Microlearning: What is this learning trend?

eLearning has become more popular than ever in the lockdown. But even after thing return to normal, the dependence on online knowledge is here to stay. This does not only apply to school or university students. Professionals learning or upskilling on job also prefer personalized interactive online courses to sitting in a conference room with a mixed crowd of people. And microlearning is one of the buzzwords in this world.

What is microlearning?
Microlearning refers to an educational approach that offers bite-sized, small learning units just enough information to help learners achieve a specific goal.  It is not to be confused with a related term: nanolearning. Nanolearning is about self-complete modules while microlearning is about chopping a bigger chunk of learning material into small mouthfuls. Here’s an example to clarify it: a video presentation of 10 minutes tells us what is crypto currency. That is nanolearning. A video presentation of 5 minutes tells us only about how crypto currency is minted. That’s microlearning. Both methods have the same aim: to make the learner retain the maximum amount of info.

Why is microlearning a rising trend?
Learner disengagement and boredom are two major hurdles in any online learning module. Microlearning has come up as a solution. Instead of teaching an entire chapter of Geography to Class 7 students for an hour, online teachers are breaking it into 15 minute modules of the chapter, complete with feedback / tests at the end of each module.

Here are a few quick points as to why it is so popular:

It helps instructors deliver a strong learning experience that students also want
It helps instructors achieve a higher completion rate and greater success
It's short and focuses on a specific learning outcomes, so it can accommodate tests and assignments better, making it convenient to actually track progress
It can be used for interactive and group-based online projects. A microlearning module on multiplication for 8 year olds, followed by a Math game for the whole group will drive the point home better than many traditional modules
It's cost-effective and saves time for development, with less internet consumption, less screen time at go, and more ‘thinking space’ in between chunks of lessons