Microlearning: Merging Technology and Short, Engaging Content at the Point of Need

Look around at employee retention and engagement indicators andthe news isn’t good. As the economy improves and the labor market gets tighter,companies are facing new challenges every day, especially in three key areas:

Employees don’t lovetheir jobs. While the latest Gallup research finds thatemployee engagement has slightly improved, the vast majority ranged from “notengaged” (51.9 percent) to “actively disengaged” (15.7 percent).
Employees areleaving. While most employees leave their jobs over salary, a 2014 reportfrom staffing giant Robert Half International found that one-fifth leavebecause of limited opportunities for advancement and 10 percent leave becausethey’re bored with their jobs.
Employees need moredevelopment. The US ranks 14^th in the world indeveloping, attracting, and retaining employees (IMD World CompetitivenessCenter, IMD World Talent Report 2015).Many companies don’t do enough to keep their pipelines filled with talentedworkers to satisfy their organization’s needs.

Beyond that, companies face the challenges ofimproving employee performance, leadership, and management development,briefing new employees, and myriad other issues.

In this article, I describe a strategy that uses technology toaddress these challenges, and the experience of several companies that haveadopted this strategy: microlearning.

Meeting the development challenge

Traditionally, learning and development (L&D) leaders haveturned to “weapons of mass instruction” for solutions. These traditionalmethods—including lengthy, cognitively oppressive and out-of-context lectures,text-based tools, and other formats—are ineffective, boring, and resisted byemployees. When learners are forced to passively consume content, we know theyretain far less than when they’re engaged and learning in intervals. This makesthe L&D leader’s job more difficult: not only do weapons of massinstruction not work, employees resent them.

Microlearning uses short, highly focused content to build newskills and behaviors a little at a time. Merging technology with short,engaging content that employees can use flexibly at the point of need givesL&D professionals a new tool to develop employees. You can now weave traininginto employees’ workdays with minimal disruption, since they can use thesemodules on demand and as they have time to do so. Instead of losing days toin-house training programs that leave employees overwhelmed and unable toremember what they learned, microlearning is part of the organizational fabric.This helps them develop by integrating new information with action andrepetition—a model better suited for the way most people learn.

Cutting cognitive load

When psychologist John Sweller studied cognitive load—the amountof mental effort people need to use memory and process information—he foundthree types. Intrinsic cognitive loadand germane cognitive load refer tothe level of difficulty and the effort put forth to reinforce a concept. Thoseare necessary. However, extraneous loadis additional effort required from learners when training programs aredistracting and unfocused. L&D leaders should reduce extraneous loadwhenever possible.

In the structure of most traditional L&D programs, theinstruction happens too far outside of the relevant performance context to beuseful. Information-based formats focus on transferring facts and knowledgewithout giving learners the important benefits of experience, feedback,failure, reflection, recall, practice, and other experientially-based benefitsthat have longer-lasting impact.

To overcome that weakness, microlearning develops complex skillsin short, focused segments. Using research-based techniques includingrepetition, spacing, variation, and interleaving, or mixing concepts toincrease learning retention, microlearning helps students increase germanecognitive load while minimizing extraneous cognitive load. Because componentsare relatively short and focused, they give students the opportunity to learn aconcept, then go out and put it into practice immediately instead of spending aday at training and then returning to the office, only to forget what they havejust learned.

Fighting the forgetting curve

Because microlearning cuts the fluff and distraction out ofL&D programs, it reduces extraneous cognitive load and increases retention.Good microlearning programs create spaced opportunities for repetition,recognition, recall, and reflection, all of which help a new concept orbehavior stick. Such spacing and repetition make it less likely that you’llforget concepts from one training session to the next because they’re regularlyreinforced and backed up by action.

Let’s say you want to learn how to give excellent feedback. Atraditional method might have you spending a half-day in a conference roomlearning about why feedback is important, how different personality typesrespond to feedback, and techniques for giving effective feedback. Then you’resent back to the office to put what you learned into practice.

With microlearning, your experience would be more focused andhappen at different intervals, focusing on germane cognitive load. You mighthave one five-minute session on introductory concepts with spaced cues topractice them during the week. A week later, you might have a short review andslightly more challenging concepts and exercises. Three weeks later, theprogram might include another check-in and review. By combining focusedinformation with intervals of practice, students have a chance to use whatthey’ve been taught immediately and remember it because it’s backed up withmore training and more practice.

Overthrowing static L&D cultures

For organizations that have struggled to find the most effectivetraining programs, microlearning can unleash powerful results. For globaladvertising and marketing leader Saatchi & Saatchi, staying ahead of thecurve in the fast-paced world of digital marketing is essential. The company’sLos Angeles office needed short, efficient video content to train employees oneverything from digital marketing basics to mobile advertising production tosocial media fundamentals.

The team turned to Grovo to use a series of self-contained unitswith individual learning objectives. Analytics after implementation showed thatnearly 90 percent of users reported better understanding of fundamental concepts,while 84 percent said they would be able to put new concepts to immediate use.Fifty-nine percent completed more training than they were assigned. The team atSaatchi & Saatchi felt these were remarkable results.

“Grovo’s analytics far exceed any prior experience we’ve had. Wecan instantly see where our strengths and weaknesses are and plan accordingly,”says Jordana Reim, Saatchi LA executive producer.

New York City-based talent recruiting firm 24 Seven was facingseveral training-related challenges. With 12 offices and various managers,training manager Vanessa Sandoval described the organization’s training effortas “chaotic” and lacking consistency. She likedthe idea of translating the company’s messaging into easy-to-use, flexiblemicrolearning components. Employees could use the content as they needed itaccording to what their schedules allowed.

Employee performance improved, while their reaction to trainingwas more positive. Even the management team was impressed. In addition, the successof the program allowed Sandoval to introduce other training initiatives. “Ourlearners love it. They can access it from home or in the cab on the way towork. It’s meeting their needs instead of forcing them through training,” shesays.

For these companies and others, microlearning has changed thegame. L&D leaders are no longer forcing resistant employees to sit throughanother weapon of mass instruction, potentially alienating them and making themless engaged. Instead, employees choose to use interesting, informative contenton their own terms, incentivized by the “win” or “a-ha” moment inherent in eachcomponent. Such moments of enlightenment are highly motivating and build-in aninherent employee incentive to microlearning’s bite-size, interactivecomponents. In addition, L&D leaders have an affordable, employee-friendly,easy-to-manage way to administer training and skill-building programs.

Microlearning: training revitalized

The demands placed on today’s L&D leaders are greater thanever before. Savvy leaders are turning away from traditional, bloated weaponsof mass instruction and, instead, embracing microlearning as integral to theirprograms. Microlearning meets the needs of today’s tech-savvy workers becauseits components are designed to be focused and flexible, while also integratingtested methods to reduce extraneous cognitive load and reinforcing key conceptsfor greater learner retention. Instead of using expensive methods that don’twork, microlearning is a leaner, more agile way to create lasting habits andcultural change. Employees experience better results while accessing trainingon their own terms. The result is a modernized L&D program that serves boththe needs of the organization and the learner as efficiently and effectively aspossible.