Twitter chat on “Microlearning”

Yesterday, #chat2lrn, a bi-weekly twitter discussion, delved into the concept of microlearning. It was an interesting discussion.

You can view the tweets by clicking here (thanks to Martin Couzins).

Here are my takeaways from engaging in the discussion:

  1. There was no consensus on what microlearning entails.
  2. There was no consensus on how long a microlearning engagement might take. Indeed, there were estimates that ranged from 5 minutes to 1 hour!
  3. There was a strong suspicion that “microlearning” was a buzzword, perhaps one created by “evil” marketers.
  4. There was no consensus on what microlearning might be good for.
  5. Many saw microlearning as information-presentation only, not considering that a microlearning nugget might also prompt action.
  6. Many saw microlearning as something that regular learning-and-development folks would not be involved in. Indeed, many seemed to see microlearning as a way to subvert the ineffectiveness of L&D departments.
  7. Many saw microlearning as just-in-time learning, almost as performance support.
  8. Very few folks considered threading microlearning nuggets together in a subscription-learning manner.

“Microlearning” is now in the infosphere. The genie is out of the bottle and we better be ready. “Microlearning” is coming to a senior manager near you!