Today, when it comes to corporate training, agility is the name of the game. And companies of all sizes have made strategic investments in tools meant to improve learning and development, including learning management systems (LMSs), video content management systems, training content development tools, and other online learning systems.

And along with those, many Learning and Development leaders have another secret weapon in their arsenals when it comes to improving employee training — online video training software that makes it easy to produce and share quick bursts of knowledge, commonly referred to as microlearning.

What Is Microlearning?

Microlearning is a self-directed learning experience that delivers knowledge in short, focused, on-demand content segments.

 

Microlearning video content is perfectly suited for agile training and development for a number of reasons, including:

• Recording and updating knowledge is fast: Microlearning videos can be created at the push of a button and edited with ease if information changes.
• Employees can access knowledge when they need it and apply it immediately: With a searchable video library or corporate YouTube, microlearning modules on specific topics are easily found.
• Learning is more effective and efficient: Small bites of laser-focused information are retained and internalized better than long training sessions or longer e-learning content.

If you have yet to experiment with microlearning strategies, you can get started by following these 6 best practices for creating microlearning content.

6 Easy Steps For Creating Microlearning Videos

1. Select Your Topic And Keep It Focused

Microlearning videos should be short. Choose one objective for the learner and don’t stray.

2. Plan Your Talking Points

Write a script or create a storyboard to make sure your video content hits hard and engages from start to finish. You’ll be less likely to wander off your laser-focused insights if you have a plan before you record.

3. Show, Don’t Tell

Support your talking points with compelling visual content or a live demonstration. With Panopto, you can share slides and record your screen as you are presenting, so your video can be more engaging than a “talking head video tutorial.” Panopto also includes virtual background blur and replacement so you can minimize distractions in the frame behind you. Imagery should simplify ideas and grab attention — avoid slides with bullet points that duplicate what you are saying.

Use Panopto’s free online video and screen recorder

to create a microlearning video!

Try it now >>

 

4. Don’t Distract and Don’t Duplicate

Straying from your main objective can be distracting, so skip the personal introduction and get right to the information you’re presenting. Duplicating content also isn’t necessary. Your video is going to be short, so you don’t need to repeat yourself at the beginning, middle, and end.

5. Reinforce Learning With a Quiz

Quizzing can reinforce knowledge retention. Some video platforms have an interactive quizzing feature, which can ensure microlearning sticks with your employees.

With a Panopto account, you can edit and add interactive quizzes to any video you upload. Drag and drop your video file into Panopto and then click the “Edit” button under your video after it finishes processing to cut, trim, splice, and caption your video.

After you’ve edited your microlearning video go ahead an add a quiz in the editor, as shown below, before clicking “Apply” to save your edits.

6. Provide Additional Resources

Since you’re keeping content concise, you may want to provide your learners with links to related information at the end — this gives them the opportunity to access a deeper level of knowledge if they are curious and want to learn more.

 

Watch an example of a microlearning video recorded with Panopto below:

 

Enabling Microlearning On-Demand

Creating microlearning content is only half the battle when it comes to improving employee training and development within your organization — making training content discoverable is equally as important.

Even short microlearning videos, with all their advantages, can be difficult to store, share, and search without the right tools. Fortunately, leading end-to-end video platforms are designed to make sharing knowledge and discovering content in training videos as easy as creating the videos themselves.

Employees need the ability to rapidly find and access knowledge when and where they need it. A video content management system (video CMS) lets you create and curate a library of video knowledge that will be shareable, searchable, and viewable even on mobile devices — all of which is essential to making microlearning work.

For example, with Panopto, you can create a corporate YouTube for all of your video content in which employees can search not only the video metadata, but also the content within the video. And video playback is optimized for the device the employee is using, whether it’s a large computer screen or a mobile phone.

See What Else Panopto Can Do To Support Learning In Your Organization

Panopto integrates seamlessly with learning management systems, video conferencing solutions, and other business technologies to make finding and sharing e-learning videos effortless for your entire organization.

To see a customized demo of the full Panopto video platform, contact our team today.