The digitisation of our business environment in recent times has significantly increased the speed at which employees operate and communicate. Time is perceived as one of the most valuable commodities in daily business conduct and even more so, the human capital resources allocated to function and optimally perform within its boundaries.
A sustainable training and development strategy within an organisation is one of the cornerstones in effecting excellence and raising standards to remain competitive on a local or global scale.
Traditional training approaches are quickly becoming obsolete and even so called innovative e-learning methods necessitates continuous transformation to keep up with employees’ anticipations for growth and newer generations appetites for instantaneous knowledge, palatable in the shortest possible time frames. These consumers of data and information, expect training to fit into their fast-paced schedules and gone are the days where a 60 min to 90 min training session was the norm in business. A Global Markets Insight Study published in 2016, revealed the growth of e-learning as a training methodology to be an astonishing 900% during the last 16 years.
Smartphones are the go to tool to access information and research statistics done by Deloitte’s Mobile Consumer Survey of 2016, shows that the average employee looks at their phone over 150 times per day. Yet, the disruption of a training session is not an acceptable option for the workforce of today. The same study revealed the general employee has time to devote only 1% of their work week to training and development which amounts to an average of just under five minutes per day.
The organisation of our present time is an ecosystem of swift and continuous change. This ecosystem requires its human capital resources to keep up with the rapid improvements in standards and technology, which entails instantaneous training and on-demand learning initiatives.
Globalisation has caused an overwhelming supply of information to become available to the world population, retrievable with a few search strings typed into Google. As consumers are distracted by the sheer volumes of its supply, this information overload has somehow resulted in a declining value of information utilisation and extraction returns. Information needs to be accessed in a targeted manner for learning to be continuous and sustainable.
Enter the concept of Micro-Learning. The word micro originates from the Greek word “micros,” meaning small. A Micro-Learning approach entails the delivering of minor sections of information content, focusing on unique ideas at a time, within a compact time frame, via digital devices like smartphones, tablets and notebooks. According to a recent report issued by The Business Insider, 67% of individuals now access learning programs through their mobile devices.
The benefits of Micro- Learning have been widely proclaimed and published in online media articles, social studies, research papers and consultancy surveys:
- Focused curriculums make it easier to impart gainful knowledge to professionals
- Learners can choose when and where they access learning programs, offering them flexibility and control of participation.
- The cost of design is significantly lower than traditional training curriculums, as content creation is speedier and more cost effective.
- Micro-Learning further adapts to the disruptive nature of working environments by requiring individuals to concentrate for only a short period of time, usually 3-7 minutes, thus increasing “return on effort” with each learning activity event.
- Retention of information is much better, due to a greater focus of learners pertaining to the specific material
Micro-Learning seemingly manifests as the perfect solution to conquering attention spans and quickly developing skills and competencies. We should, however, be mindful of a significant influencer to successful training outcomes: Engagement. Without participant engagement, no learning can occur and herein lies the biggest challenge to the effectiveness of Micro-Learning. The micro session accessed via a digital device will be in constant competition with disruptive communication platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat or WhatsApp where messages, chats and tweets are also lobbying for the learner’s attention.
Micro-Learning can only be deemed a useful tool if every program engages all the digital senses of the individual and demand participation during a session:
- TOUCH (click, swipe, tap)
- SIGHT (videos, images)
- HEARING (audio clips)
- COMMUNICATION (interactive messaging, chat rooms)
Initiatives of Micro-Learning can offer considerable potential gains for training and development where small doses of learning may have hugely positive impacts on business. The value of these training results though, ultimately depends on the level of learner involvement in the end.
Disrupt, Attract, Engage, Teach
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