How to Use Microlearning to Enhance Your Blended Learning Strategy

 Most corporate organizations had shifted to online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, and now that things are coming back to normal, they are increasingly going for blended learning to train their employees.

What is Blended Learning?

As most of you already know, blended learning is a strategy where face-to-face classroom and online training programs are used together in different ways and formats to provide the learner with continual learning experiences to maximize learning. A well-designed blended solution offers the benefits of both traditional classroom training and online learning.

Blended learning = Face-to-face classroom training + online learning (synchronous and asynchronous) + performance support

To the learner, blended learning provides better control over one’s learning. It also provides the flexibility of anytime anywhere learning along with the human touch of direct interaction with peers and instructors through online discussions, feedback, etc. And that’s why it is the perfect fit for today’s learners.

For organizations, blended learning programs enable better reach of more employees in less time, with less cost implications. It also enables the organization to offer personalized training for their workforce.

That was all about the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of the blended learning approach.

So, what can you do to make your blend more effective? Incorporate microlearning in it!

What is Microlearning?

Microlearning is one of the most effective forms of training that can be used to enhance the performance of the employee and the organization. These microlearning nuggets deliver short chunks of learning, each dealing with a single learning objective. This type of focused learning makes it easy for learners to retain, remember, and apply their learning at work. Learners also have a better learning experience when you deliver these small training bites that can be accessed anytime and anywhere on their smart phones or iPads. And best of all, microlearning is especially useful to deal with the diminishing attention spans of today’s learners. And these microlearning modules can be easily and painlessly updated.

Microlearning is very effective to train employees on:

• Sales skills
• Processes and procedures
• Product knowledge
• Customer service
• Industry-specific training

There are a wide variety of microlearning formats that can help keep learners from getting bored. Here are a few examples of microlearning assets or formats that can be delivered digitally.

Videos	Animations	GIFs	Infographics
Simulations	Quizzes	Flipbooks	Flashcards
Podcasts	Process maps	Games	Interactive PDFs

Where Can You Use Microlearning in a Blended Solution?

Microlearning plays a critical role in a successful blended learning strategy. It promotes better retention, enables faster time to competency, and provides just in time performance support. The best thing is that it can be used across the employee’s learning journey – before the training, as part of the actual training, and after training to refresh and reinforce the learning.

Before the training, microlearning can be used to:

• Create awareness about the upcoming training: Teasers and trailers, promotional videos, animations, infographics, GIFs
• Revise basic concepts: Infographics, interactive PDFs, animations, videos
• Assess learners’ existing knowledge: Micro-quizzes
• Pique learners’ interest before the training: Icebreakers, videos, animations on the topic

During the training, microlearning can be used to:

• Encourage recall of previous learning: Micro-quizzes, games, flashcards
• Provide information: Infographics, process maps, interactive PDFs,
• Demonstrate the working of a product: Micro-videos, simulations
• Introduce a new topic: Micro-videos

After the training, microlearning helps deliver the right information, at the right time to learners through refresher training and spaced learning (to retain and reinforce newly acquired knowledge and skills), and performance support in different formats. Post-training, microlearning can be used to:

• Refresh the training to beat the forgetting curve: Infographics, videos, factsheets
• Reinforce the learning: Strategic games, micro-quizzes, FAQs, infographics
• Provide performance support (microlearning assets that can be accessed at the moment of need): Infographics, podcasts, interactive PDFs, process maps, how-to videos, scenarios, job-aids, mobile applications, decision support tools

These are just a few examples of how microlearning can be incorporated into your blended learning strategy. The sky is the limit for all the formats and combinations that can be used to enhance training effectiveness and improve ROI.

So, how can you deliver all these microlearning assets to your learners at different stages of their learning journey, and offer personalized learning? Well, that’s where the microlearning platform comes in!

A microlearning platform helps you provide adaptive learning to your learners that is customized to their unique needs. Challenge questions are categorized by learning level and topic, and learners receive automated questions based on their previous performance. This very personalized approach helps reinforce learning and fill any knowledge gaps, bringing the learner very quickly to optimum performance.

So, what are you waiting for? Design an effective blended learning strategy and use the microlearning platform to deliver different formats of bite sized learning nuggets to your learners. Then sit back and watch their performances soar!