Provide your class with short, engaging activities - microlearning
Thomas Courtley
Education Specialist
In this article we will show you in which ways you can use LessonUp to stimulate microlearning. LessonUp lessons are also ideal to offer targeted nuggets of information.
What is microlearning?
Microlearning comes from the world of e-learning, and is a way to offer learning material in tiny, snackable nuggets. Each nugget takes no more than 5 minutes of your time. A nugget could be a short video, in which a topic, concept, or a person are described in a couple of minutes in a concise, snackable way. In his book ‘Visible Learning’, John Hattie rates microlearning’s influence on classroom achievement as very high.
LessonUp lessons are ideal to offer nuggets of information. In this article we will show you in which ways you can use LessonUp to stimulate microlearning.
☝️ Microlearning is ideal to complement, practice, and repeat.
How can you integrate microlearning in your lesson?
As a teacher, you probably already know which parts of your lesson could use the aid of microlearning techniques. As you know, it doesn’t necessarily imply transfer of knowledge. Challenging assignments, such as a drag & drop question, or a poll, are also great microlearning material.
The material is meant to be used independently by your students. You need to inform them clearly on what you expect them to do: how does it work? What is the learning objective?
Implement interactive images - Student love them
With interactive images you students can learn a lot about a certain topic in a relatively short amount of time, by means of hotspots and pictures. This is the LessonUp variation of an infographic, but interactive. Texts within the hotspots are clear and concise. Students can study them in the class, or consult them in their free time on their own devices.
Engage your students with micro-challenges
With a short quiz, or a drag & drop question, students can practice and repeat the teaching material at any given moment, and as many times as they like.
The interactive elements in LessonUp are perfect for this because they are provided with the possibility of instant feedback: students get to know immediately what they do right or wrong. This way of microlearning is therefore quite challenging.
The internet is full of short quizzes that students enjoy playing with. A website like BuzzFeed has become huge because of this. The playfulness of quizzes and short assignments increases their pleasure and productivity.
☝️ Provide short, compact lessons as reference work.
To conclude
Microlearning is not the holy grail of education. A classic lesson with the guidance of a teacher remains to be essential to absorb new teaching material, and acquire skills.
With microlearning you simply amplify the quantity of possible learning moments for your students. Furthermore, you become more conscious of the structure of your yearly curriculum, and of the possibility to divide it in smaller, snackable units.
