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In the fast-paced workplace, businesses are always looking for marginal gains. The most important questions usually revolve around where your business is weak and where to find the most bang for your buck. One thing we know is that better-trained employees can boost sales, and that remote training can increase your return on investment, so how can we best make use of this information?

 

You’ve probably heard the term “microlearning” tossed around in the eLearning sphere. Microlearning is a way of teaching by delivering information in small, bite-sized chunks. Its value has led to it becoming one of the top new trends in eLearning, and a crucial cog in many businesses. But in order to reap the rewards, you need to know how to implement it. Here are 4 tips on how to create effective microlearning.

Know your knowledge gaps

Every successful learning and development (L&D) project needs to be carefully planned out. Wanting to use microlearning is great, but you need to know where you’re going before you get started. Observe and listen to your employees to find out what specific areas they struggle in. If you’re not satisfied with your bottom line, try and find out what areas may be caused by certain knowledge gaps in your team. Since microlearning provides bits of information, it needs to be very specific. So, getting the right information about what training your team requires is crucial to setting you up to succeed.

Make it Practical

Often times, learning fails to stick because it seems irrelevant. So, practical information leads to better retention. This step goes hand-in-hand with knowing what knowledge gaps you need to fill. Let’s say for example that you know that money is being lost because your sales team lacks the skills to consistently close a deal. You now have a specific topic to teach and have a clear way of measuring its effectiveness. The training you create needs to be thoughtful enough that learners can quickly see why this information is in front of them and how they can use it.

Make it accessible

One of the greatest features of microlearning is how flexible it can be. When done correctly, your employees can have a reliable way to teach themselves a topic or get a quick refresher on something they’ve already learned. The best way to provide just-in-time training is to let the learner be in charge of when they learn. No one knows the specific knowledge gaps and information needed more than the learner themselves. So, giving them this freedom helps them learn what they need more efficiently, while also improving the practicality of the content.

Make it engaging

Now, don’t be intimidated by this tip. After all, microlearning is supposed to be a relatively cheap way to maximize your ROI. While typically engaging methods like gamification are always beneficial when done right, you can take smaller steps here. Creating various forms of content is a simple way to keep learners engaged. For example, rather than providing every chunk of information in a few paragraphs of text, you can use videos, graphics, maps, or checklists. Additionally, if you take the extra step to make content visually appealing, then you’re putting your project in really good stead.

Takeaway

Microlearning is one of the top trends in eLearning today and for good reason. It can address serious issues and boost profits while being relatively cheap and simple. With that being said though, careful thought still needs to be put into its development. Knowing your goals before you begin can set you up to make practical, accessible, and engaging content that learners enjoy and appreciate.