How to Drive Employee Performance with Micro-learning

“To achieve high employee engagement and performance gain, the training must be precise, easy to assimilate, and applicable on the job” – Asha Pandey from eLearning Industry. If you haven’t already heard of Micro-learning, just think short, focused learning bites (designed to be 2-5 mins long and normally not exceeding 7 mins). It has a specific outcome or gain associated with it and should trigger the learner to the desired action. Although it works for all devices, it is the preferred mode for “learning on the go”.

What Are The Key Characteristics Of Micro-learning That Make It So Relevant And Immensely Popular?

1. Flexibility: pick the training on the device of their choice, matches the lifestyles and learning styles of modern learners.
2. Appeals to a multi-generational workforce: resonates with all kinds of learners.
3. Available within the learner’s workflow: It is available to the learners within their workflow so that it can be accessed precisely at the moment of their need.
4. Action-oriented: You can design the nuggets to help learners learn, clear a problem, scale to next level, practice, and apply the learning successfully on the job.
5. Can be offered to adapt to the learning need: It can be a stand-alone nugget or as a series of nuggets connected through a learning path.
6. Can be personalized: enables you to personalize the learning journey for learners. Based on the training they want.
7. Wide range of formats: nuggets in varied formats, each one optimized to deliver the right learning experience.
8. Can be updated and redeployed quickly.

How Can Micro-learning Help You Enhance Employee Performance?

Micro-learning To Create Awareness/Change Management: Prior to significant training programs, you can use micro-learning videos to highlight the value of the training and create the required interest and motivation for your learners.

Micro-learning For Formal Training: use micro-learning to address the majority of your corporate training needs. It can be rendered as a series of nuggets that are threaded through a learning path.

Micro-learning For Performance Support (Through Performance Support Tools Or PSTs): use micro-learning to reinforce formal training as just-in-time aids (PSTs) to facilitate the application of acquired knowledge or to meet a specific challenge.

Micro-learning is aligned to learner’s needs

You can provide the micro-learning nuggets within the learners’ workflow. They have focused nuggets aligned to their needs like:

1. Learn more.
2. Learn something new.
3. Solve the problem.
4. Address a specific challenge.
5. Apply and remember.
6. Practice in order to gain mastery.

In this just-in-time learning format, the micro-learning nuggets could offer a quick fix to a problem (tips/short cuts), a cheat sheet or a checklist. All these micro-learning formats help you enhance employee performance.

Micro-learning To Support ILT (Instructor-led training)/Offer Blended Training

Micro-learning nuggets can support ILT (Instructor-led training)/VILT (Virtual instructor-led training) sessions as follows:

• Provide online resources for pre-workshop preparations.
• In the workshop – role-plays/practice sessions/assessments.
• Post-workshop reinforcements.

Original blog on: Asha Pandey from eLearning Industry.