In the age of mobility and ubiquitous learning, microlearning has become prevalent across emerging educational technologies. Mobile instructional design continues to rely heavily on microcontent and incremental development. It is estimated that 70% of Millennials visit YouTube monthly, and they will comprise about 75% of the workforce in 2025. Companies realize that, in a busy world, providing effective just-in-time L&D opportunities for employees is not an easy task, given the hectic schedules and inevitable distraction. Therefore, microlearning training courses seem to be the ideal solution for corporate training.
The given project closely examines the main principles of microlearning and its implications in vocational settings. It also provides a contrastive analysis of three emerging microlearning platforms designed to facilitate corporate training and final thoughts on the subject matter.
The analysis can be accessed here.
Feras, thanks for the review of the 3 tools. in my perspective, the opportunities for Corporate training are endless and I love the idea of using microlearning as a refresher that employees (especially sales reps) can utilize to review training that has been given. I am currently working with a client who has a team of sales reps who are new to selling into operating rooms. The training the customer completed is torture – think of 3 full days of lectures with minimal breaks, some break out sessions, but no thought as to learning needs or differences of those in the room or on Zoom. Media training teaches us to think of a triangle – you need to lead with the point you want the investigator/journalist to remember and report on. After you lead with that point you give your back up rationale. Corporate training generally starts with all of the rationale and leads to the conclusion. By the time you get to the conclusion you have lost your audience. I see microlearning as a way to get the key points across first, let the learner absorb and reflect and then start a larger conversation that allows them to uptake the rationale and background on their own time and pace. I would be interested to hear what you think and how you might employ microlearning for corporate training.
Hi Nicole. Thank you for sharing your experience here. I completely agree with your idea about leading with the key points. One of the greatest benefits of microlearning is the increase of attention span, and that’s based on all the references I checked through my research. Especially in the corporate context, the employee is usually overwhelmed with tasks and could not care less about giving 110% of his attention for a three-day course, which he/she might be already familiar with OR won’t practically need in the future. That’s actually another advantage of microlearning, it guarantees that no unnecessary information is overloading the trainee. Also, the mobility and ubiquity nature of microlearning makes it ideal to create a positive attitude towards learning and development.
Hi Feras! I liked reading your analysis – as I am also very interested in the world of microlearning/microcredentials. While I particularly focus on microcredentials, it is interesting to learn more about microlearning – something that is very prevalent in today’s world. Your page made me realize that I myself engage in microlearning everyday, through platforms such as TikTok and Ted Talks. These are forms of “concise” learning, which can be translated to microcredentials, on a larger scale. Based on this, and that millennials do engage in the use of a lot of “micro content” it does seem that in fact, microlearning and microcredentials may be the future of corporate training.
Hi Emma. It is true that we engage in microlearning on a daily basis without even realizing it. This shift has taken place so subtly to match the change in human attention span. We can notice that in the infographics, procedural stickers, TikTok, and even LMS platforms. The word “concise” is a keyword in the world of microcontent as most people are no longer interested in extensive learning or in-depth education unless they have to. The reason I think that microlearning is shaping the future of corporate training is that employees nowadays are bombarded with tasks and have little time for learning and development. Therefore, microlearning courses seem to fit quite well to address their learning needs in the world of “just-in-time.”
Thank you Feras, for your analysis. After reading your Contrastive Analysis, I like the idea of 7taps. I think employees can use this application as a review tool after going through a more in-depth training. Often times in corporations, there is a bigger idea that employees need to learn. With such limited space, it is hard to capture all of that in a bite size pieces. Let’s say an organization decided to break down their big training theme into bite size pieces, would there be a disconnect when going to one sub topic to another sub topic? I understand that bite size learning pieces is a benefit for everyone, do you think yearly training will take longer to complete? Or should organizations just be glad that their employees are enjoying the training process more and absorbing more training material, even if they have to go through more modules?
Hi Sarah. As you said, microlearning tools can be used as a review tool for a rich training course, and they are also likely to be used to introduce new instructional or operational content in bits. I believe viewing microlearning apps and digital tools as assessment tools is fair but is an understatement. Nowadays technologies are going in the direction of providing comprehensive learning experiences that convenience the workers and fit in their schedules. Studies have found that microlearning is more suitable to provide “just-in-time” mini-training so that professionals do not overwhelm themselves by reading bulky content; so, the target is efficiency. Connecting lessons together is not a technical concern as much as it is conceptual. The fact that the mini-courses are learned independently makes it hard to build a coherent big image. You want convenience? you have to let go of holistic learning (the same way you choose a cheap durable tough mobile phone for your frontline work rather than the fancy advanced iPhone). So, yes, learning takes longer but it is “slow and steady”, and we are presenting ideas in “episodes” rather than “movies”, so to speak. Back to what you stated in the beginning, this should take a supplementary role, not a primary one in the corporate or academic settings. Thanks for sharing ideas and stirring thoughts.