At this year’s DevLearn conference, it seemed like everywhere you looked there was a new cloud-based tool or template to help companies create short videos. These videos are being marketed as reinforcement tools to work with short quizzes or web-based courses that allow people to see and try a new skill. What ultimately tied these competing tools together was the experience they were trying to create – something fast to make and even quicker to take.

Does that mean short is the new norm? The buzz surrounding microlearning has been growing exponentially lately even though the concept of microlearning isn’t new. But in the business of building competencies, we have to evaluate if the trend is worthy of the buzz. Does microlearning change critical behaviors and lead to better organizational performance? Or does creating shorter pieces, which may impact the strength of the design, break the trust our clients put in us to meet their goals?

Taking a Page from the Marketing Playbook

Let’s take a look into the world of marketing and the growing body of data on the importance of the customer experience (CX). The move toward microlearning is being influenced by the way customers are now interacting with brands. Traditional marketing and branding activities are shifting to digital strategies, and things like consumer reviews have grown in importance. Companies are no longer the sole source of information, and buyers are curating information about the products they want. Their opinions and recommendations matter.

Risks and Rewards

Incorporating microlearning into your overall training strategy is not without risks, but when designed well, the rewards are big. To bridge the engagement gap between customer experience and corporate training, we must look at the level of engagement with short-form content (the most basic level of microlearning) and longer experiences (like a foundational online course or classroom training). We also must analyze how traditional types of training like onboarding, product or safety training are changing based on employee needs, whether they’re generational or organizational.

So what are the risks as you build a strategy?

The Silver Bullet

Microlearning isn’t a replacement for foundational learning. However, the benefits of including micro elements can be so strong that it’s easy to slip into thinking you should make everything micro.

Underestimating Effort

Just because the courses are short doesn’t mean your planning will be. Fitting solid instructional design into a smaller piece of content actually requires meticulous planning to ensure you effectively communicate everything you need to.

This doesn’t mean you should shy away from microlearning. Here are some tips on how create the most effective microlearning strategy.

Frequency Trumps Length

The shortness of the experience is not as important as the frequency of the experience. However, when you create smaller pieces of content, your learners are able to use them more often and build retention.

Personalize It

Much like in the consumer experience, your learners are looking for a broad range of information. Giving learners a choice allows them to build a curriculum personalized to their needs.

Make It Stick

Microlearning offers a multitude of opportunities to boost retention. Using gamification, videos or animation, people are building better awareness and acceptance of critical behaviors.

Making Training an Experience

While microlearning has important ramifications for how we segment and build our programs, its main power is not in the short length, but in its focus on supporting specific learning objectives. Microlearning can positively affect your overall curriculum in the same way customer experience programs focus on making each interaction good. By making each time a customer interacts with your company a good experience, the entire effort becomes a great one.

If you make each part of your curriculum as well designed and engaging as possible, each course will build to the great impact training can have on your organization.