How to Meet the Demand for Microlearning

By Calvin Choi, Sr. Director of Sales, Expertus

We all know that microlearning is where it’s at for today’s learners. Not only do they prefer these fast, bite-size lessons that they can consume on the go. But, they also have better learning comprehension.

Case in point… in our recent Tech Talk, we ran a test to see how well attendees understood a lesson on parallel parking. It was first delivered in a long, written format. And then, later, presented as a short video.

Here are the results:

  • When asked, “What is the 4th step of parallel parking,” only 33% of participants got the answer correct after the written presentation.
  • However, 71% got the answer correct after viewing the video.

Let’s face it, microlearning works! In fact…

78% of our Tech Talk attendees were currently using it,

Three-quarters preferred video over any other form of microlearning, and

The overwhelming majority believed that learning engagement (40%) and accessibility (40%) were more important than the content (20%) itself.

Obviously, the dialogue on microlearning has moved from whether or not we should use it, to how can we optimize it and deliver it fast enough to keep up with demand. Let’s tackle optimization first. Here are a few best practices:

  1. Focus on only one concept—if you’re having trouble fitting all of your information into one 90-second video, then it’s probably too much
  2. Don’t recreate the wheel—break longer, existing training into smaller, modular content
  3. Make microlearning accessible—you can have tons of great content, but if it’s not easily accessible, you’re wasting your time

Speaking to the last point, in our ExpertusONE Digital LMS, we give admins the ability to tag content, so learners can rapidly sort through the catalog to find meaningful microlearning.

  1. Optimize microlearning for mobile—with everyone on the go, you want to make sure the learning experience is consistent across any modality or device
  2. Keep related surveys or assessments short—not only should the microlearning be concise, but its testing should be too; this helps raise engagement

Now onto delivery. While there are many tools to create microlearning, if you want to speed its creation and reporting, you should look for ones that are already built into the LMS. Here’s why:

  • Since many of your SMEs already have access to the LMS and are, most likely, familiar with this system, it empowers them to create xAPI-compliant microlearning without having to learn a complex authoring tool. Many hands make light work!
  • You can also add convenient bookmarking capabilities for learners and invaluable tracking for admins, instructors, and managers.
  • Lastly, if the creation tool is native to the LMS, its data will be too. So, you can easily monitor learner progress, create dashboards, and perform usage analysis in real-time. Note: in ExertusONE, we do this with a pre-built integration to our learning record store (LRS).

Another thing that’s unique to ExpertusONE’s rapid content authoring tool (Interaction Studio) is the ability to add engaging interactions to pre-existing videos, PDFs, presentations, etc. With just a few clicks, you can add context-based activities, such as quizzes and games, to keep viewer interest and test comprehension.

You can watch our Microlearning Tech Talk for a quick demo, or reach out to me at calvinc@expertus.com for a more in-depth tour.

Of course, I’m always happy to answer any questions you may have! Hopefully, this blog gave you some great ideas on how to raise your microlearning game.