Why Microlearning Platforms Should Help Shape Your Course

Video Course Creators Would Be Wise to Study Microlearning Models in Creating Their Courses 

Creating great content for your course isn’t just about the lesson materials themselves. If your presentation and formatting isn’t as engaging and accessible as it could be, the competition could win out in enrolling your students.

Microlearning has been shown to be a highly effective way to meet students where they are. Let’s identify exactly how they accomplish this, and outline why it’s probably worth your time to experiment with this model of course creation.

Microlearning Breaks Subjects Down Into Digestible Chunks of Information

The key difference between microlearning and just plain old learning can usually be summed up in terms of length. Course modules and videos in microlearning models typically last only a few minutes, as opposed to longer standalone lessons.

Microlearning, along these lines:

– Focuses on specific topics or skills that can be more easily taught in pieces

– Generally makes it easier for students to consume and retain course material

– Offers a more flexible and convenient learning experience for students

– Offers a more scalable learning platform for course creators

Let’s explore these benefits in further detail, so that you can consider every advantage they might lend your microlearning-formatted course.

Microlearning is About Optimization and Efficiency in Course Execution

Not every video course subject lends itself to microlearning, but most can when observed through the lens of the many benefits the format lends to best serving both students and teachers. Even in cases where subjects might be more fundamentally complex, and require a deeper exploration, there are often ways where microlearning frameworks can help course creators better organize and manage offerings.

1. Enhanced Learner Engagement

Today’s students expect content that engages them quickly and consistently, even when it comes to educational material. Attention spans are short and instant gratification is increasingly becoming the norm. Microlearning models capture attention with bit-sized lessons that fit busy schedules. They can help increase engagement, grow completion rates, and generally increase overall satisfaction.

2. Improved Retention

Less can be more when it comes to online course content. Microlearning platforms enable you to organize and present information in ways that promote greater understanding and that facilitate better retention. By employing laser-like focus on one topic at a time, course creators can empower students to fully absorb and internalize the content provided by each module.

This promotes long-term retention and improved learning outcomes, not only because there’s less to remember at once but also because the information has been provided in its most distilled and clearest form.

3. Scalability and Flexibility

The more modular approach to course creation represented by a microlearning framework makes it easier to update, expand, or repurpose course materials. This provides a good deal of flexibility for adapting to shifting trends.

For example, a course on Facebook Ad creation might require semi-regular updates, since parent company Meta often makes changes to their ad environment. With a microlearning approach, instead of having to re-record an entire module for your course, maybe you only have to create a single video update for loading into your host platform or learning management system (LMS).

Scaling is also easier from a microlearning approach. Microlearning courses are often faster to create, enabling a more seamless process for updating and expanding on content. Modules can often be repurposed across course materials. Going back to our example, an advertising course for Facebook marketing might share at least some higher-level material with a similarly-framed course on Instagram marketing.

4. Personalized Learning Experiences

By breaking content down into smaller and more digestible pieces, microlearning course structures make it easier to create more precisely customized learning paths, such as for pairing with adaptive learning practices. This makes it easier to provide a personal touch to teaching, again contributing to greater engagement. Motivation becomes easier, too, as your custom solutions help learners “stack wins” and grow more confident in their educational journey.

5. Analytics and Insights for Course Creators

Beyond any adaptive learning practices, microlearning also produces more touchpoints for generating actionable data for improving and refining your courses themselves. This helps video course creators better understand the efficacy of their content and to identify areas of improvement.

Top Microlearning Platforms for Video Course Creators

Here are some of the top microlearning platforms that course creators can leverage to take full advantage of the format. Some might be a better fit than others, depending on your unique needs.  At the very least they can help inspire you to create your own forms of microlearning for your courses.

TalentCards: A mobile-first platform designed for microlearning, TalentCards empowers course creators to create visually appealing, bite-sized courses optimized for on-the-go learning.

EdApp: With a focus on gamified microlearning, EdApp offers a user-friendly platform for creating engaging, interactive courses that foster collaboration and improve knowledge retention.

LearnWorlds: Combining the benefits of both microlearning and social learning, LearnWorlds enables course creators to build immersive, community-driven video courses that cater to various learning styles.

Teachable: A popular, versatile and robust LMS, Teachable offers a range of tools and resources for developing and selling microlearning video courses that resonate with your target audience. It’s a favorite platform of individuals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses.

Thinkific: Offering a good mix of both ease-of-use and power, Thinkific helps creators to build, market and sell highly-customizable microlearning courses at flexible price points. It offers many third-party integrations for further refinement of your approach.

Course creators seeking to create their first microlearning offerings would do well to demo or experiment with each of these options (and/or others) to see which best match their goals and audiences.

Conclusion: Try Creating a Microlearning Course (If You Haven’t Already)

There’s arguably no better match for a microlearning platform than a video course creator who is just starting out. It’s a great way to test your materials and your own approach as an instructor. The workload isn’t necessarily small but it’s likely to be more manageable for early versions of online course ideas.

The increased likelihood for greater student engagement and knowledge retention, personalized learning, and analytical decision-making offered by the format, taken together, form another powerful argument in favor of trying microlearning out.

For course creators with longer-form or longer-running video lessons already out, it might be worth considering testing a revised version of your offerings to bolster efficacy or to experiment with new methods for future offerings.

Happy microteaching!