Best Practices for Effective Training with Microlearning
Professional training is key to ensuring performance and competitiveness for any company. However, budget constraints are becoming increasingly heavier in training programs. Fortunately, there are modern, low-cost tools that can truly enhance your training while placing each learner at the heart of the education process.
What is microlearning?
Microlearning is a short, targeted, easy content-based training method. Unlike traditional learning courses, which often require several hours of research, microlearning focuses on a single concept at a time and relies on iteration.
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For example, salespeople can take small quizzes on their mobile phones between client meetings to enhance their product or service knowledge. Alternatively, students can receive two questions daily, along with explanations on topics covered in the previous class up to the exam date. Microlearning can also be used to increase employee awareness of occupational risks by shortening weekly content and sending engaging content to workplace safety.
This approach is especially effective in professional settings as it is easily integrated into busy schedules and meets immediate needs. In either case, microlearning enhances knowledge retention and makes learning more concrete and practical.
The origins of microlearning
The concept of microlearning has its roots in the science of education and cognitive psychology studies of the 1960s and 1970s. Several studies have shown that learning is more effective when broken down into small, easily digestible units. Hermann Ebbinghaus’s “forgotten curve” theory (late 19th century) already demonstrates that memory disappears quickly when knowledge is not regularly reinforced, paving the way for a shorter and repetitive form to optimize retention.
However, the rise of digital learning in the 2000s really sparked microlearning as a training practice. The advent of smartphones, YouTube and LMS platforms has driven the consumption of fast, accessible content. Companies saw it as a proper response for employees who were getting more and more busy, with little time for long training programs.
Since then, microlearning has become an essential approach, integrated into blended learning strategies and often enriched with AI and adaptive learning tools.
Implementing Microlearning with Training Strategies: Best Practices
1. Define your learning goals clearly
Like other training initiatives, the starting point is to define clear learning goals. Each microlearning path requires accurate, measurable goals and must fit into a broader training strategy. Microlearning is not a standalone format, but a strategic complement to other modalities (classroom training, e-learning, personalized instruction). This is particularly effective in enhancing retention after longer training sessions and preparing learners in advance.
2. Use existing content
Other learning contexts build effective microlearning strategies for existing content already in use or used. The goal is to stimulate memory while simplifying the implementation. By recycling content (e.g. videos from the e-learning module, questions from formative or comprehensive assessments), there is no need to create whole new training materials. This principle is one reason why microlearning doesn’t usually require additional budgets.
3. Use the right tools
Microlearning needs to be supported by a reliable digital learning platform. Instead of manually sending content to learners, you should use automation to maximize impact. This platform should enable automation of all microlearning components: content selection, invitation submission, and results analysis.
Also, once learners complete online or in-person training, they should be able to automatically launch a microlearning cycle. The training manager simply invites participants at the start of the training path, and the sequence, microlearning, and even assessment surveys will be automatically deployed.
Combining microlearning with adaptive learning is extremely powerful. Therefore, this tool should be able to analyse the results and provide personalized content to intelligently target each learner’s gap. Microlearning should be easily accessible anywhere on any device (computer, tablet, smartphone). The simplicity of use is essential for the recruitment of learners.
4. Adjust frequency and duration
Microlearning modules usually last between 2 and 10 minutes. The shorter and more attractive the format, the more likely the learner will accept it and complete it. Frequency depends on your learning goals. The challenge is to balance between:
Frequency sufficient to allow for proper assimilation of knowledge. Avoid excessively demanding that can be a burden and discourage learners.
A weekly session may be sufficient for weekly learning. On the other hand, daily sessions should not be maintained for long periods of time.
5. Create a ritual
Rituals can help attract learners and create everyday and even expectations. This means that interactions always occur simultaneously on the same day (if not every day) via the same channel (email, SMS, notifications, etc.). Learners can know exactly when to devote several minutes to their studies and organize them accordingly.
6. Integrate interactivity and assessment
Even in short format, learner engagement relies on interactivity such as quizzes, gamification, Q&A, and role-playing. Various forms help to enhance knowledge retention and maintain attention.
A short video explaining concepts and skills. A quiz to check, stimulate and activate memory. Audio for mobile learning. Infographic or practical sheets.
Evaluation via digital surveys, even microkids with just 2-3 questions are a powerful tool to promote reflexes. Each question may contain media (video, audio, images), and the format must be different to stimulate thoughts (multiple selections, matching, blank filling, image search, etc.). Both ratings provide an explanation of the correct answers and effectively identify learner weaknesses. Adaptive learning relies heavily on assessment to be reliable.
7. Evaluate your microlearning journey
Training assessments apply fully to microlearning. By collecting learner feedback through research, subjective insights provide effectiveness insights and highlighting advantages and disadvantages. After the microlearning sequence, the overall rating can measure skill acquisition and objectively assess the impact.
Within the Level 2 Kirkpatrick evaluation framework, you can measure the benefits of microlearning to complement traditional training. By running a total test immediately after the training program (just before microlearning), you can repeat and measure progress and retention after microlearning. Repeating the assessment after a while (for example, after a month) will provide further insight into long-term retention.
Conclusion
Microlearning is a concrete response to new ways of learning. It should be designed carefully to be short, targeted, accessible, interactive, and deliver actual educational value. With the right tools and a systematic approach, microlearning becomes a real lever for performance and skill development in the workplace.
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