Generally, micro-learning courses are short and last about 5 minutes or less; and are often made available for employees anytime needed. However, is it vital to add micro-learning to eLearning training?
What are the benefits of micro-learning? In this article, you’ll learn the importance, and how it can help you to improve your eLearning training programs.
Benefits of micro-learning
Apart from the fact that micro-learning breaks long courses into short and focus chunks, it is always available to meet your needs and that of your employees. Here are some of the benefits.
1. Micro-learning delivers learning in the flow of work
As the nature of work continues to evolve, your organization needs to stay relevant in business and to the employees too. Your employee must be open to learn new skills and develop, in order to become productive for your organization.
Micro-learning delivers short, fast, and targeted learning to your employees just when they need it. For example, if your company is designing a new product, videos or PDF should be made available to all employees to learn more about the product. This kind of information should be available on all devices and accessible by your employees anytime.
2. Learning on the go
Some organizations still grant employees study leave to learn about new skills. However, this is not a bad idea, though too many study leave may affect the productivity of your organization. Micro-learning makes it easier to learn on the go. Employees can learn and develop new skills at their own pace without disrupting their daily work.
Furthermore, since the majority of learners prefer smartphones and tablets to PCs, learning can take place anywhere and anytime. Therefore, micro-learning is the most suitable for this learning on the go since it delivers learning in a small chunk.
3. Microlearning enables self-directed learning
According to research, the majority of learners prefer to learn at their own pace, a self-directed and independent mode of learning. That is why they are more engaged and productive when given access to micro-learning course materials than when forced to sit in a group and complete a lengthy course.
The formal approach is more of a “pull” rather than a “push” method of learning. This method of learning may appear to be a complicated way of learning. But with the right tools and management, you can provide, monitor, and achieve a better learning program.
4. Addresses short attention spans
If your employees are finding it difficult to focus on training courses, micro-learning may be the right answer. Create micro-learning courses that focus on achieving one objective at a time – per each module.
Each micro-learning should last at most 5 minutes. For instance, why make your employee read textbooks to get all the information. You can focus their attention on information each of them needs and provide this information in a short video or PDF format to boost their engagement.
5. Can be used at different stages of the learning program
No matter what you are trying to achieve with your training course, micro-learning is useful at the different stages of your learning program. Micro-learning can act as a standalone learning technique or be part of a bigger course.
For instance, this learning approach will be of benefit to new hires, as they learn about the company. Furthermore, it is also essential for old employees as it will not disrupt their daily work.
Micro-learning can help you to easily summarize a lengthy course. Besides that, it can also serve as an additional reference during a training program, or to strengthen employees’ knowledge after the training program.
6. Enhance learning retention
Micro-learning enhances learning retention because learners have the chance to go through micro-learning content over and over until it is understood. That is because the training material is short and contains the precise information needed by them.
They can afford to read, listen, or watch the content without getting bored or skipping any part of it. Completing learning training on time enables the transfer of knowledge into our long-term memory. With that, it means microlearning is just the right strategy in case you need to boost your learner retention.
7. Quick access to knowledge helps problem-solving
What will your employees do when they encounter any issue? Should they call the supervisor and he is busy or on leave? Should they make a guess and process?
Or should they search through micro-learning for help regarding the information on how to solve the encountered problem? Well, micro-learning will provide quick access to knowledge and help quick problem-solving. Your employees can assess micro-learning on smartphones and tablets.
