Investigating the Employees‘ Perspectives and Experiences of Microlearning Content Design for Online Training

Abstract

Online training is expected to increase retention of information and be less time-consuming. This leads to a motivation to identify a more effective content delivery for online training. Microlearning indicates that bite-sized content is delivered in short fragments that can fit into anyone’s hectic schedule. However, the perspective of microlearning and its content design is still indefinite. It is challenging to design content for training that optimizes microlearning’s characteristics. The purpose of this research is to identify the perspective towards microlearning and the significance of the design of micro-sized content for online training for employees. This study investigated two questions which are how to design an effective micro-sized content for enhancing employees learning opportunities and the type of topics which are relevant to learning. The study was carried out with employees from education industries and training service providers. Data was collected through a survey and focus group interview. The study recognised that employees are primarily familiar only with video-based microlearning content and they have inadequate knowledge on the application of other microlearning elements for content design. One of the most common microlearning elements – Video, that is between 5-7 minutes in length, is considered to be the most applicable element in microlearning. In conclusion, the perspectives concerning the challenges in designing microlearning content were discussed. The study also proposed 2 different architectures with different objectives for the overall microlearning content design based on the employee’s experiences and perspective.