My interest in Microlearning led me to consider ways that could be used to deliver these nuggets of training. At Velsoft, we use HipChat to communicate as a company (All Velsoft), groups (Marketing, Managers, Production) and promote events (Social, Trivia, lottery, etc.). I decided to add a room called ‘We are all leaders’.

Microlearning is a way of teaching and delivering content to learners in small, very specific spurts, with the learners having control over what and when they’re learning.

The idea was to take a month or so to introduce some concepts of leadership, and evolve into a conversation about Intrapreneurship to empower everyone in the company to come up with new and innovative ways to solve challenges. It was offered to all staff members, but participation was voluntary. Several took up the challenge and I think were rewarded for that interest.

Here is a screen shot of what the experience looked like in HipChat.

hipchat microlearning

There were a variety of microlesson types, including:

  • Diagnostics

hipchat micolessons

  • Inspirational sayings

hipchat micolessons

  • Videos

hipchat micolessons

And it is great for in-course conversations (peer learning).

hipchat micolessons

I enjoyed this trial and got some great feedback. I’m working on my next microlearning experiment. Stay tuned!

What’s in the Pipeline:

  • Carol and Kevin are still learning all about marketing and editing March releases.
  • Ian S. is doing maintenance on our eLearning courses.
  • Jan is creating eLearning for our February releases and applying our new course templates.
  • Keith is working on February CA course releases.
  • Sydney is working on custom projects.

 Tech topics:

  • Fixed an issue that caused  course certificates to print blank.
  • Custom fields will now show up in the User Directory profile pages.
  • Re-organized the dropdown menu displayed beside each course.
  • Added a course resources button to within the course view, if the course has resources available to download.
  • Updated SCORM completion requirements.
  • Moved the development tools button to within the WYSIWYG toolbar.

Course Count:

Courses released this month:

Here is the official count of courses for both courseware and eLearning, broken down by Computer and SoftSkills.

Computer SoftSkills Total Courses
Courseware 285 165 450
eLearning 879 164 1043

Did you know:

Here are some learning facts from #TipsyWriter:

  • According to a 2009 study that was conducted in Paris, the participants’ brains actually worked at half capacity when they were asked to multitask. When multitasking, it typically takes the brain twice as long to complete an assignment or task, and your error rate goes up by about 50 per cent.
  • Learning that is spread out over time drastically increases knowledge retention.
  • A study conducted by German researchers found that quick naps could allow a learner’s brain to acquire and retain information more effectively. (Dave was right!)
  • Children who are encouraged to talk to themselves aloud have increased probability of learning. (Scott says this works for adults too!)
  • Our brain prefers images over text. Participants in studies only remember about 10 per cent of information presented orally when they are tested 72 hours after instruction. However, that number jumps by about 65 per cent when an image is added to the learning process.