How to use micro-learning effectively

With the rise of social and informal learning, and ubiquitous mobile devices (tablets, phablets, smartphones and everything in between), micro-learning as a concept and practice has taken off. Clients who earlier asked for e-learning are now further specifying the type of e-learning. A typical requirement statement could sound like this: "We want short capsules of learning or learning nuggets that will run on all devices. Our employees are busy and want to learn on-the-go." In short, micro-learning is the need. And this is just one of the needs that short capsules of learning can fulfil.

Typically, micro-learning or learning bytes or learning capsules work well as a component of informal learning where the learner pulls what they need to solve an immediate problem. Recently, I downloaded a couple of apps from the Amazon Appstore - one of these being on the British Museum. Whenever I want to know about a specific section or an artifact or era, I can go to the app and to that precise section and read up.

Micro-learning is effective when the nature of the learning required has some or all of the characteristics:

• When the learning required are bytes of facts, episodes, etc., as illustrated in the museum app example above.
• When it covers parts of a process or steps to be followed.
• When the learning required is simple or complicated but not too complex (complex learning is interconnected, and often, experience-based and non-transferable).
• When the learning happens in a collaborative environment like an enterprise discussion forum or a social media platform. Where there is scope for anytime, anywhere access facilitated by technology

So whether it is tweets from Twitter feed, blog posts and articles, or the latest YouTube video and TED Talk, these essentially comprise nuggets and bytes of content in various forms that we pull from the environment and then string together to make sense and build a cohesive picture. Learning bytes can be created by literally anyone today.

For instance, WhatsApp can be a powerful micro-learning platform where members of a group can share interesting links, photos, write-ups, posts and so on. Sites like Common Craft specialise in short "how-to" learning videos using a very unique design style of cutout figures in conjunction with hand gestures. Pinterest with its rich repository of images is another example of how micro-learning exists in various forms.

Sahana Chattopadhyay, deputy head, instructional design, and consultant at Tata Interactive Systems. Re-printed with permission.
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