What Is Microlearning Content - Whitepaper_FNL
G ROVO’ S M I C RO LE A R N I N G ® F R A M E WO R K :
Four Keys to Creating Great Content by Matan Berkowitz, Editorial Manager at Grovo
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2
What Is Microlearning Content?
3
What Is the Microlearning Framework?
®
®
Appeal Insight Apex (i.e., The Key Takeaway) Transfer
7
How Do You Use Microlearning Content? ®
What Is Microlearning Content? ®
Microlearning is in dire need of definition. It’s become a buzzword—an attractive idea that everyone has tried to put their own spin on. As a result, it means a lot of things to a lot of people. To some people, it’s all about the benefits. Microlearning makes the transfer of learning more efficient while increasing learner engagement. It’s more cost-effective to create. It allows people to learn quickly, within the flow of their workday. To others, Microlearning is about the features. It’s short. It’s bite-sized. It’s learner-centric. It’s the most innovative way to learn.
Many of those claims are true of Microlearning, but they’re not definitions. They’re value propositions and characteristics. At Grovo, we’ve spent years developing our ideas of what Microlearning means and defining a framework that we believe all Microlearning content should follow. What we’ve discovered is that when it comes down to it, Microlearning really isn’t that complicated. It just makes sense. Microlearning is an approach that provides employees with everything required to meet one objective.
2
Nothing fancy. Just well-crafted learning that helps people accomplish one thing. That’s what Microlearning is. The key, we’ve learned, is to create content that follows our Microlearning framework. This is where the fun starts.
What Is The Microlearning Framework? ®
The most common misconception about Microlearning is that it just refers to short content. But Microlearning is more about the scope of the lesson than it is about the time it takes to consume. For Microlearning to succeed, any lesson you create needs to accomplish four things:
»
Appeal to learners. True Microlearning needs to earn attention every step of the way. You can never assume that just because content is short and focused it will automatically engage people. You need to make your content relevant to your audience.
»
Add insight to a topic. Microlearning content should show learners what’s new about the topic they’re learning, or highlight something they may not have considered before.
»
Provide an apex—one key takeaway that is tangible to the learner. Seriously, people should be able to print it out and take it with them after the lesson.
»
Enable the transfer of skills or knowledge into daily work. After you’ve motivated your people to learn and showed them what they need to do, you’ve got to give them the tools to do it.
3
APPEAL It’s hard to understate the importance of meeting your learners where they are. When you’re competing for people’s attention, you need to immerse them in your content in a way that will help them shut out distractions and make them want to learn more. You need to show them why it’s relevant to their life or job.
There are tons of different ways to appeal to learners. For example, you might use a case study to introduce topics that have a larger impact than a learner might realize. Or you could create an appeal by asking questions that challenge learners to see a familiar topic in a new way. Or you could simply describe the value of a lesson if your topic is obviously appealing to your audience on its own. If your learner is already motivated to learn, don’t waste their time with anything more than they need. Appealing to learners and earning their attention is a way of showing respect. The idea is to ensure your learners have a reason to care about everything coming up in your content.
INSIGHT Starting a Microlearning lesson with an appealing hook can be tricky. It gets even more challenging when you need to connect it to a valuable learning objective. You can't just choose any emotional hook; it needs to help people understand the topic at hand. That’s why you should always include an insight as part of your Microlearning content. Insights are your opportunity to explain the topic and the value of the lesson plainly. It moves learners from the appeal to the apex in a way that is easy to understand.
4
Think of it this way: if you were preparing a presentation to show the potential value of hiring a new vendor, you wouldn’t just create a graph that shows the relative costs and benefits of vendors A and B. You’d also describe in your own words what the numbers mean. For example, you might point out that vendor A provides more ROI. Giving that context will set you up for when you’re ready to deliver your main point: that vendor A is the best option for your team.
Data, case studies, and even stories will very rarely speak for themselves. And in some cases, poorly presented information can actually send your learners in the wrong direction. It’s up to you to show your learners what your appeal is really telling them. By adding an insight to your Microlearning lesson, you can very quickly lead learners where you want them to go.
APEX (I.E., THE KEY TAKEAWAY) Once you’ve appealed to your learners and provided some insight, you’ve got your learners right where you want them. It’s time for the high point of the lesson. The apex. The key takeaway. If your learners only remember one thing, let it be this. Your key takeaway is probably the highest-stakes moment of any Microlearning lesson you create, because it needs to accomplish two crucial things. First, it needs to be stated simply and concisely. If you can’t state your key takeaway in one, maybe two sentences, then it’s not Microlearning. That’s right. Remember, for a lesson to be Microlearning, it needs to meet one, and only one, learner need. So odds are if you can’t come up with that simple statement, the scope of the lesson is off. It’s too big.
5
The second thing the key takeaway needs to do is stick. It needs to be memorable. If your key takeaway doesn’t stay with learners when they’re done, then how valuable was the content? They haven’t gotten anything from it.
A key takeaway in a Microlearning lesson should be no more than two well-crafted sentences, but take your time when you’re developing it. The more punch you can pack it with, the more impact it will have.
TRANSFER By this point, if you’re following the Microlearning framework, your learners should understand what they need to know or do and why it’s important. But for your content to truly be Microlearning, you need to take it one step further. You need to show your learners how to do it. You need to help them transfer their learning from your lesson to their life. Of course, the whole lesson is really geared toward transfer. That’s why you’re making Microlearning content to begin with. So it’s helpful to break down the transfer section into the tactics you can use to make it happen. We help people transfer lessons in a few ways:
»
We list out steps or elements of a skill, to break down and simplify exactly what learners need to do.
»
We provide examples to show what certain skills or behaviors look like in the real world.
»
We ask learners assessment questions to help them analyze and practice what they’re learning, so they’ll improve their skills and retain the information.
6
Our goal is to make the content actionable for learners. We want to help them apply our lessons to their own unique context, where they can first practice it in the real world, and then, we hope, master it over time.
How Do You Use Microlearning Content? ®
When you’re making a Microlearning lesson, you want to provide no more and no less than your learners need. And using Microlearning lessons as part of a learning strategy is no different. As you go about creating and deploying Microlearning lessons, remember this: Microlearning isn’t about the length of a lesson. It’s about the size of the idea. Start your development process by picking just one behavior you want your people to change or improve, then break down what Microlearning lessons someone would need to accomplish that objective. Part of what makes Microlearning work is that lessons can build off each other. Once someone has learned one skill, they’re ready to move on to the next Microlearning lesson, and then the next one, and so on. Before you know it, those Microlearning lessons will really add up to great things for your employees, and for your organization.
7
Four Keys to Creating Great Content by Matan Berkowitz, Editorial Manager at Grovo
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2
What Is Microlearning Content?
3
What Is the Microlearning Framework?
®
®
Appeal Insight Apex (i.e., The Key Takeaway) Transfer
7
How Do You Use Microlearning Content? ®
What Is Microlearning Content? ®
Microlearning is in dire need of definition. It’s become a buzzword—an attractive idea that everyone has tried to put their own spin on. As a result, it means a lot of things to a lot of people. To some people, it’s all about the benefits. Microlearning makes the transfer of learning more efficient while increasing learner engagement. It’s more cost-effective to create. It allows people to learn quickly, within the flow of their workday. To others, Microlearning is about the features. It’s short. It’s bite-sized. It’s learner-centric. It’s the most innovative way to learn.
Many of those claims are true of Microlearning, but they’re not definitions. They’re value propositions and characteristics. At Grovo, we’ve spent years developing our ideas of what Microlearning means and defining a framework that we believe all Microlearning content should follow. What we’ve discovered is that when it comes down to it, Microlearning really isn’t that complicated. It just makes sense. Microlearning is an approach that provides employees with everything required to meet one objective.
2
Nothing fancy. Just well-crafted learning that helps people accomplish one thing. That’s what Microlearning is. The key, we’ve learned, is to create content that follows our Microlearning framework. This is where the fun starts.
What Is The Microlearning Framework? ®
The most common misconception about Microlearning is that it just refers to short content. But Microlearning is more about the scope of the lesson than it is about the time it takes to consume. For Microlearning to succeed, any lesson you create needs to accomplish four things:
»
Appeal to learners. True Microlearning needs to earn attention every step of the way. You can never assume that just because content is short and focused it will automatically engage people. You need to make your content relevant to your audience.
»
Add insight to a topic. Microlearning content should show learners what’s new about the topic they’re learning, or highlight something they may not have considered before.
»
Provide an apex—one key takeaway that is tangible to the learner. Seriously, people should be able to print it out and take it with them after the lesson.
»
Enable the transfer of skills or knowledge into daily work. After you’ve motivated your people to learn and showed them what they need to do, you’ve got to give them the tools to do it.
3
APPEAL It’s hard to understate the importance of meeting your learners where they are. When you’re competing for people’s attention, you need to immerse them in your content in a way that will help them shut out distractions and make them want to learn more. You need to show them why it’s relevant to their life or job.
There are tons of different ways to appeal to learners. For example, you might use a case study to introduce topics that have a larger impact than a learner might realize. Or you could create an appeal by asking questions that challenge learners to see a familiar topic in a new way. Or you could simply describe the value of a lesson if your topic is obviously appealing to your audience on its own. If your learner is already motivated to learn, don’t waste their time with anything more than they need. Appealing to learners and earning their attention is a way of showing respect. The idea is to ensure your learners have a reason to care about everything coming up in your content.
INSIGHT Starting a Microlearning lesson with an appealing hook can be tricky. It gets even more challenging when you need to connect it to a valuable learning objective. You can't just choose any emotional hook; it needs to help people understand the topic at hand. That’s why you should always include an insight as part of your Microlearning content. Insights are your opportunity to explain the topic and the value of the lesson plainly. It moves learners from the appeal to the apex in a way that is easy to understand.
4
Think of it this way: if you were preparing a presentation to show the potential value of hiring a new vendor, you wouldn’t just create a graph that shows the relative costs and benefits of vendors A and B. You’d also describe in your own words what the numbers mean. For example, you might point out that vendor A provides more ROI. Giving that context will set you up for when you’re ready to deliver your main point: that vendor A is the best option for your team.
Data, case studies, and even stories will very rarely speak for themselves. And in some cases, poorly presented information can actually send your learners in the wrong direction. It’s up to you to show your learners what your appeal is really telling them. By adding an insight to your Microlearning lesson, you can very quickly lead learners where you want them to go.
APEX (I.E., THE KEY TAKEAWAY) Once you’ve appealed to your learners and provided some insight, you’ve got your learners right where you want them. It’s time for the high point of the lesson. The apex. The key takeaway. If your learners only remember one thing, let it be this. Your key takeaway is probably the highest-stakes moment of any Microlearning lesson you create, because it needs to accomplish two crucial things. First, it needs to be stated simply and concisely. If you can’t state your key takeaway in one, maybe two sentences, then it’s not Microlearning. That’s right. Remember, for a lesson to be Microlearning, it needs to meet one, and only one, learner need. So odds are if you can’t come up with that simple statement, the scope of the lesson is off. It’s too big.
5
The second thing the key takeaway needs to do is stick. It needs to be memorable. If your key takeaway doesn’t stay with learners when they’re done, then how valuable was the content? They haven’t gotten anything from it.
A key takeaway in a Microlearning lesson should be no more than two well-crafted sentences, but take your time when you’re developing it. The more punch you can pack it with, the more impact it will have.
TRANSFER By this point, if you’re following the Microlearning framework, your learners should understand what they need to know or do and why it’s important. But for your content to truly be Microlearning, you need to take it one step further. You need to show your learners how to do it. You need to help them transfer their learning from your lesson to their life. Of course, the whole lesson is really geared toward transfer. That’s why you’re making Microlearning content to begin with. So it’s helpful to break down the transfer section into the tactics you can use to make it happen. We help people transfer lessons in a few ways:
»
We list out steps or elements of a skill, to break down and simplify exactly what learners need to do.
»
We provide examples to show what certain skills or behaviors look like in the real world.
»
We ask learners assessment questions to help them analyze and practice what they’re learning, so they’ll improve their skills and retain the information.
6
Our goal is to make the content actionable for learners. We want to help them apply our lessons to their own unique context, where they can first practice it in the real world, and then, we hope, master it over time.
How Do You Use Microlearning Content? ®
When you’re making a Microlearning lesson, you want to provide no more and no less than your learners need. And using Microlearning lessons as part of a learning strategy is no different. As you go about creating and deploying Microlearning lessons, remember this: Microlearning isn’t about the length of a lesson. It’s about the size of the idea. Start your development process by picking just one behavior you want your people to change or improve, then break down what Microlearning lessons someone would need to accomplish that objective. Part of what makes Microlearning work is that lessons can build off each other. Once someone has learned one skill, they’re ready to move on to the next Microlearning lesson, and then the next one, and so on. Before you know it, those Microlearning lessons will really add up to great things for your employees, and for your organization.
7
