Why Incorporating Micro Learning will be a wise idea in the present COVID 19 hit scenario?

With the present havoc created by COVID-19, education for the students is not going to be the same. Probably, there is a high chance that students may have to stick to the eLearning platform most of the time as physical classroom sessions may be reduced. Thus, education may change on a grand scale. However here is where technology will come into the picture to save the day in the form of tools like eLearning platform, tools like ZOOM, Skype, Microsoft Team, etc. Having said this, content may be delivered effectively only if students understand concepts easily. To elaborate, students have short attention spans. So making the children understand difficult concepts easily through lengthy video based lectures may not work. So how to ensure that learners achieve their educational goals in the current stressful demanding time?

Role of technology and micro-learning in the current circumstances

The most intimidating factor common among students is that the majority of the taught information slips away from their minds in a period of few minutes. To be precise, students retain only 21% of what was taught to them. To circumvent this problem, we, at VKCL, came out with the idea of introducing micro-learning modules in our educational and K-12 eLearning solution. Our academic eLearning solutions incorporated micro-learning video lectures, delivered in short modular form, 5 to 10 minutes long. This allows students to be in control of what they learn. We knew unless we focused on specific learning outcomes through microlearning, academic eLearning solutions may fail to be impactful and appealing in both content and format. 

Making microlearning based academic and K-12 eLearning solutions more appealing and effective

We had a chance to discuss with parents, teachers, and children about learning problems for the students. All pointed to one aspect of learning that stood as a hurdle. That was, students were unable to concentrate after 15 to 20 minutes of lecture. So we structured video lectures in such a way that students can watch, interact, and learn content in smaller nuggets of time. Also, we introduced animations with charismatic personalities and a wide variety of simulations. We knew incorporating such unique and innovative teaching methodologies in our academic eLearning solution may not put stress on children’s minds. The reason being, most visualization of the complex concepts were made simple through character based animations and simulation. 

Our achievements 

The best achievement for us was that we noticed that microlearning content modules coupled with animations and simulation appealed to multiple senses and various parts of learner’s brain. Hence, learners could retain more information than they normally do, as they interacted and got hooked onto the smooth flow of the content. Consequently, students didn’t complain of fatigueness that often results by viewing content for a longer period of time. Our experienced SMEs, multimedia professionals and instructional designers created learner-centric academic and K-12 eLearning solutions, primarily focusing on the learning objectives and with an aim to connect with the learners naturally. These approaches not only allowed students to learn quickly but also explore and apply the learnt theories, ideas, facts, and concepts in daily life. Thus, we also observed that microlearning based eLearning solutions can serve as a catalyst for developing the skill set required in jobs.