Tips For Creating Microlearning Videos

Short duration videos for training and education, commonly known as microlearning videos, are becoming increasingly popular in different sectors including healthcare, education, insurance, construction, banking, real-estate, just to name a few. A microlearning approach makes it easier for learners to consume and retain information. Here are a few simple tips that can help you create successful microlearning videos.

Focus On A Single Objective

An effective microlearning video focuses on a single point rather than discussing multiple learning objectives. Occasionally you may need to bend this rule and focus on 2 or 3 objectives, but don’t push it or you’ll overwhelm your learners and they’ll checkout. Focusing on a single objective not only makes it easier to create content, but it also enables learners to understand the material more quickly and effectively. So keep things simple and resist the temptation of teaching everything in a single video.

Don’t Just Tell Them, Show Them

Just because it’s a learning video does not mean that it should only comprise of text and voice (death by power point). Visuals convey the message more effectively than words. If you want your audience to actually learn a certain process or procedure, make sure to show them how it is done, either by animation, photos or video of that task being performed.

Write An Effective Script

The importance of an effective script cannot be ignored when creating microlearning videos. A successful script focuses on the learning objective and serves as a guide, like painting by the numbers. Or in this case producing by the numbers. So unless you are an excellent improviser, make sure to write a solid script for your videos.  It can be tedious, but much less tedious than editing out all of your improvised mistakes.

Keep It Distraction Free

The whole purpose of microlearning videos is keeping things on-point. Learners want/need you to just get to the point. Ain't nobody got time to listen to you ramble. So be mindful of excess content that’s not relevant to the learning objective(s)– “Trim the fat” - make sure there are no wasted words in your script. 

Follow The Golden Rule of Public Speaking

What’s the Golden Rule you ask? It’s simple- Tell your audience what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you told them. As an example, here is a brief video script on how to create and save a new Word document. 

What you’re going to tell them - briefly introduce the topic so they know what this is about:

“In this short video you’ll learn how to create and save a new Word document.”

Tell them - explain it to them in a concise manner so it’s easily understandable (remember, no fat):

“First double-click on the Word icon. Then select File, New Document. Once you’re finished adding content such as text and images to the document, select File, Save. Choose a location to save it to and click OK. That’s all there is to it!”

Tell them what you told them - briefly review what they just learned so it sticks in their mind:

“So remember, double-click Word, create a new document then save. Thanks for watching!”

That was a trivial example, but you can apply this same rule to any other complex subject matter and it will increase the retention rate of your learners.

Here is a real life example of these tips being implemented to create a microlearning video for an iMovie editing course I created.

In case you're interested, the course is currently available at: https://www.udemy.com/masteringimovie