Learning success has a lot to do with motivation. As a trainer, you might know the challenge of hitting the sweet spot between underchallenging and overchallenging your participants: You want to motivate them to stay on track, even with complex content. A sensible learning concept therefore divides the big picture into easily digestible chunks. This is exactly the approach you can achieve with microlearning.
Two characteristics of microlearning are key to helping you in your training: First, a strong focus on good content, and second, an easy delivery of that content.
Update August 2022: Interested in learning chunks? Check out our examples for microlearning and the article on learning nuggets (definition + examples) on our blog!
Why focus is so important for your training
Do you like eating at a buffet? Yes, me too, actually. But in the end, I'm so full that I feel like I can barely make it home. And I usually can't even properly enjoy the food itself because I just want to try everything – a classic case of the paradox of choice. The flavors mix on my plate, and by the next day, I've already forgotten exactly what I actually ate.
It's a similar story for your participants when they are practically flooded with information. If you serve them individual bites instead, carefully prepared and seasoned specifically for them, they will enjoy it and remember it better.
Methods: Bringing focus to your training with microlearning
Preparation is everything. Always think carefully: What do you want your participants to achieve? If you set your goals as small as possible, you can do even more to ensure they are actually achieved.
Microlearning pursues exactly this goal: delivering content in small chunks (microcontent). You can freely decide on the medium: If you want to make the microcontent entirely available online, e-learning is the appropriate approach. In face-to-face sessions, microlearning is generally also possible, for example, in the form of station work.
However, the most suitable approach for using microlearning is blended learning. Here, you serve your training in individual digital chunks. By combining face-to-face and online phases, your participants are gradually "fed" rather than "overfed" all at once.
Take a look at another example of microcontent – a small piece of learning content: Trainer Sebastian Tetschke decided on microlearning in combination with blended learning. In this first short video, he welcomes his participants and explains which further learning units will follow in the coming weeks:
Three simple rules are enough to start effectively with microlearning
Filter out the most important content on a topic.
Reduce individual content to the essentials.
Deliver your content as simply as possible.
The first two rules help you find your focus. The third rule is ultimately about concentrating on simple delivery. Sounds easy – and it is, once you're on the right track! Below, I'll show you how you can easily implement these three steps.
Are you familiar with the phrase "In the blink of an eye"? It means just that – in an instant, or simply "very briefly". This idea is so central to blink.it that it was the decisive factor for the name: Keep it short, reduce your content to the core. This is also the fundamental principle of microlearning.
Step 1: Filter out the most important content on a topic
Look at all the content on a topic that you have accumulated over the years and break it down into the smallest possible chunks. This will probably take a few hours of your time, but you will be able to work effectively with the results for months. And here is how you can proceed in detail during this process:
Reviewing
First, you should look through all the material you have accumulated over the years. Also think of content that you have never found a use for so far. Perhaps new ideas have emerged in the meantime.
Selection
From this large mass, you only sort out everything that doesn't seem appropriate in the second step. Take each piece of content and evaluate it according to the following criteria:
Is the content of high quality?
Is the content purposeful / does it fit your topic?
Is the content challenging enough for your participants?
Is the content interesting for your participants?
Only if all points apply should you shortlist the content.
Chronological Categorization
By now, you have already reduced the amount of your good content. I recommend that you now roughly divide it into three phases:
Preparation/Introduction
Advanced learning process
Transfer phase
Revision
If you notice during Step 3 that you have a particularly large number of ideas and content for a single phase, you should start again at Point 1 within this phase.
Perfect – now you have found the most suitable content from all your existing material! Some individual pieces of content are probably still very extensive. Step 2 is therefore about finding the essentials of a piece of content.
Step 2: Reduce individual content to the essentials
Do you have a complete book, for example, that you think is helpful and appropriate? Or a video that is 30 minutes long? This content can be ever so appealingly created and of high quality – but as a learning unit for your training, it is probably unsuitable. At least in its complete form, because as an expert, you can now set about finding the most important parts for your participants.
Take a piece of content selected in Step 1 that is too extensive for you for a micro-learning unit. Then proceed as follows to find the essentials:
Justification
Think about why exactly this content is good and relevant to you. Note down all the thoughts that spontaneously come to your mind.
Observation
Then look closely at your content. In the process, always make a note when a part perfectly fits your justification for choosing the content.
Trimming
Now shorten your content to the central points you have just identified. Scan relevant pages or trim video and audio files using a program of your choice. We recommend the software FilmoraGo – free for Android and Apple.
Do this with all content that is suitable for you but too long as a learning unit!
Great – now you have some suitable content on the topic, reduced to the essentials. But short or small content alone is not enough to truly engage the participant. Deliver your content as simply as possible at the same time!
Here lies another crucial point that you as a trainer must solve: How do you present content so that it is instantly understood and makes the participant want more? Read my tips on this in Step 3:
Step 3: Deliver your content as simply as possible
By reducing your content to the essentials, you have already taken a big step toward microlearning.
Now look at each selected content separately and think about how you can easily convey the message behind it. To help you, I have compiled 7 best practices with which you can easily deliver your short content:
How you can easily deliver your microcontent
1. Simple terms
You can easily simplify particularly complex content by paraphrasing technical terms.
2. Storytelling
Is there a story you can tell about the content?
3. Interactivity
Let your participants get active and prompt them, for example, to share thoughts in the group.
4. Variety of media
It doesn't always have to be text. Videos or podcasts are a welcome change for your participants.
5. Humor
Those who have fun learning find it easier to learn.
6. Examples
You can easily reduce a high level of abstraction using examples.
7. Repetitions and summaries
Last but not least – simplify the learning process for your participants by emphasizing key statements multiple times.
With the help of these best practices, you will succeed in delivering even complex content in an easily understandable way. And always remember: When in doubt, it is better to reduce content and divide relevant messages across multiple learning units! This is how you succeed in getting a quick start into microlearning.
Conclusion
Microlearning makes complex learning content more accessible by reducing it to small, clearly focused, and easily understandable learning units.
The key here is not just the brevity of the learning chunks. Good microlearning content concentrates on the essentials, pursues a clear learning goal, and delivers its message as simply as possible. With the three rules of filtering, reducing, and simplifying, even extensive existing content can be transformed step-by-step into suitable micro-learning units.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
What is microlearning?
Microlearning refers to the delivery of learning content in small, clearly defined learning units. Each unit focuses on a few essential pieces of content or a specific learning goal.
How do you create good microlearning content?
First, the most important content on a topic is selected. Subsequently, individual contents are reduced to their core statements and prepared in such a way that they are delivered as simply and comprehensibly as possible.
How long should a microlearning unit be?
There is no fixed maximum duration for microlearning. What matters is that a learning unit remains focused in content and is only as extensive as necessary to convey the respective core statement.
Which formats are suitable for microlearning?
Microlearning can be implemented, for example, with short texts, videos, podcasts, interactive tasks, examples, or short review and transfer prompts.
