Bite-sized learning: How micro-courses are helping companies engage employees better
This model of e-learning distributed in snippets that are simple, easy to digest, and pertain to a specialised topic, are in line with the modern learner's mindset
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Less is the new more. Shorter may be better when it comes to learning.
Five to eight seconds–-that is the time an individual takes to decide to either stay on a piece of content or move elsewhere. Many will link the declining attention spans to the tech-heavy nurturing of Gen Y, but the shifting inclination for bite-sized learning or micro-learning over deep-focus activities isn’t earmarked just for the young. It’s a by-product of the modern technological world, and is trending across the globe.
A Deloitte research on the modern learner suggests that an average employee can only give one per cent of the work week to their professional development. For a forty-hour work week, it translates to twenty four minutes a week or 4.8 minutes in an eight-hour day.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the key reasons for this trend:
This methodology puts the Pareto [80/20] principle in action. It is primarily the 20 percent that is responsible for 80 percent of positive learning outcomes. Learning architect Ray Jimenez says that it takes 300 percent less time and 50 percent less cost to create micro-learning modules than traditional e-learning courses. These modules help save upon instructor’s time, buying or renting physical classrooms, utilities, equipment and miscellaneous similar elements.
For instance, you would probably not like to fly with a pilot who has been trained only in micro-bursts. You would prefer someone who has undergone some extended training sessions, whether real or simulated.
Organisations are gradually moving away from conventional learning curriculum and embracing bite sized learning as it draws on the cognitive framework built on humans' natural attention. Several micro-learning assets such as videos, infographics, games, mobile apps or whiteboard animations are all intended to meet the directives of application, knowledge acquisition and behavioural change.
The need for bite sized or micro-learning is apposite to the rise of employee-centric corporate cultures. Cultures that identify the numerous demands placed on employees’ time and energy. Making crisp learning programmes that serve the needs of workforces is a critical step in this course, and in today’s digital world, it means slimmer content.