Micro learning done properly will not only improve how much knowledge is retained but also change the way your employees approach training and development altogether.
According to the Training Industry Report 2016, employees had to spend on average over 50 hours per year on training, 10 more than the year before. US businesses alone spent more than $70 billion annually on employee learning and development with an increasingly diverse range of deliver mechanisms. While this is potentially great news for learners, 41% of training hours were still delivered through instructors in classroom settings.
While employees are asked to know and learn more, the “forgetting curve” highlights that after one hour 50% and after 24 hours 70% of the material learned is forgotten. One week later it is even 90%.
Making time for training also is particularly and increasingly challenging for employees, who can typically only allocate 24 minutes per week (not necessary at a time) for training and development, a recent Deloitte study reveals. With classic e-learning courses easily taking 45+ minutes to complete, employees have to rush through it, learn in their spare time or on the commute. All of which does not speak to the attention and retention you want your employees to achieve.
Why micro learning?
Micro learning done properly can not only improve how much knowledge is retained but also change the way your employees approach training and development altogether.
Based on a concept called ‘chunking’ first published by George A. Miller in 1956, micro learning refers to providing learning content in short increments of a few minutes only, focusing on a specific topic or learning objective at a time.
Consider how we receive information in our daily lives. News alerts and rolling news, rotating billboards, snappy big letter advertising slogans, bold newspaper article summaries, social media posts, and 30-second TV ads. What all these have in common is that they feed us with what we can easily absorb and respond to in short, bite-size amounts of information.
Why approach learning and development differently? By breaking learning content down into smaller engaging pieces, retention of information improves by more than 20%, a 2015 study at Dresden University of Technology shows.
At Ludic we know that providing the right framework tailored to people’s work and life syle and tools for next generation learning elevates success rates as well as participation and creates lasting knowledge engagement in the process.
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With the challenge to compress content into only a few minutes of focused learning also come great opportunities. Content needs to be precise, easy to understand, to the point and engaging. There is no room for seemingly endless video scenarios or lengthy blocks of text to read and scroll through. Cut to the chase, make it visual, make it memorable.
Personalization
Per Ludic’s “Reimagining the workplace of the Future” Report, almost a third of employees still perceive their training as impersonal and struggle to relate it to their work. One in 10 doesn’t even get training at all.
Micro learning can be a great tool to not only make available but deliver personalized learning that is tailored to individuals’ roles and needs to everyone in an organization.
Non-linear
One of the great advantages of micro learning is that people can access as much as they need and when they need it. Blending scheduled and self-directed learning allows organizations to nudge employees on what they should know while at the same time allowing them to tab into subject matter content at the point of need, which is when it is most relevant to them. Unlike bookmarks in complex learning management courses, micro learning content can be more easily collated and organized by people to revisit focused insights at any time.
Storytelling
Creating an overarching experience and taking people through a learning journey becomes even more important when delivering training and development content in small doses. We find information easier to understand and process when communicated as a “story”, as we learn better from specific examples than from abstract information. Furthermore, taken through a narrative that we can relate to or, even better, participate in, we more deeply connect with its content and context.
Gamification
Learning in general doesn’t have to be a one-way stream where learners only absorb and hope for a good score in the quiz at the end. Learning and retention of knowledge is much more effective and engaging when content is brought to life in fun and interactive ways. Allowing people to immerse themselves in focused exercises and activities, award small wins as they learn and provide instant feedback on progress and skills gained are incredibly powerful mechanisms primed for micro learning.
Multi-media, multi-channel, multi-cultural
Focused learning activities need to and easily can go beyond a series of videos and quizzes. Videos can be interactive, Excel charts can be infographics, presentations can be motion scribing, quizzes can be short scenario based simulation games. There are many ways for turning even small learning increments into engaging experiences that stick.
Likewise, there are many ways to bring learning to employees rather than asking them to go to one of the many learning silos in organizations, learning management systems or Sharepoint directories. In its bitesize format micro learning content can easily be delivered to people via the channels and devices they use in their daily (work) life.
And of course learning does not have to be an individual or isolated activity. Participating in short learning games and mini coaching or mentoring sessions with others enables people to tab into knowledge and experiences from co-workers anywhere in the organization.
In Summary, providing successful micro learning does not mean to simply cut existing content into smaller pieces and hope for the best. The goal needs to be to train and entertain simultaneously, providing small chunks of personalized learning that people want to do. It requires planning and consideration of content, context as well as the needs and habits of the learners.
Enriched with blended next generation learning, visualization and engagement techniques micro learning is a powerful tool to vastly improve people’s working and learning lives.
Contact us to find out more about how your organization can deploy and benefit from micro learning.
References:
https://trainingmag.com | https://www.learningsolutionsmag.com | https://blogs-images.forbes.com | http://journals.sagepub.com
