A recent study from RapidLearningInstitute.com revealed some interesting news about online courses. According to the study, 94% of e-learners prefer bite-sized modules to help them with soft-skill training. These short courses are usually 10 minutes or less. 65% of the respondents admitted that they find the existing elearning modules to have too much information.
This study is one of the many that prove how people prefer to learn through short courses rather than the lengthy ones. While this trend is gaining popularity, the study revealed that there is a lack of short elearning courses. But before we join the bandwagon to create bite-sized courses, let us try to understand why people prefer the shorter learning materials.
The first reason is being busy. The modern learner does not have time to sit down and spend hours learning something. They are too busy for that. This is a result of the digital age. We are always doing something. Looking at our social accounts, updating our profiles and informing the world about what is going on in our lives. This seems more interesting than sitting for hours trying to learn things. This does not even include the serious tasks that we have to do like our work household chores and other personal activities. You want to insert the learning process in between these tasks. This is why you need to keep it short and straight to the point.
The second reason is the short attention span of learners. The Internet, although it is convenient and helps us get any information, it also made us quite impatient. We are quick to move on to the next article if the first few paragraphs are not interesting enough. This short attention span is something that you need to work around. If the attention span is quite short, then shorter online courses will be more effective in engaging learners. This is especially true for Millennials. They are the generation that lived through the digital and media age. Because of that, they are used to getting things immediately. If they needed to research something, the search is easier thanks to the Internet. They expect things to be fast and the retrieval instant. This convenience is proving to be both a blessing and a curse.
Another thing that influences this short attention span is the fact that Millennials are always socially connected. The distractions are quite strong for this generation. If you want them to focus on the lesson completely, you need to make short online courses.
Finally, the last reason why learners prefer bite-sized online courses is because of mobile learning. According to USAToday.com, 87% of Millennials say that their phone are always by their side. You can bet that the other generations are doing the same – although not as much as the younger generation. That being said, you need to utilize mobile phones to keep the engagement going. This means you have to think about mlearning. And when it comes to mobile learning, we all know that it should be done in bite-sized format. Since most of the learners want to consume information through their mobile devices, you need to ensure that the material is made available to them. Of course, the small screen poses a bit of a problem. Keeping the online courses short and simple should be able to address the issues of mobile learning.
Given these reasons, it is obvious that creating bite-sized learning courses are equally important as the lengthy ones. Think about how you can create these short online courses to keep the learners engaged in the lesson.
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