Advantage of Microlearning for retention in Education
In the scope of corporate organisations, Microlearning has proved effective among employers who encourage employees to add further skills to their repertoires. Microlearning has proved successful in enabling employees thrive in the rapidly evolving digital world. Training managers and educators are just now seeing the merits of Microlearning, notably its flexibility, and are working hard to incorporate it into their various educational systems. But what is Microlearning, really?
What is Microlearning?
Microlearning is a procedure of teaching which involves conveying knowledgeable content to learners in precise and understandable volumes. With the incorporation of Microlearning in any educational system, learners (students) can control, what, when and how they assimilate.
Microlearning stands out because it works in tandem with the not just the style of the learner, but also his schedule and incentive. Students differ in comparison. Some assimilate more at night than in the day. Others learn better under certain serene environment. And many are motivated at a particular timeframe as their mental strength allows. Microlearning addresses all these needs, and presents teaching to learners at a time that their attention is fully captured. Learners can learn all they can at their most attentive time, and once a concept is assimilated, can proceed with their daily task.
The grand idea of Microlearning is to allow learners the flexibility to learn what they want at the time they assimilate best. Much like the idea of all search engines, where people can get answers anytime they want, Microlearning offers the same concept to the grand scheme of learning, and with the attributes of assessment and learner interaction.
Microlearning vs. Traditional Teaching
Learner Interaction
Attention is the fulcrum for learner interaction. And according to a Microsoft study in 2015, humans, on average, can only be interested voluntarily in a thing for just 8 seconds. So, therefore, as an educator, if you cannot capture the attention of your students within 8-9 seconds, you’ll have a hard time implementing learner interaction. In fact, in the case of traditional teaching at higher institutions where hourly lectures are the norm, the rigidity of the discourse will most times have minds wandering. Focus will be limited to a small percentage of the learners, and learner interaction is eventually lost.
Where Microlearning differs is the fact that it offers learners the chance to learn at their own pace. Once their attention is divided, they can put a pause to their learning, revisiting the text when they are at full capacity to learn. Also Microlearning offers lessons in small doses. As opposed to conventional textbooks which consist of long pages of text, Microlearning manages to breakdown text by teaching nothing more than 500 words within 5 minutes, at a time. In this case, the learner’s attention is fully captured.
Assessment
Imagine an assessment done after the end of a just-concluded lecture. The failure rate is undoubtedly bound to be high. Why? Take for example, a full-hour lecture. The educator may fail to completely capture his learners’ attention. And when that happens, only a little portion of the teaching is assimilated. Even when the educator manages to capture (and keep) his learners’ attention, the assimilation rate of each learner diminishes as the lecture gradually nears its end. This guarantees high failure rate in such assessment. And even after the assessment, when the student does a private study, he will concentrate on scanning the text for the right answers rather than understanding the text.
The Microlearning process is different. It understands the importance of time in learning. Microlearning ensures that learning is made objective, hence breaking a single lesson into modules. Therefore, a learner will be unable to access the next module if the first has not been thoroughly understood. Now, while there may be a dozen modules for every lesson, a time limit is set for each one, so that the learner can gauge his progress. This allows the learner to schedule the best time for each lesson, so that he/she can assimilate promptly.
Retention
A handful of statistics back the argument of Microlearning aiding retention. The Journal of ECR (Educational Computing Research) states that short content gives 20% more information retention because it enables learner interaction with the content. Another statistic that supports Microlearning is that from Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory. According to Ebbinghaus, 70% of new information is lost in the space of 24 hours if effort isn’t put in retaining it. Microlearning breaks down text so that just enough information can be understood at once.
The reason why conventional teaching doesn’t encourage retention is because a ton of information is thrown at the learner. Lectures fall far from the peak of retention. In fact, with every 10 minutes that passes within a lecture, the learner’s assimilation ebbs away until the point where he can take no more. Reading privately provides a better option, but still has its shortcomings. The learner can read at his own pace and can review material at any time but the enormity of the text in question may befuddle his assimilation. Microlearning trumps all types of learning. By operating on short precise content, it allows the learner the ability to assimilate key points in text, therefore ensuring better retention of information.
Microlearning breaks down content into modules which are not only concise and precise but are easily accessible for later review at any time. The fact that Microlearning is mobile-compatible makes it the best system of learning. Learners can easily pull out their cell phones to go over a training course or review past materials at a time that they will assimilate best. In the modern age where almost everyone is over-reliant on their mobile phones, Microlearning slots in magnificently well. The system instils confidence in learners by making allowing them to learn at their own pace without an educator or a classroom.
The benefits of Microlearning don’t stop there. Although, the system may be costly to set up, updating modules cost next to nothing. Microlearning, which is gradually gaining prominence among training managers and educators, offers a range of benefits like:
1. Tailor-made Customisations: Microlearning enables personalised learning. Students can learn and master areas of expertise that suits them.
2. Worldwide Availability: Microlearning can be made available to anyone in the world, with a mobile device.
3. Cost effective: In comparison to tuition paid in educational institutes, the cost of setting up Microlearning (along with updating modules) is relatively cheap and affordable.
4. Adds Value: Microlearning cuts out unneeded information and allows learners focus on relevant content that is applicable in their area of expertise
5. Guarantees Less Stress: Traditional teaching methods often tend to burnout students whereas Microlearning eases the learning process
6. Motivation: The ease of Microlearning’s process gives learners the motivation to acquire more knowledge as it breaks down texts into modules.
In a world that is becoming increasingly digitalised, Microlearning stands to be the pioneer of a digital educational revolution. The internet is broadening the scope of education from the rigidity of classroom to the flexibility of mobile devices. Microlearning suits the modern world and is gunning strong for the future.