How to Provide Microlearning in an LMS? [With Best Practices and Examples]

What is Microlearning?

Microlearning is a customer training approach that delivers bite-sized content to help learners achieve specific learning goals (typically between 3 to 10 minutes). This method breaks down complex information into easily digestible pieces of content to reduce learner fatigue.

Microlearning Examples: How to Deliver Microlearning Through Your LMS

In a fast-paced SaaS environment, customers prefer quick and engaging content that does not stall their everyday tasks. So providing microlearning content becomes a no-brainer.

Out of 44,570 videos created on Trainn in the past 2 years, 55% (24,604) are microlearning content between 2-5 minutes in length.

Our platform data reveals that microlearning isn't just a buzzword - it's how modern teams actually prefer to learn.

Now that you know why you need microlearning content, let's see how an LMS helps you:

1. Video Content

What is it: Short, and focused videos (2-5 minutes each)

Best used for: To break down complex topics into digestible microlearning segments, whether it's a product demonstration, skill tutorial, or feature announcement.

Example: Snappy, a gifting company, uses short videos to announce its new features. The video shows Snappy’s new homepage design and how to use its updated campaign workflow.

2. Interactive Learning

What is it: Step-by-step interactive guides provide brief instructions and prompt learners to interact with the right buttons, allowing them to practice as they learn.

Best used for: When customers want to learn a particular workflow in your SaaS product, this microlearning content is handy.

Example: Trainn, a customer education platform, uses interactive guides for product education. The interactive guide below shows how to change the theme of guides for customizability in 4 clicks.

3. Interactive Assessments

What is it: Quick quizzes and gamified challenges

Best used for: Helping learners test their knowledge in under 5 minutes. These microlearning assessments provide instant feedback, unlike long assessments that can take hours.

4. Visual Learning Assets

What is it: Infographics, process diagrams, and annotated images

Best used for: To provide instant clarity for complex concepts. These microlearning visuals serve as quick reference guides that learners can access during their workflow.

Example: Trainn, a customer education platform, uses step-by-step guides for solving support queries. The guide below shows how to enable SAML authentication in clear steps with buttons highlighted.

Real-world Application of Microlearning

When a customer success platform wants to train customer success professionals on their new health scoring feature, here’s how microlearning can help them:

Video Content (3 mins): A quick overview video explaining how the health score is calculated and what each metric means.

Interactive Learning (5 mins): A guided walkthrough where CS managers practice setting up custom health score parameters

Visual Learning Assets (2 mins): A reference flowchart showing the relationship between customer behaviors (product usage, support tickets, NPS) and health scores.

Interactive Assessments (5 mins): A quick quiz on how the platform assesses customer health scores and what they need to do to set the parameters.

FAQs on Bite-sized Learning

1️⃣ What Are The Benefits of Microlearning?

• Increases engagement: Microlearning delivers short-form content that caters to the average attention span of humans of 47 seconds (source: Gloria Mark).
• Improves user adoption: Self-paced microlearning lets customers consume the content wherever and whenever they want to, leading to natural mastery of features.
• Reduces support burden: Microlearning can also be used as troubleshooting materials that customers can refer to without needing to contact the support team.
• Better onboarding: Instead of overloading customers with information or letting them wait for a customer success manager's call, microlearning lets customers get started with your SaaS product immediately.

2️⃣ What Are Some Best Practices for Effective Microlearning?

• Get help from your support team for your first set of microlearning content.
• Use a mix of microlearning content (videos, quizzes, interactive guides) for effective engagement.
• Get customer feedback on your microlearning content to identify gaps.

3️⃣ What Are Some Features You Need in an LMS to Offer Microlearning Experiences?

An LMS should have these features to offer microlearning:

• Built-in course authoring to create microlearning content in multiple formats.
• Course builder to publish microlearning courses.
• Support for multiple languages to reach global audiences.
• Analytics to monitor the courses’ performance.

4️⃣ What is The ideal Length And Format for a Microlearning Module?

The ideal format for a microlearning module is a mix of content like videos, interactive guides, static visuals, and knowledge quizzes.

The ideal length of a microlearning module is around 15 minutes. The individual microlearning content lengths should be around 2-5 minutes.

Fun fact: 55% of the 44,570 training videos created on Trainn in the past 2 years are microlearning content (2-5 minutes).