By Adriana Silvestre, Connie Sim, and Mark Pepe
Welcome to our Open Educational Resource of Microlearning. Our focus for the week is microlearning in the workforce and in higher learning. We’ve all used microlearning in some aspects in our work, or in our hobbies. Our world is changing fast and requires us to learn quickly and apply it immediately.
We kindly ask that you download the application EdApp, create a profile, and access our course using the invite code “#etec522micro”. Alternatively, you can also create a profile and use EdApp on your desktop. We invite you to participate daily as we have a brief module each day.
Please save the date!
This Thursday June 17th at 5:00pm-6:00 PM PST we will have a live chat with Microlearning expert Shannon Tipton on Twitter- use #ETEC522micro. You can also follow and tag her @stipton
What questions would you like to ask Shannon about microlearning and her entrepreneur journey?
If you can’t attend and would like us to ask questions on your behalf, feel free to post ahead of time on EdApp.
Here’s the suggested schedule, but feel free to go at your own pace:
Sunday – OER Launch, Course Introduction, and Meet the Team
Monday – What is Microlearning?
Tuesday – Creating Microlearning Courses
Wednesday – Authoring Tools
Thursday – The Business of Microlearning (chat with an expert, Shannon Tipton)
Friday – Microlearning in the Workplace
Saturday – Ventures in Microlearning
We look forward to you taking part in our OER as well as discussion throughout the week.
-Adriana, Connie, and Mark
You can find our references here.
You can access our course in EdApp using the invite code “#etec522micro”
Hi Adriana, Connie and Mark! I love this model already. Ed App is a new product to me, but bite-size learning is a love of mine (it’s how I excuse my TikTok habit! ( thanks for doing this!
Simin
Thanks for the reply, Simin. Glad you liked it!
Hi Adriana, Connie, and Mark,
Ed App is new to me as well. Thanks for the great OER! You have made learning really fun and engaging. I especially like how you have incorporated so many different content types to capture interests.
I appreciate that you shared some tools with us so we can create microlearning content ourselves. I may use one of these apps to create the OER for my assignment #2. Do you have any advice for using Ed App?
Hi Joyce,
I am glad to hear that you had fun and the learning in our OER was engaging. The best advice we have in using EdApp, is to review the different types of slides they have for content and see how they fit your material. Also, you might want to explore some of the courses they have already created and available, this way you can get ideas of what is possible to create using EdApp. EdApp is a tool for creating Microlearning courses, so their courses would provide you with good examples of best practices. They also offer free one-on-one meetings to walk you through how to use the app to author content. So, I would suggest for you to book a session.
Hope this helps, and feel free to reach out if you have questions.
Adriana
Hi Joyce,
Adding on to Adriana’s comment, I personally found the experiential learning bit most effective. I was actually a little lost halfway through some of the explanatory videos on the different tools available because there were just so many out there! So I started exploring all the different tools before going back to the videos in the attempt to solve some of the challenges I was facing. And also, here’s the link to the session that Adriana mentioned:
https://www.edapp.com/edapp-getting-started/
Adriana, Connie, and Mark,
Thank you for your efforts to put this together; I am really enjoying moving through your content. I hope to be able to make the Twitter chat as well! Based off of what I’m learning, I’ve realized how much I used microlearning with my students due to the pandemic. Teaching virtually make it more difficult for me to have ‘teachable moments’ during our class periods with students. As an alternative, I provided students with significantly more resources than I normally would that supported their learning. Youtube videos, readings, Kahoot quizzes were all available to students only if they needed extra support, or even enrichment.
Hi Josh,
I am glad that you are enjoying the OER. We hope you can make the Twitter Chat, if you cannot and you have a question for Shannon, please feel free to send it to us, and we’ll make sure to ask. I agree with you regarding how teaching virtually has pushed for us to come up with creative ideas to provide our students the support they need. Microlearning defined as bite-sized content, fits well with providing the extra support or enrichment, as you mentioned. There is a website I used to help my students worked out their math answers, and each questions was its own video. I found the site very useful, as students could choose just the “bite”/question they needed. The site is called prepanywhere and they have created a catalogue of videos for each questions in different textbooks. If you teach math, this might be helpful.
https://www.prepanywhere.com/
Hi Josh,
Thank you for sharing your experience. I can totally relate to it. With my learners, I use different types of materials too, hoping to better engage them and encourage participation. One of the issues I found was the difficulty in creating the flow from one learning material to the other, or rather help students realize the importance of doing the activities in sequence. For instance, it is difficult to get them to follow the instructions step-by-step- first, watch a short clip; then, discuss about the clip; after that, go through a related interactive infographic; and finally, complete a guided writing. They would usually skip to the activities that require completion without going through the scaffolding sections and ended up not producing quality work. So when I learnt about microlearning, I was completely attracted to it. With each microlearning lesson being short and sweet, my learners seem to be more motivated to complete the lesson. They also really enjoy being able to fully understand the seamless transition from one slide to another with various types of learning activities embedded in the course. Hope microlearning works for your students too. Let us know how it goes!
The content was great, though the crossword was a killer! Is it wrong that I needed to get the stars?
I think the future of micro-learning is strong. I definitely see some confounding in the method with chunking; I think that is the biggest hurdle to conceptually overcome in successfully implementing the strategy in an outcome-based environment; however, I can see obvious paths for process-based environments.
I would embark on a micro-learning business model. I am especially attracted to the idea of indexed data bases of content for internal processes and knowledge expectations.
I would say I have used micro-learning. Some of my time is spent teaching coding to kids and I would say that micro-learning is a major part of the process. Guiding students to access resources to deepen understanding and expose them to possibilities is part of the gig. Developing the ‘self help’ mindset is part of the learning, if not the most important part of the learning.
The content of your lesson has me thinking about how to implement the strategy. There is a lot of possibilities when paired with a project-based approach and making the content connect with the needs of the students (https://learningrebels.com/). I do not have an exact plan but certainly a shift in practice is imminent.
Thank you for putting this together for us. It is clear your group put a lot of thought into the delivery of the content.
Hi Paul,
I’m glad you enjoyed the crossword! I made some tweaks to it after reading Shaun’s response. I’d like to build on your point about the indexed databases for content. We focused on microlearning in the corporate environment and it’s an integral part to have on the learning platform. I’ve used Codecademy in the past, they’re offering an enterprise edition, and their forums and cheat sheets were valuable when doing a lesson. In fact, it’s so easily accessible it’s right beside the text editor. Very convenient.
I agree with the “self-help” mind set of learning. Students have to learn how to be resourceful when the teacher, parent, sibling, or friend isn’t around. I not sure how to teach that. There have been many times when I wanted to say, “google it,” but I just show them how and what to look for. Hopefully, they learned from that.
Thank you for the response and for your participation.
-Mark
Before I answer the moving forwards questions, I would like to share some of my thoughts about your presentation.
On a molar level, I liked the fact that rather than only presenting information on microlearning, your team modeled the use of microlearning. This reinforces some of the reasons for using microlearning as well as demonstrating the ease of creating such an experience. I liked how each module contained both information and content interaction while the presentation itself still came across as clean and organized. Further, there were elements of fun and social collaboration within almost every module. Finally, I think your team did a terrific job of incorporating multimedia in the design. Video, audio, and slides were all useful ways of presenting your topic and keeping me as a learner engaged.
Your team may wish to consider the following improvements:
Some modules would benefit from a bit more instructions. I found myself a little confused at selected times in the presentation. For example, the crossword puzzle was one of those times. Was I to find “Microlearning in the Workforce” in the puzzle? I was also confused about the learning objective of this puzzle. I eventually found my way but it would have helped me to have specific instructions upfront.
I think I understand the reasoning behind having a character limit in responses. I do not see why responses however have to be quite so short. I think 140 characters is unnecessarily restrictive. I use Twitter as an example of research showing users were once frustrated with the 140-character limit which led the platform to double it.
I believe there is room to improve your navigation. For instance, there should be a back button. I recognize there is an option to review the last slide but I find the option to be rather limited because it brings the user to the beginning (rather than to the end) of the previous slide. If the last slide is an activity (such as when users are to view authoring tools in a click and reveal accordion-style format), the user is forced to complete the activity all over regardless of the reason for returning the previous page (the user may have only wanted to get the correct spelling of a certain authoring tool). Especially true for users of self-paced learning, learners should also be able to go where they want at any time they choose.
Concerning your moving forward questions.
I believe microlearning is here to stay and inevitably will become increasingly popular with time, especially in the corporate world. In short, employees don’t want to spend the time and organizations don’t want to spend the money on lengthier traditional learning. Now as we soon embark on a post-pandemic phase, I can only suspect these are now far more robust reasons.
I could most definitely find value in using microlearning in my future goals. The versatility of it combined with its manageable format (one objective, less than 10 minutes, digital space) makes it an incredibly useful method while I build my stock as a trainer and designer.
Finally, I have made use of microlearning (in the form of activities) in our group’s upcoming A2 assignment during week 8. I look forward to hearing feedback on them.
Hi Shaun,
Thanks for response and for your feedback. It’s much appreciated! I created puzzle, and even I was frustrated! I gave it a temporary fix by adding a preceding slide informing the use that a game is coming up and for which terms to look for. There are limitations to customizing a slide, and to the app, as you have already mentioned. The only customization I was able to find is enabling CSS to customize style, or “branding” as they call it. It’s a good lesson to consider the user interface and experience.
Glad to hear that you’ve incorporated microlearning into your OER, looking for ward to it.
Mark
Nice touch, Mark. There are few designs that don’t benefit from UX.
Hi Shaun,
Thank you for your feedback. Our goal was to model like you said a microlearning experience created with one of the tools available for this. We tried incorporating all formats of microlearning to provide variety and I am glad to hear that you found them successful in keeping you engaged.
Thank you for providing us with feedback for improvement. Mark already added an instruction slide to the puzzle. I have also revised the character limited for the social learning questions and have set it to 400 characters. When we created it, I understood that setting it to “0” would make it have no limit, but now it is set to 400. The navigation issue, indeed it is something that EdApp can improve on, as you mention they do have the option to review the last slide, but if it is an activity, in needs to be restarted.
I agree with you that microlearning is here to stay, especially as it saves employees time and money to organizations. I would love to check your microlearning stock as a designer. I used to work as freelance graphic and web designer, and I created microlearning “bite-sized” videos and one page resources for my clients to be able to update and use their LMS and CMS. As designers microlearning is vital. I also look forward to your microlearning activities for your OER.
Thank you for participating and taking the time to provide us with such a thorough feedback.
Adriana
Sounds like an interesting job, Adriana. I can see how these brief resources would’ve been useful to your clients. As I shifted my career a few years back, I, for one, am constantly using short video demos to help me learn in-and-outs of tools I now use/expect to use in the future. Such informal self-guided learning has truly been a cornerstone in my advancing my knowledge with these tools. Just to clarify…when I said microlearning is “an incredibly useful method while I build my stock as a trainer and a designer”, I was using stock in the sense that it adds a valuable asset to my breadth of professional services. Truth be told, I have little experience in the area.
Great job on your presentation! I like how you kept it simple and walk us through the experience with the daily activities. I learnt a lot from your presentation and will add Ed App to my collection to experiment with 🙂
Well done!
Thanks for participating Analesa, glad you enjoyed it! -Mark
Hi Adriana, Connie, and Mark,
Thank you for the lesson on microlearning. As suggested by other peers, I believe the course truly does model microlearning with a spice of gamification. Last week, we learned about gamification, and this week’s microlearning course actually does provide a practical example of how adults also respond to gamification in a microlearning environment. It has been interesting to follow the conversation about the number of stars available to be earned. Moving forward…
My thoughts on the future of microlearning: With remote learning, and working becoming commonplace, I think microlearning would be the future of training and professional development. In the microlearning course, we learned that microlearning helps increase engagement, and I think many teachers have already adopted the idea in their classrooms. I find that both students and teachers not prefer short, 2-min or less videos to discuss a topic.
Embarking on a microlearning business model: Yes, this is one sure way to increase revenue, engage employees and increase productivity.
My experience with using microlearning: I have created video tips on business analysis topics and hosted them on Youtube.
I enjoyed using EdApp, and would explore it to create future lessons.
Hi Phillip,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree, microlearning seems to be a great tool to effectively deliver training modules at the workplace. With the inclusion of gamification on a mobile-ready environment, it appears to be more motivating for employees to attend training on a continuous basis. However, with regard to classroom teaching, I am honestly unsure how we could implement a standalone microlearning lesson. As you said, how do we make it work for a discussion or even, debate for 10 minutes on a pressing issue?
I’m curious about your videos that you mentioned? Are they microlearning-like? I’m interested to find out more!
First of all, thank you for the enjoyable experience and the informative presentation. It is highly interactive and thematic.
Regarding the future of microlearning, I think there is a strong link between AI applications and eLearning methods in the sense that education is accelerating towards convenience and personalization. That is exactly what a learner will be looking for: an intelligent tool that uses algorithms to tailor the content and delivery in the most efficient way. Moreover, microlearning supports online learning and anywhere growth. In other words, various media options such as infographics, video, text, or games to have access to information wherever whenever. On top of that, microlearning trends are perfect for the rise of self-guided learning technologies and autonomous education. Similarly, immersive and interactive experiences are more popular than ever, and they will continue to flourish based on the principles of microlearning. It appears to me that learning media have changed from books to YouTube videos to Instagram to TikTok. This speaks volumes about how the attention span of the audience is diminishing at an alarming rate. Many school students no longer see the value in writing long essays or reading books and most of them feel that the learning process is full of unnecessary lengthy stages. Microlearning might not be suited for in-depth training or exploring complex concepts, but it definitely fills huge gaps and supports novel technologies.It simply clicks with the new ways of the world and the evolved human nature.
The question is: is microlearning merely one of the convenient methods/tools or is it inevitably shaping the face of education as we know it?
Hi Feras,
Thanks for participating in our OER. Good question, I think it already may be unknowingly to most shaping the face of education. With massive online open courses becoming more popular microlearning is something that is implemented into those courses. I did my A1 on Codecademy, and every lesson that I did was a microlearning lesson. 5 to 7 minute lessons, access for help a click away, frequent quizzes, and it worked. I learned a lot on my own, so it’s very effective.
Thanks!
Mark
As stated by Philip, “… I believe the course truly does model microlearning with a spice of gamification.”
EddApp was fun and I love the flexibility of having a course on my phone, in bite sized chunks. I felt motivated to check the App. and complete a unit anytime I was lounging idly around and some of the interactions were surprisingly fun. I actually really appreciated how some of the interactions were designed with less explanation and you had to tap-around and figure out what to do…it was never overly complicated but it felt like solving a little puzzle.
It must be quite the design challenge to curate/create media, frame and wordsmith content into such a small package. I LOVE it! I definitely want to explore the possibilities more.
QUESTIONS:
1. How have you used micro-learning?
I started a micro-learning project just before leaving my previous job; the company was very excited because it was always a struggle to spare staff for a 1/2 or full day of classroom training. However, there were a few HR concerns. One problem we encountered was that management didn’t want the micro-learning available on participant’s mobile devices, for privacy reasons and accessibility because some employees didn’t have phones. They also worried that employees might feel pressured to complete the training in their spare time, rather than making the time during their work day. We were working on short (under 5 mins) videos, and slightly longer e-learning modules that could be accessed from company computers.
2. How would you use micro-learning?
I would love to do more design work using an App like EdApp. I’ve never designed in a courseware program specifically for mobile, micro learning content. Micro-units could be a great add-on to an online course (esp. if it combined social networking, like chat features with your classmates/cohort) and I think it would be a perfect fit for soft-skills training and leadership/management training.
3. What are your thoughts on the future & would you embark on a business model?
I think micro-learning is here to stay, in one form or another, and I would definitely embark on a business model centered around micro-learning approaches because I think the fast-paced world we live in will respond and benefit widely from increased access and flexibility to upskill. More and more it seems that being a little bit good at a lot of different things is valuable and microlearning would be great way to package it.
Hi Sally,
Thank you for participating in our OER. I really enjoyed reading your experience using microlearning. I had fun exploring EdApp, especially when I could see what the learning materials looks like on a wide variety of different mobile gadgets, even as I am authoring the course.
I personally think that it is wise and exciting to break from the norm of long hours of training. I am wondering, what were the company’s suggestions when there were concerns about the employees needing to complete trainings during their spare time? Would it have worked if the training became a part of “Lunch and Learn” sessions?
Hi Mircolearning team,
I loved the format! Initially I was a bit skeptical about needing to download an app, but Edapp proved to be great and your use of it utilizing microlearning was amazing. I found it very easy to fit 5 minutes into my day, nearly everyday, especially when the app notified me to work on it. Very user friendly, well designed, and you showcased the various forms of microlearning well, from infographics, to videos, podcasts, and mini games.
Microlearning will definitely continue to be adopted, especially by businesses and in small teams, both as a way to educate consumers and team members. Personally, I find it hard to imagine the formal education system to fully implement micro-learning, but there are important use cases.
Most recently, I have used micro-learning by delivering ‘Teaching Theory Thursdays’ in our faculty newsletter which is a short teaching concept. You can see past tips re-posted on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/LFSLC
I am also about one month away from launching a micro-learning fashion brand. The idea is to create beautiful artwork revolving around an interesting scientific concept and in addition to the design, there will be a caption printed explaining the concept. Our first design and print can be seen here! https://www.instagram.com/p/CQTr_JaHAwH/
Hi Adrian,
Thanks for participating in our OER and for submitting questions to our Twitter Chat with Shannon Tipton. Glad to hear that you currently use microlearning! I never realized how much I was using until I started putting together this OER with Adriana and Connie. Now I know how to use it properly and efficiently. As for the use in the formal education system, it might be a challenge, just because of how busy teachers already are with standard teaching (unit/lesson planning, day to day activities, school functions, etc.). In order to create an effective microlearning lesson, or series of lessons, it’s a lot of work to make it substantial. Hopefully more educators in the future adopt it. I’m going to try my best to do so. Congrats on the fashion brand, I followed!
Mark