Bite-sized learning: So you don’t bite off more than you can chew

Many professionals believe that bite-sized learning has always been the right size of learning.  Some people may think it to be something that contains more useful content and that fits smaller screens or any screen. Micro-learning is learning in smaller fragments and goes hand in hand with traditional methods of learning. Micro-learning includes short-term topics, assignments or tasks with less amount of information. It is something that gives your learners the related information in brief, but it is smaller than any traditional training information chunk.

Presently all eLearning professionals are fighting against boredom. Once learners exhibit signs of boredom, regaining their attention is very difficult. This is where micro learning comes in. It encourages students to carefully process information quickly and tactlessly consume an overwhelming amount of data. If we want to interest, develop and retain talent in this generation, we have to adapt to their needs and “give the people want they want”.

This approach is often more engaging and effective; if you wish to help your learners pay attention and retain information longer. However, you still have to be careful and not assume that short timed courses automatically create engagement. Putting many small five minute segments in a sequence may be as difficult as a single 60-minute piece. This is why changing the types of training can be beneficial and the linear learning structure can become an important complementary tool to micro-learning.

It’s impossible for learners to especially us as humans to concentrate on a task for a long period of time without a break. Learners operate on a recurrent pattern of activity and rest. That’s why giving them small fragments of information while learners are at their peak of energy levels often leads to successful results.

Email, blogs, various types of videos and short presentations can give the learners the tools to achieve their course objectives. Micro-learning is somewhat similar to “content chunking” often yields few long-term takeaways. Hence micro-learning is being adopted by institutions as well as corporate bodies to impart training and education.