Skip to main content

Microlearning: Short and Sweet

 When I first heard about microlearning, I thought making a micro-lesson would be easy. Microlearning is all about being brief, concise, and filled with only the important information.  A short, 2-5 minute lesson would be perfect for my students and even my colleagues. In my teaching, I am good at chunking up a lesson into bite-sized portions for my students. However, distilling the core elements of a lesson in that short amount of time was painstaking. Five hours of work on a 4-minute lesson had me second-guessing my decision to try microlearning. However, after I completed my training, I knew I had made something usable and professional.

My microlesson was for teachers who need a refresher on understanding and dealing with student stress and crisis behavior. The lesson had 3 objectives, and the video assessed each of those objectives. First, it reviewed what the levels of crisis and stress were. Then it asked the learner to review scenarios of students in different states of crisis. They had to use what they learned to correctly identify the crisis state. Then at the end, they had to reflect on how they might use their new understanding of crisis and stress responses in their own classroom by asking themselves 4 questions before intervening or escalating a situation.

The video had short sections of no more than 40 seconds, with questions that made the learner to interact. In the Edpuzzle version, students can answer and get feedback. If they chose to consume the media as just a video, they would have to just self-reflect. 

To see my microlearning video on therapeutic crisis intervention in the classroom, click here.

For a brief overview of what microlearning is and what it does well and not-so-well, check out this article by Nikos Andriotis about the basics of microlearning.


References

            Andriotis, N. (2021, May 12). What is microlearning: A complete guide for beginners. eLearning 

                Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/what-is-microlearning-benefits-best-practices

            Residential Childcare Project. (2005). Therapeutic crisis intervention (6th ed.). Cornell University.


v


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Personal Learning Networks

While this blog aims to explain how to use instructional design to enhance your teaching, we will dive into the world of  Personal Learning Networks or PLNs.  A personal learning network is all the communities and platforms you use to explore your learning. There are so many networking sites available to educators, but today I am going to share my personal learning network for my hobby. When we teach students, we get so focused on teaching what the standards are, we sometimes forget that our students are whole human beings with interests and knowledge bases outside of what we might deem "school-worthy." However, being able to explore one's own interests and knowing how to do so safely is an incredibly important skill.  When I'm not being an educator, I love to explore my artistic side and create beauty with papercraft. In the chart below, you can see how I've used social media to increase my learning network. This is just a small portion of what I use to connect a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bio: Shannon Edwards

My name is Shannon Edwards and I have been an educator since 2011. I have worked with students from elementary school to college students, but my primary focus has been those tricky middle school grades. Currently, I teach 7th grade ELA at a school in Painesville, Ohio where my students keep me on my toes every day. My personal educational background is varied. I've always loved school and have had a curiosity for learning. My undergraduate degree is from Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Theological Studies, and my master's degree is from John Carroll University in Theology and Religious Studies. After becoming an adjunct professor for a year at John Carroll, I decided I needed a change. I loved the teaching aspect but was no longer was passionate about the content. I wanted to teach something that mattered. So I went back to being a student at Cleveland State University and earned my post-baccalaureate certificate in middle childhood education.  The work I do at my school i...
Post a Comment
Read more