Microlearning holds a lot of value in today’s learning world. It involves breaking down learning into small bite-sized modules to make learning much easier to digest. Learning in this way closes knowledge gaps in a more efficient way and as a result, knowledge retention is higher than usual.
We asked the folks over at Near-Life™ for their top tips on creating an effective microlearning strategy. They’re specialists in scenario-based, immersive, interactive learning to boost engagement and knowledge retention.
Top microlearning tips from the creators of Near-Life™
Optimize, optimize, optimize!
After the pandemic, we’ve all become much more flexible. We work and learn from environments that coincide with our personal lives.
The beauty of microlearning means that your learners aren’t sitting in front of a screen for hours of the day. However, it’s still important that your content connects with your learners. And what better way to connect than being more convenient.
Ensure that your content is optimised for more than just a desktop and especially for a mobile phone. Mobile learning improves productivity by a huge 43%. If your learner can undertake their course on a device that suits them anywhere, anytime, they’ll naturally become more engaged with the content.
Use your data.
Data should become the best tool in your learning toolbox. Whether you use existing data or gather new data, your courses will become much more efficient over time.
By using data, you’ll cut out some of the hard work. It’ll help you to form the basis of your course by providing insights into the type of content you should include. You’ll have a much deeper understanding of how learners best retain knowledge and the level of learning they’re at.
If you don’t have any existing data you can easily collect it through pre-course quizzes or assessments. Doing this will allow you to see progress from undertaking the learning as well as being able to create more tailored content.
Make it fun.
Who said that learning can’t be fun? We most certainly believe that learning through text alone can become quite unappealing.
Adding different forms of media into your content will keep your learners on their toes. You can make use of video, quizzes and gamified elements. Additionally, platforms like Vyond Studio make it easy for you to create animations with their vast library of resources. You can create easy-to-watch videos that engage with any audience, wherever they are.
Before you add in different formats of media, you should consider your aims and objectives. Make sure the media you use can achieve your overall goals.
Go the extra mile.
As your modules are short it can be helpful to offer extra resources to support your online content. Though you should consider making it optional rather than compulsory so that your learners don’t feel pressured to do more.
The concept of microlearning is to obtain short modules that require no extra work. However, providing extra resources will ensure your learners always have the opportunity to expand their knowledge further.
You should aim to break down any barriers to learning and ensure our users don’t reach a dead-end on their learning journey.
Interact through experiences.
At Near-Life™ we focus on interactions as we believe that they boost engagement and knowledge retention. It’s also such an exciting and impactful way to learn.
Interactions involve individuals in the content. As your modules are short you can use interactions to quickly test your learners. Or, you can use them to tell a story by allowing your users to make decisions.
Any way you choose to use interactions will help in maximizing engagement by completely immersing learners into the content.
Tell a story.
Although your modules will be short it’s key that you provide realistic scenarios so that your learners are engaged from the very beginning.
Realistic stories provide familiarity for your learners. The content becomes more understanding, therefore, more engaging. Additionally, stories allow your learners to put the content into context. This should, as a result, allow them to easily transfer the knowledge learnt into real-life scenarios.
As the rule of microlearning goes, make sure you keep your stories short and sweet. Overcomplicating your scenarios may get in the way of your core objectives.
Quality first.
Amongst all of this, one thing we have mentioned plenty of times is to always keep your objectives at the forefront. Why’s this?
Interactions, multimedia, adventurous stories are all great. However, too many of these in one go can reduce the quality of actual learning content. Ensure your learners will be able to achieve not only their goals but your organization’s overall objectives.
A higher quality of learning will result in a higher quality of skills in the end.
Efficient, engaging learning for everyone.
With two complementary tools, you can create an effective microlearning strategy that will boost engagement and knowledge retention. More importantly, you’ll have the ability to create learning that is not only fun and immersive but also cost and time effective.
Why not give it a go for yourself? Create your animated stories with Vyond and gamify and track your interactions with Near-Life™ with a 30-day free trial.
