Ebrahim Mookhtiar – 05-Apr-2018

The attention span of today’s generation has decreased from 12 seconds to 8 seconds in a span of few years. The world is not at your fingertips with the advent of the smartphone and other smart technologies. Any information you need, you can just find with the click of a button. In today’s times, we are all learning on the go. To broadly trace, learning has evolved from classroom training to detailed e-learning courses to the current trend of micro-learning.

What is micro-learning?

Micro-learning are short, bite-sized courses of about 3 to 7 minutes that are designed to meet a specific learning outcome. For instance, if a new policy has been rolled out in a corporate company with thousands of employees, they can take these micro-learning courses to get updated about the policy. This helps the L&D team to also keep track of the employees who have gone through the course and completed it.

Why micro-learning?

The organisations are turning to micro-learning in place of extensive study/skill building programmes or modules because they can learn anytime, anywhere. They are less time consuming, more effective and convenient because of their small and compact nature.

For whom is micro-learning useful?

Micro-learning is ideally helpful for mid-level employees who only need to brush up on certain topics, skills or regulations. Since these courses are short, it doesn’t take up a lot of time and also helps them to revise or get updated with recent developments. Ideally, micro-learning courses were made for informal uses but today it is being used for formal training (by introducing a series of nuggets through a learning path), performance support tools and pre (to give them an idea about what they are going to learn in the classroom) and post (for revision purposes) workshops led by instructors.

What are the problems that micro-learning tackles?

Short attention spans: Since micro-learning provides small nuggets of information, it becomes easier for the learner to retain that information. Also, small bursts of knowledge take up less time. These courses can be designed as short videos, presentations, podcasts or interactive activities.

Easy accessibility: These courses can be accessed any time anywhere as they can be even accessed over the phone. Learners don’t have to invest a chunk of time for training instead they can take the micro-learning courses whenever they have free time available. This also promotes work-life balance – it doesn’t interrupt the daily schedule and the learner doesn’t need to stay back in office late hours.

Up-to-date Information: In micro-learning courses, it is of utmost importance that the information provided is up-to-date. This is possible because of their modular structure – information can easily be updated in a particular module without interrupting other modules that deal with the same topic.

What platforms/ways can you access these micro-learning courses?

Micro-learning courses are designed to be available across all devices – desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. This ensures that the learner has the flexibility to learn from anywhere – in the office, while travelling or in the comfort of his/her house. This flexibility allows them to access the course as many times as they want.

Future of Micro-learning

Micro-learning has taken the learning industry by storm by developing super curated content and new age platforms. Micro-learning courses is a bridge between extensive instructor led trainings or lengthy e-learning courses and developing and supporting employee functioning during an employee’s day of work. This is where ICOG steps in!

ICOG is a platform to develop the skills of the masses by creating a global talent index for industry wide skills. This platform solves the problems of the millennial workforce by aligning them to the organisation goals by providing them easy access to learning. ICOG helps the learner to personalise the experience and self-learn. It helps them take charge of their personal development which inturn helps them to fast track their career.

Micro-learning courses and the ICOG platform together are working to bring cutting-edge digital technology in the learning space by using machine learning, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to make learning dynamic, effective and applicable to the workplace.

Now, you can replace e-learning courses by breaking them into small nuggets and modules which are shorter and have more engaging richer content. This will help the learners retain the information better. Organizations need to catch on with the current trend in learning and make learning fun for the “consumers” instead of just piling them with learning content. As an organisation, you also need to ensure that micro-learning courses are curated with rich content and give it thoughtful analysis to determine if these courses will make a difference to the life of the employees.

The ICOG platform helps in creating self-learning, highly engaging and an immersive experience for the learners. The short micro-learning courses are designed with rich content, rich media formats (such as animations, interactive video, mobile apps, etc.) to make the learning experience even more dynamic. ICOG is being integrated in various organisations, are you ready to catch up with this changing world?