How Microlearning Helps in Improving Compliance Training?

Viren Kapadia February 28, 2022
How Microlearning Helps in Improving Compliance Training?

In today's fast-paced world, where everyone seems to be swamped with work, a shortage of time is often considered an obstruction in learning. Adding to it, short attention span is another concern evident with modern learners. A study conducted by Neil A. Bradbury, titled 'Attention span during lectures: 8 seconds, 10 minutes, or more?', has highlighted a decline in attention span post 15 minutes into the lecture.

Here is where the concept of microlearning offers an appropriate solution to this changing landscape. It is a learner-centric model of delivering complex learning content which is broken down into manageable pieces. It allows the learner to retain more insights by engaging in relatively shorter learning modules.

18-minute rule

According to the head of TED Talks, Chris Anderson, a time duration of 18 minutes is "short enough to hold people's attention, including on the Internet, and precise enough to be taken seriously."

What is the forgetting curve, and how microlearning helps overcome it?

Microlearning is based on the concept of the forgetting curve propounded by the German Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus. According to the forgetting curve, people retain only 21%of what they have learned within a month. Microlearning emphasizes the idea that human memory's retention power decreases over time. Thus, the concept of microlearning helps reduce cognitive load and leverage learning effectiveness.

Microlearning can be defined as a technology-based holistic approach to learning and training that comprises relatively smaller units for a vast topic. Examples of microlearning include watching short instructional or interactive videos, mobile apps, flashcards, infographics, cause and effect case studies.

Life Cycle of e-learning/Microlearning

Every product, service, or business sector goes through different phases of its life cycle, and the same applies to e-learning. Although microlearning is often used in e-learning, it cannot be considered a trend owing to its bite-sized information delivery format.

Microlearning in corporate training

Considering today's scenario where the millennials prefer mobile learning, microlearning goes hand in glove with mobile phones. It won't be wrong to say that microlearning just fits in the workflow as it offers a high level of flexibility.

Microlearning makes use of microcontent which focuses on one primary idea and delivers it to the target audience either with a URL or permalink. It also helps in increasing the number of active learners by focusing on social interactions.

Enlisting a few benefits of microlearning would include just-in-time learning, a perfect option for on-the-go learners, and providing a continuous learning format.

What is compliance training?

The word compliance suggests something that one needs to conform or adhere to, also the rules and regulations applicable in an organization. Therefore, compliance training is carried out to ensure that employees are well aware of the organization's relevant internal policies and rules that prevail.

Compliance training majorly encompasses information about the policies, regulations, and safety measures. For many organizations, compliance training is mandatory.

Role of microlearning in improving compliance training

It takes a lot of time and effort in preparing an informative training module. Training where the learner feels forced and burdened would be a complete waste of resources. Thus, microlearning follows a burst and boost style in the form of animations, questions, and answers, which help keep boredom at bay.

Microlearning plays an integral role in delivering compliance training programs. The entire process of delivering nugget-sized or capsule content emphasizing a single learning outcome allows the learner to retain maximum and inculcate behavioral change. With mobility as an added feature to the content allows the learners to make the most of it and access it as and when required.

Methods of Implementing Microlearning to Help Improve Compliance Training

  • Prepare scenario-based training modules

    This would help the learners experience real-time scenarios and understand their decision-making ability. When drafting a scenario-based training module, one must ensure its brevity and relevance. This is an effective practice that prepares the learners for the situations in the long run and helps them avoid committing costly or embarrassing mistakes.

  • Use infographics

    The infographics help to make the content more visually appealing. It is a combination of both text and images that help highlight the key takeaways. At times it can be a herculean task to memorize all the policies of an organization. However, infographics make this a lot easier. For instance, preparing an infographic related to the dress code would help the employees retain it well.

  • Whiteboard animation for storytelling

    This would help in increasing the learner's participation level by keeping them engrossed. In this technique, animated hand-drawn graphics are synced with audio. Whiteboard animation format can be used to tell stories about real-time events. One aspect that could be covered using the whiteboard animation is the ethics policy.

  • Delivering multimedia content

    Preparing safety video demos for your learners will give them a comprehensive view of the safety measures.

  • Gamification along with other social learning elements

    This not only makes a mundane task interesting but magnifies the ability to absorb the key points efficiently. This can help improve employee efficacy and bridge the knowledge gap that helps avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Conclusion

Considering that compliance training requires utmost seriousness, it is not mandatory that it has to be monotonous. Instead, it can be designed in an interesting manner to help yield higher employee engagement. To accomplish this, microlearning is one way that can help strategize the training modules. The reason is, microlearning is digital-enabled and allows to personalize the entire learning experience and offer easy accessibility on multiple devices.

Having said that, one can easily associate Gyrus as a one-stop solution for all training and learning assistance. The team here is highly skilled and professional who performs an in-depth analysis of the client's requirements before submitting a top-notch solution within the stipulated timeframe. It caters to a wide range of business sectors and is widely trusted when it comes to Learning Management Systems (LMS). So, reduce the cognitive load of your learners, and feel free to reach out to us.