Microlearning Design and Delivery

Unit 4: Microlearning Design and Delivery

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

Name several best practices for microlearning design
Name several best practices for microlearning delivery

Introduction

The microlearning design model perfectly fits the needs and availability of modern employees. Any training that has been structured to follow this learning model will be relatively short and easy to take, meaning, it can be easily squeezed into the busy lives of these learners. In addition, it eliminates the hassle of attending a weeklong seminar or going through boring and monotonous PDFs and learning and development modules.

The microlearning design model follows a learner-centric design approach where training content is condensed into small, targeted bursts. It cuts out all irrelevant information and instead focuses on the content that is absolutely vital. The golden rule is that learners should take no more than 5 minutes to take and complete their learning. This technique reduces cognitive overload, which can help improve knowledge retention and recall. It is ideal for all kinds of training, most especially corporate training. compliance training, skills reinforcement, product knowledge training, and many more.

Designing Microlearning

Click play on the video below to discover 5 winning tips for effective microlearning design:

Video Recap

Here are some important takeaways from this video:

5 Tips for Designing Effective Microlearning:

Focus on a single learning objective.
- This helps learners better retain information, flattening the effects of the forgetting curve.
Utilize existing content.
- Convert available classroom training videos, PowerPoints, and PDFs into microlearning content to save time and money.
Adopt a mobile-first strategy.
- Combining mobile learning with microlearning allows employees to access it from anywhere, anytime they want.
Keep it simple.
- Avoid content or visual overload when designing microlearning - follow the rule of less is more.
Personalize it.
- Provide learners with easily and readily accessible content that they can move through at their own pace.

Delivering Microlearning

Now that we have reviewed some best practices for designing and developing microlearning, we will take a look at some best practices for delivering it as well:

5 Tips for Delivering Effective Microlearning:

Mix up the mediums.
- Design content using a mix of mediums and elements, such as video, audio, and text and infographics, to appeal to as many different learning styles as possible. Doing this takes advantage of the science behind learning, making the experience more engaging overall.
Schedule content.
- New employees can be eager to learn as much as they can about their job role as quickly as possible. Making all that information available at once, however, risks that it will not be as easily retained. Instead, maximize the knowledge transfer with microlearning content made available to learners at regular intervals over time.
Test frequently.
- To ensure that microlearning delivery is successful, verify that learners have understood and remembered the information presented. This can be done by including short quizzes to gauge understanding. ‍
Make it enjoyable.
- Engagement, participation and knowledge retention can be increased if the microlearning content of the microlearning is interesting. Use humor to make dry topics a bit more palatable. This makes the overall learning experience more enjoyable and motivating to return to.
Track progress.
- For employees, tracking their progress builds a greater sense of achievement, which in turn encourages them to continue learning. Organizations should also use a platform that charts the overall progress, to be able to keep a record of employee participation, completion, and acquired knowledge.