Microlearning: Macro-knowledge in nanoseconds
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The presentation was given at Ohio University Educational Technology Conference 2017. Co-presented with graduate student peers Natalie Gintert and Vicki Simmerman
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Microlearning: Macro-knowledge in nanoseconds
- 1. Microlearning: Macro-knowledge in Nanoseconds Cara North, Vicki Simmerman, and Natalie Gintert http://go.osu.edu/oumicro
- 2. Microlearningas a term reflects the emerging reality of the ever- increasing fragmentation of both information sources and information units used for learning, especially in fast-moving areas which see rapid development and a constantly high degree of change (Langreither & Bolka, 2006).
- 7. Three Components of Microlearning Mode of content One learning objective Can be completed on the go
- 14. Be Smart with Planning Your Course, Don’t get in over your head
- 16. Reuse content.
- 18. Picture: Relay/ ChangjinLee/ Creative Commons Plan for Progression
- 30. Microlearning Activity Wrap Up
Editor's Notes
- There are so many definitions for microlearning. The fragmentation can be thought of as a chunk, nugget, competency, a learning objective. Think about your learning and development programs. Start at the high level overview and revisit the purpose of your training. Then deep dive into the components of that training. What do learners need to know in order to succeed in reaching the overall purpose of training? Really stop and think about that. I understand that so many places do more with less but once you have the fundamentals of microlearning in place, you can really cultivate a robust learning environment in your organization. Challenge the status quo!
- The human race has accomplished so many milestones during its time on the planet. However, we are being defeated by a fishy opponent. We are losing to goldfish. In a 2015 study by Microsoft, humans typically lose concentration after 8 seconds, that’s 1 second shy of the impressive 9 second attention span of a goldfish. That means that someone out there right now has already checked out. So what gives? Is it the increased digital lifestyle? Is it the constant hustle and bustle? The short answer is depending on the person, there are numerous reasons why this is happening. So how can we as educators battle it? My suggestion? Microlearning The research did find that spending a lot of time multi-screening or using social media reduces the likelihood of you focusing on one task for a prolonged period of time – provided that task is very repetitive and boring. The task they used in this test was identifying and responding to patterns of letters – and guess what, after you’d been doing this for a while, you desperately want to find something else to think about. If your marketing strategy relies on getting social media-savvy early adopters to do something completely pointless for long periods of time without thinking of anything else, then this might be a problem for you. If it’s not, then we can safely move on.
- One of the common views of micro learning is that it’s just in time. That is, if you need to know how to do something, you look it up. And that’s just fine (as I’ve recently ranted). But it’s not learning. (In short: it’ll help you in the moment, but unless you design it to support learning, it’s performance support instead). You can call it Just In Time support, or microsupport, but properly, it’s not micro learning. The other notion is a learning that’s distributed over time. And that’s good. But this takes a bit more thought. Think about it. If we want to systematically develop somebody over time, it’s not just a steady stream of ‘stuff’. Ideally, it’s designed to optimally get there, minimizing the time taken on the part of the learner, and yet yield reliable improvements. And this is complex. In principle, it should be a steady development, that reactivates and extends learners capabilities in systematic ways. So, you still need your design steps, but you have to think about granularity, forgetting, reactivation, and development in a more fine-grained way. What’s the minimum launch? Can you do ought but make sure there’s an initial intro, concept, example, and a first practice? Then, how much do we need to reactivate versus how much do we have to expand the capability in each iteration? How much is enough? As Will Thalheimer says in his spaced learning report, the amount and duration of spacing depends on the complexity of the task and the frequency with which it’s performed. When do you provide more practice, versus another example, versus a different model? What’s the appropriate gap in complexity? We’ll likely have to make our best guesses and tune, but we have to think consciously about it. Just chunking up an existing course into smaller bits isn’t taking the decay of memory over time and the gradual expansion of capability. We have to design an experience! Microlearning is the right thing to do, given our cognitive architecture. Only so much ‘strengthening’ of the links can happen in any one day, so to develop a full new capability will take time. And that means small bits over time makes sense. But choosing the right bits, the right frequency, the right duration, and the right ramp up in complexity, is non-trivial. So let’s laud the movement, but not delude ourselves either that performance support or a stream of content is learning. Learning, that is systematically changing the reliable behavior of the most complex thing in the known universe, is inherently complex. We should take it seriously, and we can.
- Microlearning is not new. You can dig through literature and see it rooted in Asian culture and European pedagogy. Learning by small units in small steps has a tradition. Step-by-step learning in fact has made cultural evolution possible. But microlearning as an area of explicit emphasis is rather new. In fact, I would argue that connected learning is a 21st century skill. Today’s global economy demands that learners curate 21st century skills. This includes connected learning and collaboration in the classroom and workplace. Microlearning provides a framework for connected learning. The truth is offline academic institutions are experiencing declines in student enrollment. Tuition costs grow fast making most learners drop out of colleges and universities or find some more cost-effective learning alternatives. Сompetition is getting tough. But there are always two sides of the same coin. Educational institutions are offering more chances for students to get online degrees, interact with each other and have more flexibility while studying. To let students get immediate results, microlearning is gaining in popularity. Simply put, complex material is divided into smaller parts that may even be presented like 5-minute videos. Thus, students can process and memorize the information in a simpler way. It’s especially suitable for students with lack of concentration. Besides, microlearning is suitable for those who study on the go or cannot plan their time wisely. Microlearning format suggests that educators apply more engaging teaching methods, since every second is valued.
- Don’t take our word for it. There is science that can back up the notion of microlearning. From a neurological perspective, our brains have always been equipped to make sense of fragments and to integrate pieces of information into contexts. As the brain is very efficient, it primarily memorizes issues important for future information. At the same time, micro media can enhance the acquisition of knowledge through multi-sensory, reflective, naturalistic environments unconstrained by time, place, and formal restrictions. The significance of microlearning lies in the ability to be interactive, sticky, and to immediately satisfy the need to fill information gaps. Hermann Ebbinghaus created the “Forgetting Curve”. Not the “Learning Curve”, the forgetting curve. He (Ebbinghaus) memorized nonsense syllables, such as "WID" and "ZOF" by repeatedly testing himself after various time periods and recording the results. He plotted these results on a graph creating what is now known as the "forgetting curve". From his discovery regarding the "forgetting curve", Ebbinghaus came up with the effects of "overlearning". Essentially, if you practiced something more than what is usually necessary to memorize it, you would have effectively achieved overlearning. Overlearning ensures that information is more impervious to being lost or forgotten, and the forgetting curve for this overlearned material is shallower. In 2015, an attempt to replicate the forgetting curve with one study subject has shown the experimental results similar to Ebbinghaus' original data.[4]
- Regardless of the multiple definitions of microlearning, there are a few common components across the definitions. The first is the focus on the mode of the content. Does the delivery method meet the learner’s needs? Don’t use technology for the sake of technology. Be intentional in your design and delivery method. You may be a learning and development professional in a warehouse environment or other environment where cellphones aren’t allowed on the floor. On the employee’s breaks and lunches, you can imagine the flock to their vehicles or lockers to access their mobile devices? What if you put a microlearning activity on the active portal for the WIFI sign on? Instead of a captive portal with an advertisement, maybe have an announcements video. You certainly don’t want to overwhelm them and it is technically “their time”, however, this may be a great way to incorporate technology. Not all microlearning has to be digital, we’ll discuss that further in detail. Microlearning should focus on one learning objective or event. Remember KISS? Keep it simple silly (I don’t want to call anyone stupid :P) You don’t want to have your piece of learning become a firehose of content. One learning objective! Remember the one microlearning example doesn’t equate to a curriculum. Furthermore, limit introductory material to no more than 10 seconds. Why? The learners don’t need a huge introduction to the speaker and if you go over that, learners will likely be skipping over that material. Finally, microlearning should be short enough that completing them on the go doesn’t impact the learning experience. Very simply if an employee is sitting at an airport waiting to get on a plane and wants access to a professional development microlearning lesson, can they digest it there? Think about the learner dealing with multiple stimuli or priorities.
- Why is this microlearning? Focuses on 1 learning objective-
- People don’t want to sign up for something and then wait six weeks to start, and then keep going back and forth. They want to start engaging with the content right away on their own time,” said Justin Kitch, founder and CEO of micro-learning platform Curious.com. Launched in May 2013, the platform has already raised $22.5 million in funding. It contains about 13,000 video lessons from 1,500 teachers. Lessons are typically around 15 minutes long and grouped into courses that consist of up to 20 lessons. The topics range from foreign languages, such as learning to speak Mandarin Chinese, to cooking and playing instruments. “The format of Curious [also] works great for learning academic subjects. It just doesn’t work great for mastering college-level topics. You wouldn’t want to learn brain surgery this way,” Kitch said.
- A throwback with a twist. Remember restroom advertisements? Guess what, toilets don’t have remote controls. You have a captive audience even with something old school. Even feel free to consider mobile learning.
- Decide If Your Content Should Be Made Into A Microlearning Format Delivering courses in a "micro" format works best when the content can be comfortably defined within small units and narrow "achievable topics" and "learning outcomes". Here are some questions which your trainers and team need to ask prior to re-positioning existing content or creating new courses: Can a defined learning objective be clearly explained (with or without a working example) under five minutes? Can the content be broken into small or very small units and narrow topics whilst keeping the overall course learning objective? If the answer to the above is "yes", then you're ready to start planning! Another criterion to consider when deciding if your content should be made into a "micro" format is the overall course duration, as well as the look and feel of the syllabus and product positioning. Would a potential course candidate feel overwhelmed if they saw, for example, 50 videos (learning modules) in a course description or outline? If that's an important factor for your organization, then it's important to consider that approximately 100 minutes (one hour and 40 minutes) of content would equate to 20 videos (of five minutes duration).
- Be Smart With Planning Your Course Especially With Voiceover Timing) Videos should be under five minutes for it to be categorized as microlearning as a best practice. So, when creating your training guide (or splitting existing content), you'll need to factor in that each video needs to have at least one actionable and clear learning objective. Example!! The most common microlearning medium is video (TASTY videos on FB), which will likely be created by motion graphics and desktop recording, and will almost always be accompanied with narration by either the course instructor or by a voiceover professional. Word count is very important when planning video material. The number of words that are in a five-minute speech depends on how fast the speaker talks, but usually averages between 600 words and 900 words. This is based on the speaker talking at a rate of two or three words a minute. Is your instructor or voice over artist able to speak at that speed? Time his or her natural talking speed and, if necessary, rewrite the content to accommodate the maximum time limit of five minutes per video.
- Be Smart With Allowing For Updates Make sure the branding of the videos is consistent, to allow for course updates and module re-publishing. One of the best things about microlearning is that it's much easier to re-publish some or all of the videos over time as the material becomes outdated.
- Personalization And Compression To personalize the course, it’s a best practice for your instructors introduce themselves using a static photograph in the introductory segment of the course. Or, another option, and likely more expensive, is to use a green-screen in a studio. Branding and watermarking is important, but above all consistency is key. Also, we'd encourage you not to use an "over-the-top" animated logo introduction for each and every video; they can be distracting and waste time. Once you are happy with the final outcome of your content, compress the videos: The fast delivery of your content, either on your Learning Management System or otherwise, will be vital, especially for those that want to study on the move using their mobile device.
- Items To Include (Extras) Consider learning guides that the user can download, because it can add value. Audio transcriptions are also very useful, especially for the non-English speakers within your population. Consider gamification elements such as leaderboards or badges.
- Progression... Plan for progression. Try to keep the user engaged by encouraging the student to watch the next video. Finishing a segment with a reason to watch the next video is certainly a good idea, and can be achieved in many ways. Perhaps with extra demonstrations, or with an "instructor's favorite hack" which would be explained in the next video. Good marketing, teaser
- Encourage Completion Repeated mention of achieving a certification or badges ought to be woven into the microlearning content, to reinforce the benefit of completion. In itself, the short duration of the content ought to be enough to create a sense of achievement, since the learner can visualize course progression, but it certainly would do no harm for the instructor to refer to the benefits of completion.