Theories that support microlearning

Microlearning is a hot topic in education today. Many different theories support its use, including active learning, spaced repetition and gamification.

Each of these theories has been shown to help learners retain information longer and perform better on tests or exams. In this lesson, we'll look at each of them in more detail.

Let's start with perhaps the best known: active learning

Active learning refers to the idea that people learn better by doing than by just listening or watching.

Although it's not a new concept, it has become increasingly popular in recent years, especially after organizations and people learned more about how to develop online courses.

That's because active learning helps learners retain information better than passive learning. Learners can engage actively with the content, working through problems and solving them in their own time, instead of passively listening to an instructor lecture for an hour straight.

Active learning also offers more opportunities for learners to interact with each other, which lets them share what they know and build on each other's knowledge, as well as on their own understanding of the subject being studied.

This goes very well with microlearning. With more and shorter content, there are more opportunities to create meaningful content and exercises than in a 2-hour course with 30-minute videos.

Spaced repetition is our second theory

Spaced repetition is the process of repeating information at time intervals to constantly "force" its retrieval.

It helps improve retention. The more times you repeat the information, the more likely you are to remember it. It's a great way to learn new things and improve skills that may be difficult or complex.

Spaced repetition works well with microlearning. You watch a short video or article that contains something new or challenging, and then you keep coming back to it at regular intervals until it becomes second nature.

Our last theory and concept is gamification

It refers to the use of game elements in non-game situations, such as learning and education.

Gamification can be used to encourage certain behaviors in our learners, including learning. It's a great tool for microlearning because it encourages engagement, which is an important part of online education and also a bottleneck.

Gamification helps learners consume content in microlearning videos by making learning more fun and interactive. Learners are able to engage better with the information when it's presented in a way that makes them want to learn more about it.

So we've reviewed the three concepts that support microlearning and even drive it. We'll talk more specifically about gamification, since there are more elements to it. But we'll cover active learning throughout the whole course.

Now, let's go back to microlearning and when to use it!