Best Ways to Use Microlearning in Higher Education Classrooms

Today, higher education is met with a challenge of using technology and faster means of educating the college students. The time is surely gone when students had the interest and attention span of hours and when they could concentrate on their lecture the same way at the end of the day as they responded to them in the very beginning. They now have shorter span and they need something faster, more diverse and interesting in order to keep the interest level high. It is no one’s fault and there is nothing wrong about that. With the changing and evolving times it is needed to introduce newer ways to plan lectures and sessions that are shorter and more catchy and interesting. Just think about it, whatever new information you have learned yourself recently, new tip, new strategies or new ideas, have you learned them through a novel you read recently? Or a long article based on several hundred words? Or was it some infographics or a short video you recently saw on Facebook or something you read on Twitter? You see? As per conversation with a dissertation writing service expert, this is how the new learning is changing everything and this is a great way. It is called Microlearning.

What is Microlearning? Microlearning is a very interesting approach to train and teach new things to people in a workspace environment when learning and sitting in a place for hours hearing someone talk and having a good attention span all are needed. Now, traditional methods don’t seem to work that way and Microlearning has just the right solution. Through Microlearning, small bites of information are given to the students and these bites of information are more effective than any method currently available. Going back to the example of Facebook and Twitter or any other platform, they have a great number of videos and slides being shared that last hardly a few minutes (2 to 3 minutes max) and they leave a huge impact on the reader. The new way of teaching focuses on podcasts, infographics, quizzes and short videos and the selection should be made by the student himself. Microlearning provides the student with small and focused easily digestible pieces of information.

Microlearning: What, Who and Why? As now one thing is understood that micro learning is a different approach at teaching or training and it parts its ways from the traditional classroom or teaching method. So what is so different about Microlearning that makes it so effective? Microlearning actually focuses on the information in its smaller version without, skipping detailed texts and the kind of language that is not used now anymore other than in course books. It uses interactive quizzes, podcasts and short videos that we see everywhere. Just imagine that a recipe that take hours to cook and there are an hour long TV shows based on cooking that one dish, you are now learning that same recipe in a matter of 30 seconds to 1 minute, and this is what you actually remember effectively without writing down the whole method. This is why the Microlearning approach is more effective and is used.

The students in Microlearning are in control of what they want to study. The method that is free from lengthy texts and is mostly based on videos is easy to watch and one easily finds time for that. Taking out hours or an hour for a professional is not possible but taking out a few minutes is not that big of a deal Microlearning is emerging in high schools, colleges and even to train professionals because it does not take time and the companies that can’t afford training costs and to have the employees take off for an hour, they can easily update them through social media and their time will also be saved.

Three Best Ways to Use Microlearning Effectively: PechaKucha is a presentation making tool that is similar to Power point and other slide or presentation maker in many ways. It is different from the slide making tools in a way that it has a time limit and the time constraints will require the presenter to make the presentation more effective by using the right presentation making strategies. This presentation making tool uses 20 photos that are thematic and are all based on one theme. These 20 images represent one idea and concept. The presenter will use 20 seconds to talk about each slide. This method is convenient as the total time totals to less than seven minutes. The presenter’s presentation making skills will be put to test if this method or tool is pursued. But if the presentation is made with skills used and the pictures are relevant to the subject, the presenter talks about the picture using the time allowed, this method is a winning strategy.

Venngage is all about infographics, Infographics is a great way to reach out to learners of different capabilities and interests in to one place. The pictures used in infographics engage learners from different areas and engage them in learning almost immediately. The learners are also familiar with learning through infographics already because of their exposure with social media and all the content they see all day long. The purpose of Venngage is to leave the long and lengthy texts behind and all the essays and articles based on several hundred or sometimes thousand words and simplify learning with the use of infographics.

Animoto is a great source of creating custom videos to make learners learn through the help of videos. Videos will help them learn through visuals. Eliminating the written work completely and moving on to the use of videos in education is a great attempt. Students have been learning through videos since a long time now and videos are helpful in explaining very complex ideas in the easiest of ways. Short videos based on any concept will help the learners learn fast and the videos will be focused meaning they will get to know exactly the thing they are gathered for.