Microlearning saves you the expense and logistical headaches of gathering your team together for location-dependent training. With the right platform, your team can learn on their smartphone, tablet — any connected device — when and where it’s convenient for them.
Smartphones are now ubiquitous, leaving many employers to wonder how to optimize employees’ time and training with this technology. Apps that “gamify” learning are increasingly popular.
Microlearning capitalizes on gamification, strategizing accessible digital technologies to provide short, focused modules. These micro-lessons can teach any content to any kind of learner.
Short lessons (usually 7 to 10 minutes) that engage and challenge learners are ideal for conveying important information to employees without gathering everyone into the same physical space. Employees can pick up lessons at their leisure, choosing to learn when they’re at their most alert and prepared.
Here, we discuss how you can successfully introduce microlearning in your company.
1. Identify Specific Training Goals
Even with an in-person workforce, gathering all your employees into one room can be a challenging prospect. Fortunately, microlearning on digital platforms provides an easier way that can even improve content retention.
However, before you start assembling microlessons, you’ll need to identify what exactly you want your employees to learn.
What skills do you want them to develop? Will microlearning supplement or replace in-person training? When in the course of employment will employees take these bite-sized courses?
In addition to asking these questions, identify gaps in any current training. For example, in a medical field, you might lack an easy way to get your workers up to speed on a new medical development or treatment. Microlearning provides an opportunity to get your employees the information they need in a way they’re more likely to remember it.
2. Work with Learning & Design Specialists to Create Lessons
If you aren’t a Learning & Design (L&D) specialist, you might be hesitant to take on the challenge of creating microlearning modules. Fortunately, Learn to Win pairs you with experts who can help you craft compelling, engaging lessons that fit your company’s needs.
Keep in mind that while microlearning lessons are short by design, each task should contain a complete concept. Avoid structuring your course content like a mystery novel: you want your employees to know the significant information upfront.
Numerous studies have shown the efficacy of gamification in education. Gamification has a particularly positive impact on learner motivation and engagement. Work with the right L&D specialists, and you’ll have a more motivated and engaged workforce—it’s a win-win.
3. Make It a Habit
When introducing microlearning, it’s vital to ensure it becomes a regular habit for workers rather than a one-off event. Think about making microlearning a predictable, regularly occurring event to increase your employees’ comfort with the platform.
Be sure to convey the purpose and implementation of the content in these modules. Your employees are more likely to pay close attention and be engaged if they understand the lesson’s potential applications.
Workers can also repeat lessons if they need clarification or forget the answer to a question. This easy access ensures that employees see microlearning as applicable beyond the initial lessons. Indeed, the microlearning platform functions as an ongoing resource.
Beyond making microlearning a habit, you can also use gamification to your advantage to create new workplace habits. It’s a strategy that is becoming increasingly necessary as disruptions to in-person activities and learning threaten to throw employee productivity off course.
Carefully curated lessons that learners can access from anywhere offer new habits to cope with these disruptions, furthering workplace success.
4. Intentionally Incorporate Microlearning into the Work Day
It’s crucial that employees view microlearning as a helpful tool rather than another task added to their busy workday to-do list. Consider how the microlearning lessons can fit seamlessly into your employees’ busy schedules.
When transitioning to a microlearning platform, thoughtfully introduce this new learning method. You may want to share with workers the many benefits of gamification of learning to increase their investment in this new approach.
You might even want to incorporate good-natured competition, awarding the employees who complete the most lessons, get the best scores on quizzes, or master some other element of your content. This tactic can introduce a sense of camaraderie in your workplace.
5. Evaluate Learning Outcomes
Once you have buy-in from your employees and they continuously use the platform, it’s time to look at results. As with any learning experience, evaluation and assessment play a key role in microlearning. You can access data about how your employees are interacting with the modules through the platform.
You will have immediate access to information about who has and has not completed particular lessons, allowing you to reach out to those who have fallen behind. You can also track job performance and training progress, following up with employees who need a boost.
Most importantly, you can evaluate the efficacy of your content and tailor it further to meet your employees’ needs. You might find that a specific lesson did not equate to improved performance or comprehension; you can then revise that lesson to meet your employees better.
Conclusion
Employers and employees alike benefit from flexible, thoughtful education and training platforms. Micro-learning is an excellent tool to supplement your existing programs and integrate with organizational structures while promoting thoughtful, flexible training. And implementing it is as easy as calling Learn to Win.
At Learn to Win, we’ll help you determine what parts of your company’s training will work best for microlearning. We have worked with groups as diverse as professional sports teams, the United States Military, and major American corporations like Novartis. We have the expertise and experience to bring your team up to speed, motivate employee learning, and improve retention.
Let us help you communicate your essential content in the most efficient, evidence-based manner. Request a demo today to see how we can help you translate training information to our engaging online platform!
Let us know what questions you have, and we’ll pair you with content experts in your industry to get you and your employees on the right path.
