The Pros and Cons of Microlearning

As schedules tighten and training time gets the squeeze, microlearning makes good sense. Which is why it feels like it’s everywhere these days, spreading across the corporate landscape. If you’re in L&D and you haven’t yet wrapped your head around how microlearning could benefit your organization, it’s not too late. But don’t wait. The time is now.

Here’s the scoop: Microlearning is narrowly focused L&D content, presented in a way that makes it easy to consume. Microlearning can serve as an accompaniment to customary in-depth training, or it can be designed to stand on its own.

The psychology of it makes sense. Breaking info up (or down) into digestible chunks, microlearning reduces cognitive load and increases retention, creating effective, flexible, on-the-go learning. In fact, a recent report from Raytheon cited that microlearning improved retention by 80%.

7 Advantages of Microlearning

Microlearning empowers companies to create targeted content to address skills gaps or important learning objectives, a critical tool in industries that require speedy adoption or just-in-time adaptations to ever-changing technologies.

1. Microlearning Gets People Off Their Desktops; Mobile learning, which has been around for a while, dovetails perfectly with the micro concept. We consume so much content on our phones. A recent study cited that work done on the phone is accomplished 45% faster than work on a laptop or desktop. This access provides flexibility, convenience, and comfort, as it now meets learners where they are. Microlearning, native to digital media, provides immediate access to whatever you need, whenever you need it.
2. Microlearning Improves Retention: Learning in bite-sized chunks caters to our ever-shortening attention span. Most studies state that the brain, anyone’s brain, isn’t capable of maintaining a singular focus for an unnatural length of time. To give ourselves a better chance at absorbing information, microlearning modules typically address one objective or topic at a time. Research has also shown that if students are asked questions at the end of each module, like filling out a quick quiz, they retain 20% more information than they would had they been responsible for taking a full-on test after a lengthy course.
3. Microlearning Is Inexpensive Compared to Longform Learning: It’s a little like serving up the leftovers of a great meal. You take what you’ve already prepared and then recreate a new dish with what you have left. You can repurpose any long-form learning courses—webinars, presentations, manuals. You’ve already made the effort to develop the longer course; now it takes a little extra effort to put it to use modularly. Microlearning’s modular nature ensures cost savings of up to 50% in development expenses and those modules can be updated, freshened, edited, or corrected in a fraction of the price, time, and effort you spent developing the original material.
4. Gamification: The combination of gamification and microlearning provides a richer and more structured learning experience. This gamified experience motivates learners to engage with more enthusiasm and participate more effectively, as they respond to the concepts of competition and achievement thrown into otherwise often banal learning objectives.
5. Social Learning: Social microlearning provides students with an opportunity to learn from each other. It involves communicating with each other in creating learning micro-communities. Social tools lend themselves to brief and flexible formats or rapid delivery of content, as well as social interactions based on that content. Like gamification, social learning is an equally informal interaction focused around content and designed to foster a different way of absorbing information.
6. Adaptive Learning: Adding adaptive delivery to microlearning is a magical pairing. It packages the benefits of adaptive L&D content in an engaging, mobile-friendly package. Adaptive learning content targets learners’ knowledge gaps so the content is always relevant. And it’s easy to update, so adaptive microlearning doesn’t waste time on outdated information. Pairing flexible, engaging microlearning with adaptive algorithms to meet each learner’s unique needs is an ideal solution for corporate training and a winning strategy to boost performance without wasting precious time.
7. Credentials and Badging: A micro-credential is the result of a specific program in a focused area of study in which the learner demonstrates competence, typically to meet employer needs. When a learner accomplishes the requirement, they receive a badge. Participants can elevate their standing by achieving proficiencies at their own pace, all of which would ostensibly enhance their marketability. These types of credentials can be accumulated or stacked with credentials from other sources, which in turn would enable participants to convert these micro-credentials into something more widely recognized.

Despite its myriad advantages, the concept of microlearning also comes with drawbacks. While it plays into the strengths of most technologically inclined users, that same technology also makes it susceptible to abuse, distraction, and ineffectiveness. Here are a few things to watch out for if you decide to go full speed ahead with implementing this learning style:

4 Disadvantages of Microlearning

1. Risk of Distraction: Longer training programs require more of a commitment, so microlearners might not be “all-in” with these quick-hit lessons. Because microlearning involves shorter, quick lessons, this type of learning lends itself to distraction, especially when requiring work to be done on personal devices like smartphones.
2. The Long & Short of It: Microlearning works well for focused training. It can refresh one’s knowledge of something or update a familiar concept. But for more complex topics, subjects that are difficult to break down, it could pose a problem. A good rule of thumb might be to use microlearning for basic insights and refreshers, and in-depth, long-form training for the more intricate L&D coursework.
3. Short-Term, not Long-Term Goals: Without a doubt, microlearning is a useful part of a larger training strategy. But due to its very nature, it’s limited to short-term, immediate bursts of learning or information, and quick bits of skill. Given that, it’s important to make sure you choose which subjects are inherently short and which subjects will require longer more protracted effort.
4. Lack of Learner-Instructor Interaction: There’s no real instructor with this type of learning, given that it’s always delivered through digital channels. This creates a gap in which the learner is nearly always self-taught; interactions with an SME or instructor are non-existent. This whole learning concept assumes the learner can absorb the subject matter on their own, which of course is not always the case. This can be overcome by setting clear goals and outcomes for each learner, by making frequent feedback via human or AI a priority, and by monitoring progress to determine whether or not a learner excels independently.

In Conclusion

Your workforce can access microlearning concepts instantly in order to refresh or update their knowledge on specific topics. This immediacy helps to establish and foster a culture of learning, an ideal especially important for organizations that function within a marketplace that requires agility and competitiveness. Fully integrating microlearning into L&D initiatives signals a major shift. When done correctly, it can turn your learning programs into agile, user-centric approaches focused on meeting performance objectives with greater consistency.

Integrating microlearning into L&D signals a major shift towards agility, efficiency, and user-centric approaches and enables every organization to dedicate itself to meeting performance objectives and achieving business goals.

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