Learning success has a lot to do with motivation. As a trainer, you may know the challenge of hitting the right point between under- and over-demanding: Your participants should remain motivated to stick with challenging content. A meaningful learning concept splits the big picture into easily digestible pieces. This approach is exactly what you achieve with microlearning.
Two characteristics of microlearning help you significantly in your training: First, a strong focus on good content and second, a simple delivery of the content.
Update August 2022: Are you interested in the topic of learning bites? Check out our examples of microlearning and the article about learning nuggets (definition + examples) in our blog!
Why focus is so important for your training
Do you enjoy eating at a buffet? Yes, I actually do too. But in the end, I am so full that I feel like I can hardly get home. And I often can’t properly enjoy the food itself because I want to try everything – a classic case of the choice paradox. The flavors mix on my plate, and by the next day, I’ve forgotten exactly what I ate.
Your participant experiences something similar when they are overwhelmed with information. Instead, if you serve them single bites that you have specifically prepared and seasoned for them, they will enjoy it and remember them better.
Methods: Bringing microlearning focus into your training
Preparation is key. Always consider carefully: What do you want to achieve with your participant? If you set your goals as small as possible, you can ensure that they are really achieved.
Microlearning pursues precisely this goal: conveying content in small bites (microcontent). You can choose the medium freely: If you want to offer the microcontent completely online, e-learning is the right approach. In in-person events, microlearning is also fundamentally possible, for example in the form of station work.
However, the most suitable approach for the use of microlearning is blended learning. Here, you serve your training individual digital bites. By combining presence and online phases, your participant is gradually “fed” instead of being “overfed” all at once.
Take a look at an example of micro-content here – a small learning unit: Trainer Sebastian Tetschke has chosen microlearning in combination with blended learning. In this first short video, he welcomes his participants and explains which further learning units are to follow in the coming weeks:
Three simple rules are enough to start effectively with microlearning
Filter out the most important content on a topic.
Simplify individual content to the essentials.
Convey your content as simply as possible.
The first two rules help you find your focus. The third rule ultimately centers around focusing on simple delivery. Sounds easy – and it is, once you’re on the right track! Below, I will show you how you can implement these three steps easily.
Do you know the saying “In the blink of an eye”? It means something like “in a split second” or simply “very briefly.” This idea is so central at blink.it that it was decisive for the name: Keep it short, reduce your content to the core. This is also the principle of microlearning.
Step 1: Filter out the most important content on a topic
Look at all the content you have accumulated over the years on a topic and break it down into the smallest possible bites. This will likely take several hours of your time, but you can work effectively with the result for months. Here’s how you can proceed in detail during this process:
Review
First, you should take a look at all your material that has accumulated over the years. Also, consider content that you have never used before. New ideas may emerge.
Selection
From this large pool, in the second step, you sort out everything that does not seem appropriate to you. Take each piece of content and rate it based on 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 participant?
Is the content interesting to your participant?
Only if all points apply should you include the content in the shortlist.
Temporal assignment
You have already reduced the number of your good content. I recommend you roughly classify them into three phases:
Preparation/Introduction
Advanced Learning Process
Transfer Phase
Revision
If you notice during step 3 that you have particularly many ideas and content for a single phase, you should start again at point 1 within that phase.
Perfect – now you have found the most suitable content from all your available materials! Individual content still tends to be very extensive. Step 2, therefore, focuses on identifying the essentials of a piece of content.
Step 2: Reduce individual content to the essentials
For example, do you have an entire book that you consider helpful and relevant? Or a video that is 30 minutes long? These pieces can be very well crafted and of high quality – but as a learning unit for your training, they are probably unsuitable. At least in their complete form, since you, as an expert, can now identify the most important points for your participants.
Take a piece of content selected in step 1 that you find too extensive for a micro-learning unit. Then proceed as follows to identify the essentials:
Justification
Consider why exactly this content is good and relevant for you. Note all thoughts that come to your mind spontaneously.
Examination
Look closely at your content. Take notes whenever a section aligns perfectly with your justification for selecting the content.
Trimming
Now cut your content down to the central points you identified. Make scans of relevant pages or edit video and audio files appropriately with a program of your choice. We recommend the software FimoraGo – free for Android and Apple.
Proceed like 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 that has been reduced to the essentials. But short or small content alone is not enough to truly engage the participant. Convey your content as simply as possible!
This is another key challenge you, as a trainer, must solve: How do you present content so that it is immediately understood and the participant is eager for more? Read my tips in step 3:
Step 3: Convey your content as simply as possible
By reducing your content to the essentials, you have already taken a big step towards microlearning.
Now take a look at each selected piece of content individually and consider how you can simply convey the message behind it. For this, I have compiled 7 best practices that will help you easily convey your short content:
How to easily convey your micro-content
1. Simple terms
Particularly complex content can easily be simplified by paraphrasing technical terms.
2. Storytelling
Is there a story you can tell about the content?
3. Interactivity
Encourage your participant to be active, for example, by prompting them to share in a group.
4. Variety of media
It doesn’t always have to be text. Videos or podcasts are a welcome change for your participant.
5. Humor
Those who have fun while learning find it easier to learn.
6. Examples
A high level of abstraction can easily be reduced by examples.
7. Repetitions and summaries
Last but not least – make the learning process easier for your participant by emphasizing essential statements multiple times.
With the help of these best practices, you will succeed in effectively conveying even complex content. And always remember: When in doubt, it’s better to reduce content and split relevant messages across multiple learning units! This way, you can gain a quick start into microlearning.
