Do you want to give your custom training program a boost this year? Microlearning may just be the key to do that. Whether you have implemented this in the past or not, you may want to take your efforts up a notch by breaking down your training program.
Microlearning is commonly defined as a bite-sized way of learning. These are commonly shorter than the length of traditional courses and will provide learners with what they need when it is required. Oftentimes, it is shorter than 10 minutes. That is how fast you can complete a microlearning course.
Some may think that creating one training course will help save time, energy and resources. While that may be true, you may be sacrificing retention. If you learn something that you cannot implement immediately, that knowledge can vanish as soon as the course is over. When this time comes for that particular knowledge to be relevant, the learner may not be able to fully remember how to implement it.
If you create bite-sized courses for your custom training program, you can place it where employees can access the information when it is needed. When they immediately apply what they learned, retention becomes even more effective.
Of course, this has to be done in right context. There are training requirements that should be done in length and not when they are needed only. While microlearning is usually engaging, it depends on how you construct it to make it engaging. Otherwise, these bite-sized learning materials may be ineffective in boosting your training strategies.
To help implement this in your corporate training program, make sure you look at 4 important areas in your company.
- Training goals. Start by looking at your goals. The microlearning has to be aligned with your targets. What skills and knowledge do you want employees to learn? This will be a strong consideration in determining whether your training will benefit from microlearning or not.
- Learning style of employees. You should also consider the learning styles of the employees. Do you think they can appreciate microlearning better than traditional learning methods? Some people learn best on their own while others are more engaged in a classroom setting. There are employees who can be taught online while others cannot understand how to access it. You need to take this into consideration. Custom training is more effective if you consider who will be learning from them.
- Course content. The third area that you need to consider is the content of the course that you will create. Can you cut them up into bite-sized lessons? Some lessons have to be taught at one time – otherwise, the previous lessons will be lost. As effective and fitting as it may be for your training targets, not all content can adapt to microlearning.
- Available tools. Finally, you want to check the tools and materials that you need to use to make the learning experience more appealing. Will the tools enable you use microlearning? Or is it best suited for traditional learning? Are they available now or do you need to invest a lot of money to acquire the programs that you require for the microlearning to happen?
When you know what the custom training program wants to achieve, you will understand how to implement microlearning.
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