With an ever increasing amount of information being consumed in a fast pace, hectic world, it’s hard to find the time to learn new skills to help us improve our workplace performance. In fact, 1the average employee only devotes 1% of their time to personal development – that means only 24 minutes a week or 4.8 minutes per day.
That one percent of time is valuable and needs to be spent wisely – on training that can provide accessible, interactive and effective content in a short amount of time.
So what’s the answer…? Microlearning?
This has taken centre stage in the learning and development space over the past couple of years and that’s because more and more people recognise the benefits it brings to both organisations and employees. Microlearning offers short bursts of easily digestible content on key single topics, achieving practical learning gains in a matter of minutes. 2It can create 50% more engagement with the learner and can be produced in a fraction of the time and up to half the cost compared to traditional courses.
These courses can be accessed anywhere, at any time and on any smart device. Learners can tailor their own learning path meaning they can choose what to learn and when. 3Research has shown that bite size chunks of learning delivered over longer periods of time is more effective in terms of information retention and reduced cognitive overload. In other words, it’s an effective way of learning in the modern world and is well suited to the busy lives and short attention spans of today.
Each microlearning course can either comprise an individual tutorial with one specific learning outcome or it can comprise a series of e-learning courses broken down into bite size chunks. These courses typically last between 3-7 minutes 4as this aligns with how our brains observe and store information, ensuring the learner stays focused throughout and retains the learning material provided.
For more information on the microlearning courses Walkgrove can provide and how these can benefit your employees, check out our course flyers here for our Ready to Go learning or, for a bespoke solution, contact us at info@walkgrove.co.uk 01773 864640
You can also watch our new bitesize video on microlearning here and browse our library of microlearning courses here.
References
1 https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/HumanCapital/gx-cons-hc-learning-solutions-placemat.pdf
2,4https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/top-lms-features-employee-engagement/
3Thalheimer, W. (2006, February). Spacing Learning Events Over Time: What the Research Says.