In everyday life and in your career, it helps to approach large projects step by step. This is how microlearning works: Small chunks of learning create real transfer of knowledge! Check out examples of microlearning now – as an alternative to complex instructions in daily life and as an online accompaniment for training.
Update September 2020
The Ultimate Microlearning Guide for Online Courses
Start your own microlearning course now! In our new guide, you will learn step by step how to build your own microlearning program. With many tips and examples.
The Idea Behind Microlearning: Short Learning Bites
Microlearning, bite-sized learning, or Bite-sized Learning – all these terms point to one idea: Simplifying the learning process by breaking it down into small pieces. This works in corporate training just as well as in everyday life when, for example, you want to operate a device for the first time.
Update August 2022: Are you interested in the topic of learning bites? Then also read the article about Learning Nuggets (Definitions + Examples) in our blog! 💡
The idea of microlearning: breaking down learning content into small pieces so that they are easier to process.
If you want to offer content in the form of microlearning, ideally, you should start directly with small chunks. How this works, I described some time ago here: Microlearning – 3 Rules for Creating Learning Bites.
Today, I will present concrete examples of microlearning. Here’s what short learning content can look like in everyday life and at work:
In everyday life: As an alternative to disliked instructions
At work: As an online course for corporate training
1. Example: Microlearning in Instructions
When did you last read an instruction manual? Really read it? It’s probably been quite some time – at least that’s what a study examining our behavior regarding operating manuals suggests. “Life is too short to RTFM” is the name of the study: Life is too short to read manuals.
The findings of the scientific study may not surprise us, but they provide us with some nice statistics on learning:
People read only about 25% of instructions for devices in everyday life.
The more educated a person is, the less they tend to read instructions.
The younger they are, the less likely people are to read instructions.
The reason: Instructions are often too complex and we associate them with negative emotions: It takes too long – Doesn’t help anyway – Doing it myself is quicker! The trend is towards “learning by doing” – especially among educated and younger individuals.
To not leave customers completely on their own, more and more companies are resorting to the concept of microlearning. This often includes not just the detailed manual for referencing a specific problem but also a very concise, usually illustrated quick-start guide for the first steps.
Microlearning in everyday life works best as a quick-start guide: As few steps as possible, presented as simply as possible!
Microlearning Example: Instructions for the Rocket Pack – Card Game for Blended Learning
The Rocket Pack is a card game for trainers seeking inspiration for their blended learning. In addition to a booklet with detailed descriptions, a card is included, allowing the user to start immediately – all according to the microlearning principle:
Three small steps
Little text, simply phrased
Clearly illustrated
Very action-oriented
Starting right away is more fun than first reading the instructions. Learn more about the Rocket Pack at blink.it/rocketpack!
2. Example: Microlearning in Training
Our behavior with instructions shows how crucial learning in small chunks is in all forms of learning. However, the content is not always as easy to understand as in the card game Rocket Pack. For long-term behavioral changes in corporate learning, a training participant often has to process many and complex contents.
Trainers often find it challenging to summarize their years of gathered knowledge in two minutes. And don’t worry: Microlearning is not about cutting down so much that only an empty shell of words is left! On the contrary: Content for microlearning is not just short, but also very action-oriented.
Just like in this example from trainer Wolfgang Schneiderheinze, who addresses the topic of “filler words” in his online accompaniment in the form of microlearning: In just over a minute, a problem, a solution, and an exercise task for the participants are packaged – very briefly, yet with a lot of content:
This is What Microlearning Looks Like as Online Support
The video just shown is part of a complete online course as micro-content. The idea is to provide many short learning impulses following a traditional face-to-face training.
Thus, the training participant can gradually process small pieces of content – ideally spread over several weeks to enhance the learning transfer.
Incorporated into a complete online course, microlearning may look the following:
Example of Microlearning with the learning platform blink.it: Green micro-contents have already been seen by the user; blue ones are unlocked but still unseen.
This is How Microlearning Works in Online Courses for Participants
Basically, each tile (“Blink”) is micro-content, meaning a small learning unit. It can be a video, a short text, or a quiz. What is important is that each blink in microlearning is linked to a specific call to action and is quick to process.
The participant starts with the first blink and gradually works through the entire course – always with their own schedule, embedded in their daily life.
How you can implement these methods can be seen in the following examples for microlearning. Here’s how the methods “Look forward to”, “The Virtual Discussion” and “Tease the Detective in You” look when implemented in an online course:
1. Microlearning Example “Look Forward to…” (Category: Support)
2. Microlearning Example “The Virtual Discussion” (Category: Reflect)
3. Microlearning Example “Tease the Detective in You” (Category: Understand)
The result in all examples: Short learning bites with compact content that are perfect for microlearning!
