Microlearning And Mobile Usage

How to help employees acquire new skills when they are constantly being bombarded by distractions

Chances are that you are already familiar with the ubiquitous notion that human attention spans are shrinking. According to a recent study in Nature Communications, our collective attention span is decreasing across a range of different types of input, including social media, books, web searches, movies, and more.

The study, conducted by a team of European scientists from Technische Universität Berlin, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, University College Cork, and DTU, concluded that the human capacity for attention is finite – there are hard limits on how much we can take in at once. As a result, we are starting to lose interest more quickly, as we are constantly being made aware of new things.

“Content is increasing in volume, which exhausts our attention,” explained Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, a Postdoc at the Max Plank Institute for Human Development. “Our urge for 'newness' causes us to collectively switch between topics more regularly.” In other words, the more content we're faced with, the thinner our attention span becomes, as it competes with the desire to seek new content.
 
What’s more, the dynamic of constant information overload makes it harder for people to retain information. As explained by Tony Schwartz, CEO of the Energy Project and author of Be Excellent At Anything, "It’s like having water poured into a glass continuously all day long, so whatever was there at the top has to spill out as the new water comes down. We’re constantly losing the information that’s just come in -- we’re constantly replacing it, and there’s no place to hold what you’ve already gotten. It makes for a very superficial experience; you’ve only got whatever’s in your mind at the moment. And it’s hard for people to metabolize and make sense of the information because there’s so much coming at them and they’re so drawn to it."

This combination of shorter attention spans and lower retention rates presents a formidable challenge for learning and development (L&D) professionals when it comes to successfully training employees on new skills and information. Most employees claim that the maximum amount of time they can devote to training and development is 1% of their time (24 minutes per workweek).

But given that the internet isn’t going away any time soon, the best course forward is to work with these dynamics, rather than against them. The way we teach and train needs to evolve in accordance with the new behavior patterns of our always-on environment.

In a macro-environment filled with information overload, learners tend to pay more attention when content is delivered in shorter chunks as opposed to hours-long classes or seminars, especially when content is personalized to specific learner needs. According to research from Deloitte, most people won’t watch a video longer than 4 minutes.

Microlearning is a method of learning that delivers information in a smaller and easier-to-digest format. Some refer to it as bite-sized training, but it actually goes beyond just delivering information in a shorter duration. Microlearning is hyper-focused, and caters to learners with short attention spans by offering just the right amount of information in the right amount of time, to help learners achieve specific goals. Learning is immediate and puts employees in control of how quickly they gain new skills, and how they can apply them to the workplace or in the real-world.

In keeping with cognitive science, Microlearning is particularly effective for teaching hard skills, since it activates our working memory capacity and attention spans and gives only enough information to help learners achieve a specific objective. Learning in 3-7 minutes matches the working memory capacity of human beings and captures attention spans more effectively.  Targeted microlearning with efficient, personalized instruction drives 50% more engagement, and a 20% increase in retention. It also helps demonstrate a return on investment through improved employee productivity.

For example, in online language training programs, microlearning has demonstrated an impressive track record of success. Language learning works best when learners practice with content that is relevant, interesting, and goal-oriented. Microlearning enables learners to mix and match lessons composed of career-aligned content based on real-world scenarios.  

Employees can take lessons in the order most appealing to them, in increments of five to ten minutes, making it easier to fit them into a commute, lunch hour, or downtime.  With a lower barrier to entry, language learners become more engaged, and are encouraged to study more. And perhaps most importantly, Microlearning encourages learner agency, the concept of a learner taking initiative and ownership of their learning, rather than solely relying on the requirements imposed by administrators.

According to a Statista survey conducted in February 2021, the average amount of time spent daily on a mobile device, not counting talking on the phone, has increased in recent years, reaching a total of 4 hours and 23 minutes as of April 2021. This figure is expected to reach around 4 hours and 35 minutes by 2023. Deloitte research shows that, on average, people tend to check their phones up to 9 times per hour.

Although this increasing reliance on mobile devices may be contributing to attention span erosion, it also presents an opportunity to teach people in a different way. With 7.1 billion smartphone users in the world, mobile devices are becoming the de facto standard for content delivery of all kinds, including learning and development.

There are a myriad potential benefits associated with mobile learning for L&D purposes, since mobile platforms are inherently:
 

 
Unlike e-learning, which merely delivers instruction online in a traditional classroom format, mobile learning utilizes mobile phones and tablets to teach concepts in short, concise bursts that learners can then put to use immediately after the lesson is completed.  This is particularly valuable for teaching new skills like language proficiency, because people tend to forget up to 75% of what they’ve learned if they don’t put it to use within 6 days.  

For L&D managers looking to make a big organizational impact, microlearning delivered via mobile devices is the way of the future.