeted to teach a specific learning objective or a topic. If we try to teach too much, or the history of an organization, detailed procedures and so on, then the microlearning is no more microlearning and gets diluted.

Thus, we need to focus on the goals that we would accomplish with the microlearning intervention. Some of the goals include but not limited to the following:

1. Improve retention of concept learnt
2. Act as just-in-time learning aids in the field or at workplace
3. Act as a positive reinforcement
4. Provide extra information over and above the main learning content
5. Provide tips to do a job or task in a better manner

There are certain guidelines for creating effective microlearning courses.

They are discussed next.

Guidelines

In one of my previous blogs on Microlearning, I stated that microlearning must incorporate following guidelines as possible to be truly “micro” in learning:

• A standalone piece of content
• Focus on specific learning outcome
• Uses rich multimedia, gamification elements, quizzes, and so on to engage the learners

With these guidelines in mind, we created some microlearning courses. We will look at the microlearning strategies in a bit more detail next.

Case Studies

Microlearning nuggets as moment of need interventions for Hospitality professionals

There was a requirement to create a short and engaging illustration-based video on the concept of hospitality followed by a short quiz. This microlearning strategy was used as a follow up to an already built bigger course that taught the various concepts related to hospitality management.

In hospitality industry, especially in resorts and hotels there are several standard operating procedures that are taught to the employees. They need to do it right and gain customer confidence.

We created a 2-hour course that covered all the standard operating processes. However, we suggested to create short microlearning nuggets that are easy to remember and help the employees in the moment of need. This was a good follow-up to the standard elearning course.

The employees used these microlearning nuggets that were pushed to them at regular intervals and helped them remember the concepts well and made fewer mistakes. Thus, the microlearning strategy worked well to address the need.

Code of Conduct

We had a requirement to create the code of conduct course that had topics related to various aspects of the code that each employee needs to be aware of and implement the learnings as and when the situation arises. While we did develop the course, we also suggested to have a series of microlearning nuggets that would act as a good reinforcement for the main training.

However, for the microlearning nuggets, we also suggested to have specific scenarios pertaining to specific objectives. For example, a microlearning nugget would focus on anti-bribery and another nugget would have scenarios pertaining to conflicts of interest.

This microlearning strategy worked well as key concepts were not skipped and were conveyed in a better manner. While it was important for learners to be aware of various codes, they also needed to remember them when the situation arises.

A once-in year training approach would not have helped either the organization or the employees. What we needed was reinforcement of the subject through microlearning interventions in the weeks or months following the training exercise. A microlearning strategy worked well in this scenario.

Conclusion

To conclude, the right microlearning intervention or strategy goes a long way in promoting the right learning culture in an organization.

Source: https://tesseractlearning.com/blog/creating-effective-learning-experience-through-microlearning-strategy.html