Microlearning: Should We or Shouldn't We?

I recently joined a fascinating webinar. It was hosted by a guy who really knew his stuff, and was passionate about what he was sharing with us. I agreed with many of the points he made and there were some thoughtful comments from the attendees.??

But at the back of my mind, major alarm bells started to ring.?

Why??

Well, I couldn’t stop thinking - is microlearning really the right thing to be doing? Or are we just pandering to the current culture? Like me, I’m sure you are told time and again that people have shorter and shorter attention spans (in fact, it’s something we say ourselves!). That we should be equipping people with just-in-time learning.??

But contrast that with a training session I was running this morning. A group of leaders from various organisations from the public sector trying to tackle one of the most prolific challenges - how to improve people’s resilience. And I can tell you for sure that showing someone a 5-minute video on building resilience does not make someone more resilient.??

Micro it might be but change behaviour it does not.??

Because the brain doesn't work that way and resilience doesn’t grow that way (If you want to know more about how resilience does work, drop us an email and we’ll send you over a recent white paper we wrote).?

Where microlearning really helps.??

And although you might think, ‘well, it might not work for resilience but that’s a bit different', let’s first recap what microlearning is good for:

• As a primer. Microlearning is great for readying the brain for future learning. It gets your brain in the right mind frame and lays the groundwork for what comes next.?
• Introducing something new. When you come across something new, telling someone everything they need to know can be overwhelming. Drip feeding new concepts or skills gives the brain time to update and rewire itself as you take on new information.?
• Inspiration. Microlearning is an effective way to quickly fire a whole range of different ideas to inspire creative thought. Micro sessions on lateral concepts can help to generate new connections in the brain, perfect for thinking differently.?

But despite all these great applications of microlearning, it quickly becomes obvious that there are some things that you can’t rewire on the spot. A classic example is ‘having difficult conversations’. Science shows us that many neural underpinnings determine whether a challenging conversation will go well or not. And while you may generate some great opening phrases, if your ability to be empathetic is low (something that is only strengthened and developed through sustained practice), the conversation will still go down like a lead balloon.??

Why attention matters?

Let’s dig into the science a bit and consider that the brain operates (in very simplistic terms) in two modes - outward focus, dominated by our executive function network, where we are taking stock of what is in our external environment, and inward focus, supported by our default mode network where we mull over our internal thoughts and memories.??

As you might imagine, both networks can only perform well if they have attention on their side (attention is a critical function to most of the brain - see here for a recent critique on how it works). But the real question is, what is this increasingly microlearning world doing to our attention systems???

By only providing people with short bursts of information at a time, are we actually helping ourselves, or just exacerbating the problem? Are we rewiring these networks so that we can less focus for sustained periods of time when we should be challenging ourselves and our brain to preserve our attention for longer? Or is microlearning really the best way to cram the most into our action-packed days????

Into the grey zone.??

Debates like this are nothing new to Synaptic Potential . When it comes to the brain, we rarely find things to be black and white, and this applies whether we’re talking microlearning or resilience.???

The reality is that short bursts of engaging learning, like this newsletter, for example, can be fantastic. However, if you are only ever expecting your brain to engage for 2 minutes at a time, then your ability to sustain attention is likely to decrease.??

Do you want that???

Or do you want to be able to sit and read a novel? Follow the plot of a whole film? Or dig into that deep and complex report at work? If so, then you need to keep stretching yourself and engaging those task active networks.??

So listening to that webinar, did I leave feeling that microlearning is the wrong direction for us to be taking???

Absolutely not.??

In fact, we offer some great programmes at Synaptic Potential that involve 3-5 minute videos! But like many things in life where “everything in moderation” is the go-to phrase, the same applies to the brain. Microlearning is an instrumental part of a balanced learning diet. And knowing the right way to design your learning sessions and being clear on what you expect to get out of each learning opportunity is what’s important for maximising your potential.??

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