Fast-paced, personalized, and instantly gratifying are all characteristics defining the wants, needs and trends of modern-day society. We have everything we need at our fingertips, heightening our curiosity while simultaneously shortening our attention span. In such a fast-paced, busy world, the new trend microlearning feeds this new pace of life and has been found to be valuable to both managers and employees alike.
Microlearning is defined as a way of teaching and delivering content to learners in very small, specific bursts with the learners in control of what and when they’re learning. It consists of relatively short engagements that can range anywhere from a few seconds to around twenty minutes, with each engagement having one clear learning objective and outcome. Recently, it has been utilized in modern corporate culture by managers to train new employees or teach experienced employees new methods in a short enough time frame that they aren’t distracted or flooded with too much information. Aside from managers’ usage, it is also used by people, especially millennial workers, in all positions for informal learning as a way to stay up-to-date and sharp.
Here are three quick reasons why microlearning is beneficial for any workplace:
It calls for immediate results.
With microlearning, each lesson is generally just a few minutes long and focuses on one task to master. Whether it’s focused on how to master an excel function, the best way to manage certain types of workers, or how to use a new office platform, the lesson has a specific end goal of “know how to ___”. Each lesson promises that in a few minutes, you should have a new specific skill you didn’t have before.
It doesn’t waste your time.
Short and to the point is the overarching theme of the microlearning trend. These lessons can be taken during a morning commute, while taking a break at your desk, at lunch, working from home and always at your own pace. This flexibility is often valued by workers who feel overwhelmed and swamped with work, knowing that the information is there and accessible in just a few minutes whenever they need it.
It’s effective.
The end goal when microlearning is simply to learn a new skill, but how is that any different from other styles of learning. Personalization is key in capturing attention, which lends to the effectiveness of this specific style. If one employee prefers watching videos on how to do something and one prefers to read about it, microlearning can cater to both styles of learning either through a short clip or short, step by step list. It is used as an instant source of knowledge that encourages you to learn more because of how easy it is to learn.
Whether you’re a manager trying to implement the most effective training strategy or you just want to learn a new skill, microlearning is an efficient tool to use. The allowance for personalization, on-the-go learning and immediate results cater specifically to the new characteristics driving successful businesses today. The answers to everything we need are at our fingertips, and it’s time to take advantage of it. Learning has never been easier, so devote yourself to learning one new thing a week for an easy challenge to ensure you are a lifelong learner keeping up to date on any new methods, technologies and platforms!
Microlearning and its Advantages in the Workplace
