All across industries from health care to finance to small locally owned businesses, microlearning continues to be at the forefront of learning and training discussions. It’s a small approach that packs a big punch. Here are seven reasons why Microlearning works.
It’s learner centered, not content centered. The content centered approach can be bloated, forcing large quantities of content down learners’ throats causing them to disengage and retain very little. Microlearning is all about the learner. The guiding question is, “What’s the one thing we want our audience to know now?” Then you create content to addresses that central focus.
For example, GLS Insurance reached out to me because they needed an effective way to show and tell their customers how easy it is to get an instant quote online:
Microlearning content is more easily developed and revised. Due to its brevity, microlearning content can be produced in a fraction of the time of longer more complex projects. It’s a sprint not a marathon. Also, it’s much easier to make changes and revisions to the content when new iterations are needed. For example, if a client hires me to produce a series of ten 2-minute microlearning videos, when the content needs updating it’s much easier and therefore cost effective to revise only the videos that need changes.
HealthcareFirst recently had me update a series I produced a couple of years ago. Had we produced long-form tutorials the task would have been monumental. However, we produced a series of dozens of microlearning videos. So we only had to update three of the videos. Here's one from that series:
Microlearning may be more affordable than traditional content development. Because of the shorter length, easier development, and simpler rollout, microlearning videos may be more affordable than traditional long-form content.
Your organization can address needs and issues immediately with microlearning. With the added benefits of easier development and affordability, you gain the edge of timeliness. Producing and rolling out a video addressing a specific topic or providing an update no longer takes months, but can be done in a matter of days.
Microlearing is designed for quick and dynamic distribution. With mobility (and working remotely) being the new normal for most organizations, microlearning brings your content to a variety of platforms all accessible whenever and wherever your target audience is. This may be through simple hosting solutions like Vimeo, Wistia or YouTube or more robust learning management systems like Litmos.
Microlearning is flexible. The shorter and more specific the content, the more flexible you can accommodate any niche. You can group content, target a specific audience, add questions for understanding, and track progress. For example, you might produce a series of medical-based tutorials. If you keep your topics short and concise you can group the tutorials into sets for specific roles – a set for physicians, a set for nurses, a set for admin staff, etc.
In addition, microlearning is not only a great learning tool, it can be an impactful marketing asset. Aspire Software came to me with the idea that they wanted to use a hybrid approach to both educate and advertise. So we're working on a series of explainer videos to do just that. Here's the first one we recently completed:
Microlearning is effective. It’s effective because it can be consumed quickly, reviewed easily, and causes minimal disruption. Checkout this short Your Brain on Microlearning article to learn more about its effectiveness.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. How many is a video worth? At Clear Point Video we produce videos to drive understanding, and get results quickly. Microlearnig videos are our specialty.