Why Microlearning is Great for Forming Habits

Many employers equip their team members with the knowledge required to complete their day-to-day tasks. However, personal development and healthy habit building aren’t common in the workplace.

Microlearning is an effective technique for building habits of any kind, but it’s particularly useful in optimizing productivity in personal and professional settings.

In this article, we’ll cover all things related to microlearning, including what it's and how to implement it. We'll also discuss microlearning's benefits before diving into the specifics of microlearning on SC Training (formerly EdApp).

What is microlearning?

Microlearning is a learning technique geared toward building sustainable habits. What classifies as microlearning is somewhat vague, but any teaching style that uses short lessons or activities falls into this category.

The reason microlearning is effective for many people is that it breaks concepts into small, digestible pieces to learn over time. In addition to making the materials easier to digest, the daily repetition of the lessons creates a habit.

Since microlearning focuses on short and snappy lessons, it’s convenient for trainers and trainees alike. The short lessons are typically cheaper and easier to produce, and they fit more easily into learners’ busy schedules.

Why is microlearning important?

Microlearning is important for several reasons. It provides long-term solutions to reset habits, improves knowledge retention, and facilitates well-rounded personal development.

These microlearning aspects are particularly valuable to educators who want to create real change in their workplaces or greater community since this training style is geared towards healthy habit-building.

Let’s take a minute to break down each of these benefits.

Long-term solution

Microlearning is valuable because it helps to provide long-term solutions for correcting bad habits rather than short-term fixes.

The most common way companies deal with the stress of breaking bad habits is by sending people to training sessions or seminars, which is usually only an effective solution for immediate results. Since this training is often done without any consideration given to the workplace culture and environment, it doesn’t always stick.

However, microlearning helps people to make small shifts that equate to a much larger change. When there’s a system created to facilitate the change, it makes the change more sustainable.

In the fleet industry, for instance, many companies have implemented security devices, fleet dash cams to prevent accidents, and preventive equipment, like seat belt reminders. 

These resources are designed to help drivers build good driving habits, one example of how businesses can encourage their employees to adopt healthy habits.

Boost knowledge retention 

Another advantage of microlearning is improved knowledge retention. Short courses won’t overburden your trainees' already overburdened minds. It also makes it easy for students to interact with the subject matter daily. 

Furthermore, with microlearning, you can easily recreate material and convert it into other formats to accommodate different learning styles. 

For example, you could gather a few key topics from a course and create short videos with the help of a text-to-speech platform that explains those phrases. This is a quick and easy method for refreshing people's memories.

Well-rounded personal development

Microlearning can help your students expand their careers because the skills learned with microlearning are often transferable. As order and habits reinforce each other, this will benefit your professional habits.

For example, if a blog writer specializes in finance and wants to branch out to other subjects, they can start learning about adjacent topics, like marketing and psychology, with the skills they picked up with microlearning. This way, they could become the right writer to hire for different jobs.

However, microlearning doesn’t have to only benefit your job or academic pursuits. In fact, applying it to other facets of your life will make you a well-rounded person. 

For instance, by learning about or investigating how to open a health savings account, you can also expand your knowledge about finances in general, investing wisely, and ways to save on your taxes.

How to introduce microlearning

As a business owner or operator, there are a few ways to introduce microlearning to your team. 

If there’s a new standard, process, or initiative you’re introducing to your organization, you can require team members to participate, or you can offer incentives to complete the training with prizes, bonuses, and more. Offering incentives is particularly valuable if your microlearning training follows the cue, routine, and reward process.

You can also set up your onboard training with a microlearning format. If your employees are familiar with this style of training from the start, there should be no issue with adoption since it’ll feel like the standard in your company.

Microlearning with SC Training (formerly EdApp)

As we discussed, microlearning works effectively with the cue, routine, and reward habit-forming process. Luckily, this process is made easy with SC Training (formerly EdApp).

If you’re unfamiliar, SC Training (formerly EdApp) is a mobile learning management tool that makes it easy to create engaging lessons and courses for microlearning. You can create bite-sized lessons to educate your team in a style that fits easily into their busy lives.

One unique aspect of SC Training (formerly EdApp) is its emphasis on the "reward" aspect of the microlearning habit-forming process. Participants earn "stars" for completing lessons that can unlock various rewards. The rewards configuration is up to the educator, but digital gift cards are a popular option.

Plus, the software includes a leaderboard so all of the students taking a course can see where their teammates are. By incorporating some gamification, you can easily inspire participation from those who enjoy a little competition.

Final thoughts

As more organizations recognize microlearning's value, it’ll become more popular as a workplace training technique. 

Since it’s relatively easy and inexpensive to get started with microlearning, it’s definitely worth trying it out for your team.

Join SC Training (formerly EdApp)'s microlearning platform for free to help your team improve their habit training!