Microlearning is a unique method of delivering content in small volumes and with a specific purpose. Its main difference is that students can independently determine when and how they will get new knowledge. And this is extremely important because self-control allows you to acquire new skills and start using them in practice quickly. In addition, it increases the level of engagement and quality of work. The result is a high efficiency of training and a desire to look for additional sources of information.
But if we consider the concept in detail, then microlearning is a new strategy that allows you to master new skills and get knowledge quickly. It's trendy for several reasons:
- The speed of life is boosting. That's why information quickly becomes obsolete.
- You can find educational materials on the Internet.
- You can get new knowledge anytime and wherever there's an Internet connection.
The growing popularity of smartphones has given new momentum to the development of microlearning. It allows students to watch new content on the go. Also, there are unique educational platforms that help create educational and interactive content. They allow you to launch your first micro-course with presentations, tests and quizzes in just 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, microlearning has benefits that increase its effectiveness. Let's look at them in more detail:
1. Bridging Skills Gaps
When people realize that they don't have enough skills to complete specific tasks, their motivation and satisfaction drop drastically. It also reduces work efficiency.
Microlearning fills knowledge gaps quickly and effectively. It's all about the principles of building such training. Shorter time intervals allow you to better concentrate on mastering a new skill.
Here's a basic example: people have problems at work because they don't have time to complete a project without delay. The best way to fix the situation is to watch a short video about time management's core principles and benefits. After getting valuable practical advice on time planning, the trainee will quickly finish their work tasks.
What's more, microlearning can save you time finding the information you need. It's all because video tutorials provide the most valuable and concrete knowledge. It's better to spend 10 minutes watching a video than browsing the Internet for hours searching for the necessary knowledge.
2. Reducing the Time Spent on Content Development
Another vital benefit of microlearning. The short duration of the videos means you spend less time thinking and filming content. Also, the shorter the development cycle, the lower the cost per video and the higher the potential profitability. It's another big plus for the educational business.
Plus, the individual modules are easy to update. You can change one module without affecting the other parts of the course. Towards Maturity Research conducted an enterprise survey in 2016. It showed that 87% of companies are interested in saving on training costs.
Short video tutorials have proven their effectiveness on many levels:
- Students save time and get the necessary knowledge much faster.
- Businesses can create and update courses much faster than using the classic distance method, which reduces costs.
- There's no need to rent the place and hire famous experts as the training takes place online.
Education expert and PhD Ray Jimenez believes microlearning reduces course development costs in half. At the same time, the speed and efficiency of development increase by 300%!
At the same time, microlearning can be applied in very different ways. For example, you can create a stand-alone mini-course on the educational platform or record a series of short videos as part of a more comprehensive training program. Meanwhile, you can combine individual modules to create an entirely new course.
As for the learning cycle, microlearning fits into all its stages - preliminary training, basic training and consolidation of the gained knowledge. It allows you to provide more information at a low cost.
3. Freedom of Learning
A large amount of text materials accompanies classic distance learning. Therefore, it's not suitable for getting new knowledge as soon as possible. Moreover, few people want to spend time on a full-fledged 1-hour lesson.
In this case, microlearning comes in with an innovative approach. You can acquire new skills in your free time and enjoy them. Moreover, short videos can be downloaded and watched anytime and anywhere. It's another great benefit of microlearning.
Educational platforms can significantly improve efficiency and make mobile learning easier. So, short training modules allow you to allocate 10-15 minutes and not be distracted by anything. It's profitable in both the short and long term.
4. Easier Learning
During the learning process, the student constantly receives new information. However, it's not always remembered the first time. German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus found that after the usual cramming of the material, a person can remember about 45% of the information in an hour. A week later, this figure drops by almost half - to 25%.
The speed of forgetting can be reduced in two ways:
- Regularly study the training material;
- Learn new knowledge in several ways.
A short video has only 1-2 main goals, while traditional distance learning provides knowledge in 4-5 fields. Therefore, you can better learn the material after short lessons. In a 2017 Journal of Applied Psychology article, learning in small pieces increases effectiveness by 17%. Therefore, you can use skills in practice much easier and faster.
Microlearning divides a massive amount of information into individual pieces. It allows you to think and evaluate new knowledge much better.
5. Higher Student Satisfaction
According to a recent survey, nearly 50% of U.S. workers were born after 1980. Millennials and Gen Z are constantly using new technologies both in their work and in their free time. Therefore, it's crucial to understand the interests of a young audience and approach content development equally.
Now people are interested in getting access to the necessary knowledge quickly and easily. Ideally, learn from your smartphone or tablet PC. Microlearning is a perfect choice for this. It's focused on mobile devices, so it's an excellent solution for finding answers.
In cooperation with Unboxed Technology, BH Media media holding has launched a unified training for sales professionals based on microlearning. It lasted for about a year. At the end of it, the participants almost solidly expressed their satisfaction with the training. 98% of employees said that they would use the gained knowledge in their daily work.
The TikTok app also influenced the popularity of microlearning. It confirmed that clip-thinking now runs the world. The application has collected more than 100 million users in 3 years. However, the focus of content gradually began to shift towards expert videos. Here you can learn cooking, languages, fitness and other valuable things.
There's no wonder because modern people value their time. Therefore, microlearning ideally covers the need for quick access to knowledge.
Tips for Improving Microlearning Effectiveness
All of the above benefits make microlearning an ideal way to give people important information. However, you can make the efficiency of short videos even higher. Here are our tips on how to do this:
Check if Microlearning Is the Right Choice for You
When creating short videos, consider if you can explain one topic in a short amount of time. If your topic is very complex, you may need more than microlearning.
Offer High-quality and Helpful Content
It will make learning more productive. In addition, thorough preparation of the materials will shorten the time for their improvement. By the way, don't be afraid to spend a little more time creating videos and interactive elements. Make your students feel that the content of the video is worth their attention.
Choose Different Ways to Share Knowledge
Present the content to your students in several ways. Conduct small quizzes and tests, add infographics and interactive videos. All of this will create additional value to your information. Further, it will keep your students engaged with your lessons even more.
Don't Forget About Gamification
Game elements play a critical role in online learning. Among other things, this also applies to short videos. Gamification makes learning even more fun. There are many ways to add game elements to microlearning. For example, you can award points for completing tasks and make a rating of students.
Find the Best Educational Platform
It should have enough functionality to create and run microlearning. Separately, it's worth noting the course builder for the step-by-step creation of lessons, interactive tests and quizzes. It will allow you to launch the first video course in 30 minutes. It's also crucial that the educational platform has the tools for branding a unique course. It will allow you to personalize your training and stand out from competitors.
Conclusion
Educational content is available in plenty of formats. The most popular of them are short videos. In the future, most of the educational content will be available on social networks like Instagram and TikTok. The reason is simple: it is much easier for generation Z, influenced by clip-thinking, to learn different things in this format. Moreover, ordinary learning doesn't make people so happy.
Microlearning has enormous potential to generate essential knowledge. Moreover, it empowers people and helps them develop their skills without passing very long courses.
Further, the opportunity to use game mechanics entertains and motivates listeners. When combined with a smartphone and tablet PC, short videos will maximize the benefit of learning new knowledge.
Using the best microlearning techniques and our tips, you can easily pack your short lessons well. Meanwhile, it's vital to provide full-fledged benefits in every video. If there's no benefit, then it's no longer microlearning.