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 overloading: Your participant should remain motivated to stay engaged, even with challenging content. A meaningful learning concept breaks the big picture into easily digestible pieces. This is exactly the approach you achieve with microlearning.
Two features of microlearning help you significantly in your training: First, a strong focus on good content, and secondly, a simple conveyance of the content.
Update August 2022: Are you interested in the topic of bite-sized learning? Check out our examples for microlearning and the article about Learning Nuggets (definition + examples) in our blog!
Why Focus is Important for Your Training
Do you like eating from a buffet? Yes, I actually do too. But in the end, I'm so full that I feel like I can hardly get home. And I usually can’t really enjoy the food itself because I 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 all ate.
Your participant experiences something similar when he is overwhelmed with information. If you serve him instead with individual bites that you have intentionally prepared and seasoned for him, he will have fun and remember them better.
Methods: Bring Microlearning Focus into Your Training
Preparation is key. Always think carefully: What do you want to achieve with your participant? If you set your goals small, you can ensure they are actually achieved.
Microlearning aims exactly at this goal: to convey content in small bites (microcontent). You can choose freely about the medium: If you want to provide the microcontent completely online, e-learning is the right approach. In face-to-face 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 the blended learning approach. Here, you serve individual digital bites in your training. By connecting face-to-face and online phases, your participant is gradually “nourished” instead of being “overfed” all at once.
Here, take a look at an example of micro content – a small learning piece: The trainer Sebastian Tetschke has chosen microlearning in combination with blended learning. In this first short video, he greets his participants and explains what 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.
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 is about concentrating on simple conveyance. It sounds easy – and it is, once you're on the right track! Below, I will show you how to easily implement these three steps.
Do you know the saying “In the blink of an eye”? It means something like “in a flash” 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 its core. This is also the principle of microlearning.
Step 1: Filter Out the Most Important Content on a Topic
Look at all the materials you’ve accumulated over the years on a topic and break them into the smallest pieces possible. This will likely take a few hours of your time, but you can work effectively with the result for months. Here’s how you can proceed in detail:
Review
First, you should look through all your accumulated materials. Also think of content you have never used before; perhaps new ideas will emerge.
Selection
From this large mass, you will now sort out everything that seems inappropriate to you in the second step. Take each piece of content and evaluate 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 for your participant?
Only if all points apply should you include the content in your shortlist.
Time Classification
You have now already reduced the number of your good content. I recommend roughly classifying them into three phases:
Preparation/Introduction
Advanced Learning Process
Transfer Phase
Revision
If you notice during step 3 that you have a particularly high number of ideas and content for a single phase, you should start again with point 1 within this phase.
Perfect – now you have found the most suitable pieces from all your existing content! Individual pieces are likely still very comprehensive. In step 2, it’s about extracting the essentials of a content.
Step 2: Reduce Individual Content to the Essentials
For example, do you have a complete book that you consider helpful and appropriate? Or a video that is 30 minutes long? These pieces may be very impressively done and high quality - as a learning unit for your training, they are probably unsuitable. At least in their complete form, because you as an expert can now identify the most important parts for your participant.
Take a piece of content selected in step 1 that you find too extensive for a micro learning unit. Then proceed as follows to extract the essentials:
Justification
Think about why exactly this content is good and relevant for you. Write down all the thoughts that come to your mind spontaneously.
Examination
Then take a close look at your content. Note every time a section exactly fits your justification for selecting the content.
Condensation
Now shorten your content to the key points you just discovered. Make scans of relevant pages or edit video and audio files with a program of your choice to fit. We recommend the software FimoraGo – free for Android and Apple.
Do this with all content that you find suitable but too lengthy as a learning unit!
Great – now you have some suitable pieces on the topic that have been reduced to the essentials. But short or small content alone is not enough to really engage the participant. Convey your content as simply as possible!
Here lies another challenge that 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 significant step towards microlearning.
Now look at each selected piece of content separately and think about how you can convey the message behind it simply. For this, I have compiled 7 best practices that you can easily use to convey your short content:
How You Can Simply Convey Your Micro Content
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
Encourage your participant to become active and invite them to exchange in small groups.
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
You can easily reduce a high level of abstraction through examples.
7. Repetitions and Summaries
Last but not least – simplify the learning process for your participant by emphasizing essential statements multiple times.
Using these best practices, you will be able to convey even complex content in an accessible way. And always remember: When in doubt, better reduce content and spread relevant messages over several learning units! This way you can achieve a quick start into microlearning.
