When creating microlearning courses!

Know your learners

Clearly defining and understanding your audience should be the first step you take in the microlearning content development process. Identify which of your colleagues or team members will find your learning content useful and ask yourself relevant questions to determine how you should approach course creation: what do your learners already know or not know about the topic? How tech-savvy are they? Will they be looking to learn on-the-go (e.g. using a mobile device)? Answering these questions will ensure your microlearning content is tailored to your learners’ specific needs.

Set a single learning outcome

Like any e-learning content you create, it’s important to identify your intended learning objective before diving into the creation process. The difference in microlearning content development is that your learning objective should be singular – and the more specific the better. Knowing exactly what new knowledge or skills you want your learners to walk away with at the end of your course not only streamlines the creation process for you but also ensures you don’t include any irrelevant content.

Keep your content brief

Microlearning is, by definition, short. But how short should it be? Research has shown that effective microlearning content lasts between two and seven minutes. But because attention spans are on the decline, learners aren’t guaranteed to make it through the entirety of learning content, even if it’s just a few minutes long. With that in mind, when creating microlearning content it’s still worth making sure your learners can easily skim the content and develop clear takeaways. This is particularly useful if you?use microlearning in soft skills training?as your employees can immediately apply their learnings once they’ve completed their course.

Include relatable examples

When diving into an unfamiliar subject, learners benefit from having examples they can relate to and draw conclusions from. To ensure the examples you include are relatable, consider real-world scenarios that learners are likely to encounter on the job. This not only helps them apply their learnings to their own experiences but can also strengthen their knowledge retention.

Apply an active and relatable tone

Employing a conversational tone that communicates in the same way learners do in their everyday lives can also improve relatability. When developing microlearning content, use an active voice ensures your content gets the point across quickly, allowing your learners to form conclusions and close their knowledge gaps faster.

Keep it engaging

Keeping content short and specific isn’t enough to make sure learners stay focused. Consider balancing text out with engaging visuals or interactive elements. You could also deliver your content in an engaging format altogether. For example, videos create a multisensory learning experience (visually and audibly), which can also improve learner retention rates.

Until next time, keep the conversation going.

Best Regards,

Avi Bhattacharya