S1 E20 Microlearning
Episode Audio
Kate Udaolva shares what she’s been learning about microlearning.
Connect with Kate on LinkedIn.
Transcript:
The following transcript was auto-generated and may contain typos or spelling errors.
Amy Petricek
Welcome to the share what you learned Podcast. I'm Amy patristic, a learning enthusiast and the host of the show. To share what you learn podcast is designed for learning professionals to share something they're learning in the field of instructional design. Today, I'm talking to Kate Udalova about microlearning. Hi, Kate, welcome to the show.
Kate Udalova
Hey, Amy, thanks for having me.
Amy Petricek
My pleasure. We were talking before we started recording that we feel like we know each other well, based on just hanging out on LinkedIn in some of the same places. But this is actually the first time that we're meeting face to face. So what a treat. Kate, can you introduce yourself a little bit to my listeners, tell us who you are what you're all about?
Kate Udalova
Yeah, absolutely. So just since I'm a microlearning fan, I'll go short. So I'm I have my professional with a marketing background. And as we speak about some personal stuff, I'd say that I am piano player, and I enjoy horse riding. And I'm the happiest owner of the coolest dog in the world. I am quickly a dog person. How about you?
Amy Petricek
Am I a dog person? Yeah, I like dogs. I don't love them. And I feel the need to qualify that because my husband loves dogs. Like if we're at a park and he sees one on the other side of the park. He's one of those people who's like, let's run over there and ask him if we can pet the dog, where I will just kind of turn my head and be like, That's a cute dog and keep walking. I must know though this this world class dog of yours. What is your world class dog's name? And what kind of dog
Kate Udalova
It's a golden retriever. His name is Fyodor. And he is great here he is actually our comfort manager because he helps me to unwind after a really long and difficult working day. So he serves us well.
Amy Petricek
Let's dive in and start talking about micro learning Kate's since you I would call you the micro learning queen. So I'm going to take it kind of back to the beginning and ask like, what is micro learning? And why is it so important in learning and development?
Kate Udalova
And I'm really glad to start with this kind of a definition question. Since you know, it feels like having an understanding of what the approach what micro learning actually is will help you in utilizing and maximizing the approach. And as for today, I guess the internet is really flooded with I don't know hundreds or 1000s of articles that gives you actually nothing but some vague descriptions. And all you know is that it's bite sized learning or learning small chunks of information and actually helps you with nothing. Right. So I'd really like to share my favorite definition. And it's really the most practical one I stumbled upon a needs while reading microloan, short and sweet book by Karl Kopp and Robyn Defiance. It's the greatest book on microlearning highly recommended and gotten to them. Micro learning is an instructional unit that provides a short engagement in an activity that is intentional designed to elicit a specific outcome from the participant. So moving some signs from me and what we have participant-specific outcome and instructional unit and really short engagement. Right. So I guess this is a very good point for anyone to start thinking of how you can embrace this approach.
Amy Petricek
First of all, I love your definition. I haven't I don't know that I've actually heard a formal definition of micro learning. So that was a fun thing for me. But second of all, they you mentioned like short in duration, is there some kind of duration that's recommended for micro learning or a general rule of thumb?
Kate Udalova
Really great question, actually, because most folks, I talk to think that micro learning is something that should be limited in time. And, you know, like five minutes, it's all about my current asset. And let's say 11 minutes, it's already macro learning, but actually, it doesn't work this way. I've previously heard from one micron expert, the quote about if your learner wastes five minutes on learning acid is just a waste of time. It's not a micro learning assets, right? So it's all about the use case, it's all about your learning objectives that outcome you'd like to not you'd like to but you strive to kind of solve with your asset. And we need some really clear understanding of how this very targeted, very narrow piece of information will help your learner to solve their task or challenge so thing that they can tend to, while they experience some problems during their work, and then they can get back to their work immediately already equipped.
Amy Petricek
So it's something that shouldn't, you should be able to kind of master pretty quickly, but also shouldn't take your attention too far away. So like if you're working on a task, and you're like, I need to learn more about this, a micro learning would draw your attention to learning for a short period of time, but then allow you to quickly come back to the task you're working on completed, because now you're informed and understand how to do the task. Yeah, and,
Kate Udalova
you know, I share some real life story. I really love it because it shows how microlearning asset might be spoiled with some excessive interactivity and gamification blustery from my friend. And she was given through some an experienced technical problem with her corporate software. And she had to find the answers, she was able to open their corporate libraries, she was able to find them microloan and asset actually it was called Mechoulam neset. On how to deal with that problem. Once you open this, you realize that it's absolutely useless for her because it was so overly interactive, she had to drag and drop, she had to kind of insert some words into sentences. So it was like a puzzle or a game for a toddler. And he took, I don't know, five minutes for her to get through the first slides. And then she closed it, and she tried to solve her problem on herself. And you see that quick instruction really made out of I don't know, 547 points would help her without any interactivity, right. Without any I didn't do cool things that are popular today. So just think of a context your learner will tend to content and think of how you could help them that's just the thing you should start with.
Amy Petricek
We're piggybacking off of that thought, Kate, what would be a good use case for micro learning,
Kate Udalova
I suggest we start with listing some of them and then we can dive into discussing them in more detail. If you'd like to short banding on learning objective, micro learning can be used to reinforce your learning event, to introduce a very simple skill to support a job task to share updates, to create awareness. And one of my favorite use cases, which is usually the one that is least talked about, you can use micro learning assets to prototype your conventional eLearning module. So just don't dive into designing a full fledged learning piece. Start with some small steps and present it to your stakeholders or even run a small experiment with learners get their feedback and on the exam try to create something conventional.
Amy Petricek
I had never thought of almost what you just said of like a prototype potentially being a micro learning, my mind is blown. One of the reasons I wanted to bring this question to awarenesses micro learning is kind of one of I would call it a buzzword in the learning and development field right now. And a lot of people are talking about it. I think a lot of people don't actually know what it is like before when I said What is it and you offered a definition. I think some people struggle to define what a micro learning is. And people also struggle to know like but when would it be appropriate to use and I think the examples you call that are really helpful but prior to recording you also said to me are like yeah, this is like my number one question like people always want to know what are use cases for micro learning. And so I'm curious, I know you offered a pretty expansive list there if there's any you'd like to dig into.
Kate Udalova
First of all, talking about use cases you know, always keep in mind that definition that we've discussed previously and lead that overall understanding of what micro a nice drive your delivery options and they use cases he will choose to go microwaves so firstly then use case that actually prevailed some on other scenarios, according to my own experience is when you use micro learning to reinforce learning event and I mean we're mobs some follow ups. And I'd say that where mobs would be really highly effective when there is a variety of no leech levels, some on your learners and want them to be prepared so that they could consume your loan event more effectively. Or you can refresh some new knowledge that your learners acquired from the earlier learning event by delivering a five minute extract that truly works great is for another popular scenarios. I call out introducing a simple skill and the only advice here just I like to start with it. Is that You should not use Mike Fillion for some complex subjects. And before you start thinking whether these skill could be introduced with micro learning, make sure your learners have kind of an understanding of how this particular learning bite would fit your learning infrastructure, the bigger picture of your learners behavior, right? For example, you can you could give micro when some skill or some concept is really small and discreet. And you can, for example, create a microloan asset for your sales people, it could be an asset on a standalone sales technique, or you can enhance the onboarding process of a new hire with a bunch of micro learning assets just delivered over a period of time, what was Sindhuli snacks, I guess it was performance support, and using micro learning to support each job task. And actually, as for micro learning, I should say that it lends itself easily to what we call just in time learning. And guess the main thing here is that the main thing you should focus on is that you place your microlearning asset somewhere that you're learning might need it somewhere in the place where they might need that, or you should think how you could deliver it in the moment, your employee might need it. Some very targeted very, very practical aspects of information, just like I've said previously, that you learned will turn to and get back to their work immediately. I prefer to call them how tos. And yes,
Amy Petricek
Have you heard of the term space repetitions before?
Kate Udalova
Absolutely. And that's why we've seven tabs, we've just introduced based learning features so that you could deliver your micro net assets over a period of time.
Amy Petricek
That's exactly what I was thinking, as you were like sharing all that I was like, Oh, my gosh, like micro learning, seven taps more specifically could be used for spaced repetitions, which if you didn't catch what that was listeners, it's basically the notion that just because we provided a training doesn't necessarily mean that our learners absorbed everything they needed to in that moment. And so there's principle or theory, I'm not sure what you'd call it called spaced repetition, which basically means you returned back to the content. At some point, I think there's potentially like a recommendation of like two weeks and two months, or something along those lines, to the content so that it really soaks in and the learner absorbs it. But micro learning, oh, my gosh, I hadn't even thought of micro learnings in that way. And so I'm like going down this rabbit trail of projects I'm working on and how I can integrate that more. So thank you for sharing those use cases, you've enhanced my work. You're welcome.
Kate Udalova
And, you know, just the last thing I'd love to touch here on these cases is that you could also use microloan to share some corporate updates or product updates. And, you know, just think about it, we live in the world that is so fast paced that everything changes so rapidly, so that you you need some you need to have something on your tool set that you could use for really rapid content creation. For example, the state has introduced some new restrictions because of COVID-19. And you have to change the work format. Because of they send you need to tell everyone in the team or in the company about it very quickly. And in most cases, the option you will result to it will be I guess, to put together in the mail, and it will be alone plain email, in most cases rather boring. Or you could make them a vile first instruction. I didn't, I didn't want to sound like self advertising, but it could be in seven tabs. And what options by the way will take about the same amount of time to create. But the result the effectiveness of delivering such content will be absolutely different.
Amy Petricek
I would argue more engaging to you own a company called Seven taps, which is a micro learning product, which we'll get into more in a moment. But because of that you get to interact with companies who are looking at beginning to start micro learnings in their learning and design worlds. And so when have you found that a company is usually ready to take on micro learning?
Kate Udalova
No thank you for this question. And my answer will be simple. Any company who has or hires more than a few full time employees such here can benefit from utilizing them like feminine approach, whether you use certain types or not. I just love to call out here that microlearning is not a silver bullet, but it definitely can help you highs to go to work faster. It can help your employees to become more engaged in learning to retain knowledge better and as a result to change. De behavior, something that we are all striving for. I wanted to kind of give it highlights of people who use seven temps because it's interesting. Our user base is very diverse. We serve l&d teams, and sales enablement teams in large companies, really great corporate world. And at the same time, we have small businesses who have, you know, one HR generalist who create content themselves and do all the stuff themselves. And both groups are enthusiastic about the project. They see how they benefit from it, they actually benefit from it, and they love the product in particular,
Amy Petricek
That question came to mind as I was thinking about growing a learning and development team or organization within a company. And so you know, at what point when they're looking at adding an authoring tools and video editing tools, like does micro learning come in, but I think what you're highlighting is, micro learning is for anyone in everyone and anyone can take it on. As a result, you don't have to have a certain caliber of l&d organization, you don't have to have a certain number of employees, micro learning is available to all,
Kate Udalova
Every time I get questions from whether Should I start with going to my account or not, I recommend starting with needs assessment. If you understand that micro learning assets, we we can not call them micro learning assets, we can call them bite sizes held information, or really how to see instructions, do's and don'ts. You name it. And if you see that children need something that they can consume quickly. And something that would be very practical for dealing with challenges. So micro knees down to here, and thinking of, for example, an onboarding onboarding process, right? You, you don't need to kind of deliver all the information just on the day one, your employee will get really tired, at least overwhelmed in most cases yet. So think of just delivering some content in smaller pieces, some very practical aspects, try to think how they will dive into the new role and help them to perform better to get the understanding of this role Foster. That's how you should think of applying or not approach.
Amy Petricek
I really appreciate that perspective. So thank you for sharing and elaborating on that we have referenced a couple times in this conversation, this fancy, wonderful tool you have called Seven taps. Tell us a bit about that tool. And what makes it such a great micro learning opportunity,
Kate Udalova
I'm happy to tell the guy previously carried about. So I'll try to keep myself short. 7taps is a free online tool that vastly improves content creation workflow. And according to our clients feedback, sound taps lets you design and deliver micro learning bite sized assets in just 15 minutes, what makes it special, I'd say that the two first of all has inbuilt framework that actually facilitates creation of effective microloan and experiences. What do I mean, even if you are not aware of micro loan approach, if you're a completely newbie, I bet you come up with something just in minutes, and it will look great, because no technical background needed, no tutorial needed. And everything is pre designed for you just think of your message. Think of the concept you'd love to deliver. And so you don't even think to you don't even have to think of customizing or testing how your content will look on different devices because we will do it for you. It will look great by default.
Amy Petricek
I will be a personal testimony that the very first time I when I got my first seven taps account and created my first seven taps microlearning I was able to jump into the tool immediately and have a finished product within kind of like you said like 15, maybe 20 minutes, have a finished product. And so there it's very accessible. The learning curve is not steep. It's very easy to just jump into so don't be overwhelmed and this is not one of those things you would be overwhelmed with. But another thing I wanted to call out is you referenced before we started recording you were talking you referenced it kind of like tick tock of sorts and I always compare it to like Instagram Stories of sorts. So here is my little caveat that if you can make an Instagram story or do a tick tock then you can jump into seven taps and build a micro learning. That's that's great feedback.
Kate Udalova
And actually as for tick tock, you know you Oh, you should have Some background to come up with something really engaging, I'd say because I have tick tock account, but I, I created on the one videos. And so it really takes a creative effort to to to create something good. And it takes time. And you can just follow the trend and create something similar to what others do. But if we speak about transferring this type of content into elearning, just think of how you could create an engaging video on compliance training, I guess there's no way to really make it very engaging doesn't matter how what efforts you will use, or what piece of music you will add to your video file. So tick tock cares, my respect.
Amy Petricek
Maybe even harder than seven taps she said,
Kate Udalova
absolute waste with seven tabs actually, you don't have to think of anything, you can just type in some text. And that's all because the two is I've already mentioned facilitates content creation. All the features we have in seven tabs help you to create engaging content, you don't need to think of any I don't know, extra enter interactivity, or I don't know how you could create a video asset, we have aI video generated feature or you can upload your own video for free, anything you'd like to give for. But the main aspect here is that if you have an idea, you just could put it on some task cards and it will look great. No extra time on designing or on creative process. Just just try to do every it as you as you see it. And you know, what's the coolest thing about sound taps I guess I should mention is that your learners access content with a click in contrast to Tik Tok, there are no downloads and new apps with them and actually is for just think of micro learning context on your learner have a problem and they need to resolve it immediately. So when there is a course load and process or their I don't know, really complicated signups, the login site, no passwords, all the stuff, it takes precious time from your employee, actually, this time might be spent on solving the problem. And they now are spending it on accessing the app. It doesn't work actually for micro learning experiences. So we design this to with I'd say clear understanding of the context microloans should fit in. And judging by the fact judging by your feedback, judging by feedback of us, sometimes users we we did everything right, and we continue to empower the product.
Amy Petricek
It's ever evolving and growing as a product as well. You mentioned this ever so slightly, but it's a big deal is that you recently added a feature where you can import your own videos into these seven taps, micro learning experiences, which a handful of months ago wasn't a thing you could do. And so the tools definitely continuing to grow and evolve with the needs of the users, which is really cool.
Kate Udalova
And the coolest thing I would say even though is that we evolve it according to our clients feedback, we take it really seriously. And yeah, we just deliver what people want from certain tabs. That's why every feedback really matters.
Amy Petricek
Well, let's go ahead and dive into the Rapid Round. Kate, these are the questions I get to ask all of my listeners, I'm going to have you finished this sentence for me, Kate. Learning is
Kate Udalova
Speaking about my personal life learning is vital, because I'm a learning geek. And I have a concern for you that I know so intellectually. But speaking of some corporate learning stuff, I'd say that learning is enabling I've read somewhere that we must always remember that our learners actually were hired to do their duties, their operational duties, and learning is not their first priority. So just think of it because it's very interesting statement.
Amy Petricek
Secretly I love that you called yourself a learning geek because like takes one to know one. I have a learning like podcast, so I'm right there with you. When you're mustering up the courage to learn something new, What song do you put on?
Kate Udalova
I'm focused when listening to music, so I rather work in silence and even more if there is music playing or any sounds around I just tried to disconnect from the world and I completely immerse myself in my work,
Amy Petricek
But it's so interesting. No one said that yet, but I love that I'm thinking I've got a killer pair of noise cancelling headphones. Oh, Kate would love these. You're asked to do a brand new task with a skill You do not yet have Where do you turn?
Kate Udalova
Well, in most cases, I turn to Google or people who are experienced in that task. And currently, I don't say that I may learn by doing for me, there are not so many experts who I could turn to. So sometimes they have to learn from my own mistakes.
Amy Petricek
Yes, that was me. This past weekend, I took so long to learn something because I had a bit of an ego and wasn't going to ask for help. And so it was just continuing to get it wrong. Try again. Get it wrong, try again.
Kate Udalova
Just it's really a way of learning.
Amy Petricek
Yeah, that's how I chose to accept it all. Without learning finish the sentence,
Kate Udalova
You would be dead in no time.
Amy Petricek
Kate, thank you so much for coming on the show and talking about micro learning with us. I know my brain has been blown and expanded in new ways, which is really exciting. I've got two questions for you though. One is if listeners are wanting to get in contact with you after listening to this episode, what's the best way to do it? And is there anything that you're working on of late that you'd like to share?
Kate Udalova
First of all, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, Katie, dill over sound taps. I'm happy to connect or if you have any questions or ideas, you can always reach out to me via email Kate, at certain times that comm I respond as fast as they can. As for the scene I'm working on right now. Sound tab seeds just like the thing that my priority I work hard on improving the product and empower need. I talk to our clients regularly. Actually, I just took a look at my schedule. It's completely booked for the three upcoming weeks. I just think that I need to help her I love it. Just you know, in my case, see it's so very rewarding. And every conversation I have with our clients is so inspiring every piece of feedback just you know, even if I'm really drained and exhausted it just helped me to get seriously energized and I'm like oh my retest I can get back to my work again.
Amy Petricek
That's so exciting. I'm so it sounds like you've really found your passion. I'm so happy for you.
Kate Udalova
Thank you.
Amy Petricek
Thank you so much, Kate for sharing all about micro learning with us today. Be sure to check out seven taps her micro learning tool. I also want to give a shout out to you my listeners for learning with us today. Until next time, stay open, receptive and kind.