The Concept Of Microlearning
The internet is a powerful tool as it is has given birth to many wonderful gifts to mankind. One of those gifts is a modern dynamic learning system termed as eLearning. eLearning, as it stands now, is polarizing the world in ways never experienced before. Every form of eLearning carries with it a simple yet powerful means of traversing boundaries that are not just physical but also intellectual. The reaches of eLearning are multidimensional and varied, making it an ideal source of learning for people of all age groups.
For example, mobile learning has turned out to be a major channel of learning among the youth due to its ease of accessibility and availability. One of the many aspects of eLearning is also microlearning. Microlearning, in plain terms, refers to minimized and brief learning modules designed for better understanding and ease of delivering information effectively. Microlearning trends over the years have grown diversely and had significantly impacted corporate training methods. Microlearning has helped increase the pace of training in corporate organizations due to its vivid yet concise approach.
Components Of Microlearning
The process of compressing useful information to fit into a small module that relays the same information, nonetheless without any loss of vital information, is generally done with the help of various multimedia. Every person is rather familiar with the use of such multimedia and hence, employing these contents in small packets to form microlearning modules transmits our learning objectives much more efficiently and effectively. Microlearning courses are generally placed at a duration of 30-40 seconds so as to be convenient and easy to understand. On the whole, microlearning can also be characterized as a compact form of custom learning.
The types of microlearning content used are as follows:
- Animations
- Presentations
- Short videos and interactive multimedia
- Quizzes
- Infographics
- eBooks
- Process Maps
eLearning And Microlearning: A Tale Of Twins
eLearning came to be the first to see the light of the day. As advancements ran their course, many branches of eLearning evolved. Microlearning was the result of a need to learn in a constrained time frame. Given the competitive nature in today’s professionals, microlearning proved to be a game changer and eased the process of incorporating eLearning in corporate training exercises. While many corporate training methods employ traditional methods of learning, the application of eLearning significantly smoothened the process and gave desired results in very less time. This transformed into microlearning as we see today.
In the present day, the corporate sector demands skilled taskforce that is competent both on technical as well as business skills aspects. In such cases, microlearning in platforms sets off skill-based evaluation techniques that can evaluate the performance and efforts of the employees in a shorter period of time and with a high level of precision. Microlearning is rather a fine-tuned eLearning technique destined for perfection.
Benefits Of Microlearning
By assisting in training new recruits in corporate companies, microlearning sets the foundation for benefits that are bilaterally faithful both to the new trainees as well as the organization. Creating a win-win beneficiary situation for everyone involved is, perhaps, one of the most profitable aspects of microlearning. The following are the benefits microlearning can offer when employed judiciously:
Accessibility
The ease with which microlearning modules can be accessed on various devices like mobiles, tablets, computers, etc offers valuable support to learners in terms of the ability to learn at any time desired. This significantly impacts the time that learners take to understand a microlearning course.
Engaging Content
The use of various multimedia like short videos, quizzes, presentations, etc invokes interest among the learners to learn courses enthusiastically.
Judicious In Terms Of Time
Microlearning modules are exceptional in delivering requisite data and information in less time thereby allowing time to be conserved and used elsewhere in other productive tasks.
Impactful
The use of microlearning in corporate training generates ample scope for quality outputs and promotes better learning abilities among the new learners. Due to its time saving and efficient nature, a business can often be impacted positively through increased productivity.
Shorter time of induction
The development of microlearning training modules takes very less time and as such can be put into place in very less time making it ideal for training programs that are strict in terms of duration.
Pocket-Friendly
Corporate companies generally spend a lot of financial and intellectual resources to put a proper training system that matches the expectations of the company. Microlearning can be used to create training procedures that are budget friends and cost-effective. This can result in a significant reduction in costs incurred by the organization in training new associates.
Learner Supportive
Microlearning is essentially suitable for any learner as it provides the exact and accurate amount of information as required by learners. This leads to a better understanding of course material and fewer chances of redundant data being taught to the learner.
Drawbacks Of Microlearning
Every coin has two sides to it. So does microlearning. While microlearning does have an unbelievable number of advantages, it does possess a few drawbacks. They are as follows:
Critical And Complex Information
Microlearning may prove to be ineffective when the information or data we are dealing with are too complex to be put into a short length learning module. In such cases, microlearning can be quite inconvenient to use.
Disorients A Collective Task
Some information or training exercises are meant as a whole. Small tasks when combined to produce a bigger goal make sense in such cases. As microlearning focuses on small packets of information delivered in a summarised form, this can affect the overall effectiveness of organized data or information.
Conclusion
While microlearning does prove to be a game changer in corporate training programs, there is sufficient scope for further improvement on how to deal with complex information as part of corporate training. However, with the number of benefits, it provides microlearning certainly has the potential to replace traditional training methods on a massive scale in the corporate sector. Lastly, the suitable application of microlearning according to business requirements is a crucial factor in its effectiveness.
