Why do you need microlearning?

Recently we worked on a project that involved several small modules that each were specific parts of a larger initiative of system training for employees. This is a type of microlearning.

One of the important aspects of this microlearning is that it doesn’t take the learner through an entire system process each time, just the parts relevant to the specific task. Microlearning allows your learners to only take the parts of the elearning they feel are necessary, instead of having to review the entirety of the course information, unlike traditional training.

This allows learners to choose when to spend their time on the learning, customize which parts they need, and takes up less of their day.

This encourages better retention when learners take smaller elearning courses more frequently. Generally, training is meant to teach a new thing or encourage a change to an existing thing. Short modules that happen over a period of time is a much better form of reinforcement than one whole day of training.

This is the same kind of training you might use when you’re trying to develop good habits or break bad habits. You can’t just do the new behaviour for 24 hours and expect it to stick. You need to do the thing multiple times over a period before it becomes easy and part of your regular patterns.

Being taken in small portions and being supported as part of the regular patterns of behaviour in the environment is how microlearning works better than the usual kinds of training.