Why microlearning relies on circumstance

Think about the term learning. What happens usually when someone learns something is that they have to use it once, and reuse it a couple of times later on in the day or week to remember. Unless you have a photographic or perfect memory, most people tend to need spaced repetition to retain information and knowledge or skills.

Learning a small aspect of a new or different skill or topic is generally the type of microlearning that occurs. Sometimes it's something as simple as learning how to concoct a certain brew of coffee. When a senior barista teaches a junior barista the difference between a macchiato and a latte, they probably don't tell them, "macchiatos have less milk." They most likely just show them the amount of milk that goes into each individual drink when mixing them. The junior barista then makes each type of drink individually, without regard to thinking about which one has more milk.

When a customer walks in and asks an experienced barista, however, they will answer about the two different drinks, because by the time they have made at least 20 of each, they will know what goes into each type of drink. This "experience" or circumstance is what educators call informal learning. Microlearning opportunities would be something like a "best practice" or tip on how to pour the milk into a late or how to style the foam on a drink into a certain shape.

But then why does microlearning rely on circumstance? Well, generally the term microlearning is used in technical or corporate fields to denote learning that occurs outside of the conventional workplace. So in the case of the coffee mixing job, they would be doing microlearning perhaps on their phone at home, learning that goat's milk isn't used commonly in American drinks with coffee (as an example). Microlearning a new skill is great; most new skills aren't too long or complex, yet they are just interesting enough to be linked to the entire skillset necessary to do the job.

Much like how you as a consumer drink boba with a straw. If you never drank boba before, and didn't know what a large straw did, you may have to learn how to "pop" open a boba drink with the straw. But once you learned, (dependent on the circumstances) you may probably never forget, because it's embarrassing to be the only one that doesn't know how to drink something you just purchased!

Hopefully, this popped your attention and attentiveness today! Enjoy your day, and make sure to notice circumstances before and after you learn something new, be it regular learning or microlearning.