One of the biggest complaints from teachers these days is that their students’ attention span is waning and they are having to struggle to keep them engaged due to competition with too many distractions.
We live in a world where multitasking is a way of life and long periods of time dedicated to a single activity are a luxury: what if, instead of forcing ourselves to regress to slower time and outdated methods, we adapted our working styles? teaching and learning at the increased speed of the modern world?
This is where microlearning comes into play. This is a pedagogical strategy that consists of breaking down information into small units instead of subjecting students to long, uninterrupted sessions.
However, duration is only one factor of what it is made of. All microlearning modules are short, 1 to 15 minutes, but not all short modules adhere to this format.
As ACER experts explain, what makes a module microlearning, whether it is a video, a text or a podcast, is also its simple structure and focused on one learning objective at a time.
Students can then make their own connections between the individual modules and choose to review them in any order they wish to see how topic A relates to topic B.
Thus, learning about a topic with different capsules keeps students more focused and involved in their own learning process. And this method tries to adapt to new discoveries about the physiology of the human brain, which has always had alternating cycles of attention and distraction. This can be seen today with the impact of technology and social networks.
First of all, it allows learning anywhere and at any time. This modality is increasingly popular in employee training due to its flexibility. Short modules are ideal for learning on the go, allowing you to take advantage of the time between your daily commitments. For example, if you have a half-hour commute, you can use that time on the train to complete one or two mini-modules of ten minutes each.
Additionally, it is usually designed to adapt to any device, meaning that you can continue your training on a mobile phone, even if you started on a desktop computer.
Secondly, microlearning also works as an effective reinforcement for concepts and skills that might have been forgotten. Lastly, improve time management
In short, chunked learning offers flexibility, knowledge reinforcement, and time management efficiency, making it a perfect option in both school and the world of job training.
The goal of microlearning is to reduce the cognitive overload that can occur when the student is faced with an excessive amount of information. Research reveals that revisiting learning topics and repeating the practice multiple times using different approaches is the best solution for our brain to process new knowledge. This method facilitates the transition of information from short-term memory to long-term memory.
Dividing learning topics correctly is crucial. Brevity is one factor, but additional attributes, such as learning objectives, also come into play. In fact, the microlearning experience should address a single learning objective concisely to avoid brain overstimulation.
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