What are the top microlearning design principles for effective teaching?

1 Align with learning objectives

Before you start creating microlearning content, you need to have a clear idea of what you want your learners to achieve. What are the specific skills, knowledge, or behaviors that you want them to learn or improve? How will you measure their progress and outcomes? Having well-defined and measurable learning objectives will help you align your microlearning content with your desired results and avoid unnecessary or irrelevant information.

2 Focus on one topic at a time

One of the key benefits of microlearning is that it reduces cognitive load and helps learners focus on the most important information. Therefore, you should design your microlearning content to cover one topic or concept at a time, and avoid mixing or overlapping different topics. This will help your learners process and remember the information more effectively, and avoid confusion or distraction. You can use different microlearning formats, such as videos, podcasts, quizzes, infographics, or games, to present the same topic in different ways and reinforce learning.

3 Make it engaging and interactive

Microlearning content should not only be informative, but also engaging and interactive. You want your learners to be interested and motivated to consume and apply your microlearning content, not to feel bored or overwhelmed. Therefore, you should use various elements, such as stories, scenarios, examples, humor, visuals, audio, or feedback, to make your microlearning content more appealing and memorable. You should also encourage your learners to interact with your microlearning content, such as by asking questions, providing choices, or offering challenges, to increase their involvement and retention.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?