Picture in your mind a scene in which employees learn new workplace skills as they drink a cup of coffee. It’s microlearning in action.
Today, employees have around 20 minutes per week (Emma Hamer. Meet the Modern Learner. Slideshar. 2025) for learning workplace skills. This means using such “coffee breaks” becomes an ideal opportunity for organizations to train their personnel. Most organizations that started actively using microlearning report growth in employee learning engagement of up to 90 percent (Yen-Mei Lee. Mobile Microlearning Design and Effects on Learning Efficacy and Learner Experience – Educational Technology Research and Development. SpringerLink. 2021). But how does it work?
In this article, we’ll slice and dice the concept and types of microlearning and how to apply it to your training program. Let’s begin without any further ado! 🤩
Summary
- How microlearning works
- Benefits of microlearning for modern learners
- The most effective types of microlearning
- The myths and challenges of microlearning
- Let your people thrive with microlearning
How microlearning works
Before we explore the benefits and practical applications of microlearning, it’s essential to understand how it works.
Microlearning is an approach of delivering educational content in small, bite-sized chunks, so that it’s easy to digest in a few minutes. 🧐
In such a way, a learner has an opportunity to absorb new information at a comfortable pace and get back to reviewing it fast when necessary.
According to Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve theory (Juliette Denny. What Is The Forgetting Curve (And How Do You Combat It)? ELearning Industry. 2018), a person is likely to forget around 50 percent (Art Kohn. Brain Science: The Forgetting Curve–the Dirty Secret of Corporate Training. Learning Guild. 2014.) of the information they have acquired within an hour and 90 percent within a month. On top of that, Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) suggests that a human brain can memorize a limited amount of information. When a person is overloaded with a lot of new facts and details, it’s simply impossible to acquire them well enough to remember and understand in the mid and long term.
That’s why microlearning training is highly effective for retaining knowledge and improving performance in real-world tasks. This learning approach builds upon two major concepts: spaced repetition and just-in-time (JIT) learning. Let’s define both of these concepts.
Spaced repetition is a learning technique that focuses on delivering learning content over short sessions instead of cramming all the information in one huge module. As for JIT, it refers to the idea of providing learning content instantly when an individual needs it. A visual guide for calling security alarms at the grocery shop counter is a basic example of JIT learning content.
Science has laid a solid groundwork for microlearning. But what benefits does microlearning offer? Let’s explore!
Benefits of microlearning for modern learners
The following list of benefits is certainly not exhaustive, but persuasive enough to pick microlearning as a core foundation of an education/training program. Microlearning advantages are the following:
- Effective knowledge transfer. Microlearning ensures your employees acquire 17 percent (Srujan Pakala. “Take a Break! Have a Learning Byte!” CommLab India. 2025) more information than with long-lasting learning/training sessions. It’s easier to learn and remember something when it’s presented in small portions rather than in a once-and-for-all format.
- Improved learner engagement. Since microlearning relies heavily upon interactive and eye-appealing content, it drives 50 percent (Christopher Pappas. Microlearning Statistics, Facts And Trends For 2025. ELearning Industry. 2025) more learner engagement than other formats. Learners are eager to devote more attention to such formats, which positively reflects training completion rates and better learning outcomes.
- Time and cost savings. It’s hard to deny that presenting learning material in short forms significantly cuts the time and cost necessary for the education/training program. Actually, microlearning is 50 percent cheaper than other methods, while learners need 28 percent (Luminiţa Giurgiu. Microlearning an Evolving Elearning Trend. Researchgate. 2017) less time to assess their knowledge after completing a module.
- High learner retention rate. Research shows that the average person can hold only about seven items in their working memory, and they forget roughly 50 percent (Christopher Pappas. Microlearning Statistics, Facts And Trends For 2025. ELearning Industry. 2025) of new information within an hour. Microlearning helps counter this decline. Learners who received spaced, bite-sized reinforcement demonstrated 150 percent greater retention and achieved a 145 percent improvement in overall recall within just two weeks. Additionally, microlearning outperformed other learning methods by 20 percent in terms of retention.
- Flexibility. Microlearning is just convenient. Learners can learn whenever it’s comfortable for them, as all necessary materials are always at their fingertips.
- Positive impact on employee job satisfaction. When learning is effective, it definitely boosts employee job satisfaction as they get a visible result, enjoy the process, and know they have fast access to important information. And a 94 percent (Christopher Pappas. Microlearning Statistics, Facts And Trends For 2025. ELearning Industry. 2025) increase in employee job satisfaction just proves this.
It’s hard to argue that microlearning is an effective approach to education and training. How do you implement it, and what are the most appropriate content formats? Keep on reading to discover!
The most effective types of microlearning
For a deeper understanding of microlearning, we need to focus on its two major aspects: instructional strategies and content formats. In other words, it’s critical to know what and how to use it to get a desired outcome. Let’s start with microlearning instructional strategies.
📌 Microlearning instructional strategies
Having a good command of instructional strategies suitable for microlearning is essential for its effective use in a training program:
👉 Spaced repetition
Spaced repetition is at the core of microlearning as this instructional strategy builds upon interval and bite-sized learning. Instead of attempting to learn all the material at once, a learner explores it in small portions just before they’re likely to forget it. This approach reinforces a learner’s memory and deepens material understanding with minimal effort.
👉 Branching scenarios
The main principle of this strategy is to offer a learner multiple choices, depending on which they’ll come to different outcomes: positive, negative, or neutral. In such a way, a learner has a chance to explore various courses of action without taking any risk. This strategy promotes active learning as a learner engages in direct decision-making and gets an instant explanation of why their decision was right or wrong.
GenEd – e-learning course
View demo👉 Ordering steps tasks
This microlearning instructional strategy requires a learner to arrange specific actions or processes in a proper sequence. As a result, learners are able to practice procedural knowledge in a fast but focused form. Since ordering steps tasks are brief and interactive, they make a perfect fit for JIT learning and strengthen learners’ confidence in performing real-world procedures.
👉 Micro-assessments
Micro-assessments are brief, narrow-specific checks designed to measure a particular knowledge or skill in no time. As long as micro-assessments are short and low stakes, they are effective for building strong learner retention and instant feedback, while highlighting distinct gaps in knowledge without a serious interference with the flow of learning.
📌 Microlearning content formats
We’ve covered the core instructional strategies appropriate for microlearning, so it’s time to talk about major content formats:
👉 Videos
Microlearning videos are short, focused clips, usually under five minutes, that deliver essential information through visuals, narration, and real-world demonstrations. They are ideal for showing processes, modeling behaviors, or explaining concepts that benefit from visual context.
Videos are best used when it’s necessary to demonstrate a specific action or introduce key ideas in a brief but concise way. One of Blue Carrot’s clients needed to integrate the latter aspect into their e-learning course for a better perception. Our team came up with a series of flat 2D animated videos to present key takeaways from every lesson in a convenient format. These videos ensure learners have a clear summary of what they’ve just covered.
What the 2D animation videos look like
👉 Animated infographics
Infographics present information visually through charts, icons, and simplified text, making complex ideas easy to understand at a glance. Animated infographics take this a step further by adding motion, transitions, and dynamic elements, making the content more engaging and memorable. They work well for summarizing data, processes, comparisons, or key takeaways. If you need a quick visual reference or reminder, a way to simplify complex information, or to present statistics, an infographic is the right choice.
👉 Simulations
Simulations are immersive, interactive experiences that mimic real-world environments or systems. Learners practice skills or make decisions in a realistic but risk-free setting. Simulations naturally fit training programs that involve tasks related to equipment use, social interactions, technical workflows, or troubleshooting. In the same vein, simulations are good for training a particular skill and action where an error could be costly or dangerous.
👉 Games and apps
Games and apps use game mechanics such as points, levels, challenges, or timed tasks to reinforce skills and knowledge in an engaging way. They promote repetition and active participation through play. These content formats are perfect for boosting motivation and engagement, repetitive skills practice, and goal-oriented learning.
👉 Quizzes
Quizzes are short assessments that check learners’ understanding through multiple-choice questions, true/false items, or short interactive prompts. They reinforce retention and provide immediate feedback, so if you need to quickly check learners’ knowledge or detect “weak areas,” quizzes are a good option.
Our client, InnoEnergy Skills Institute, needed a Storyline-based course aimed at Gen-Z students that introduces career opportunities in the solar energy industry. As long as the course deals with Gen-Z youth, a need for an interactive and easy-to-digest form of assessment was a critical requirement. The Blue Carrot team built the course in Articulate Storyline to fill its visuals, interactivity, and quizzes that helped to measure students’ understanding of the presented information, to make sure they have become familiar with the basic concepts and are ready to move forward to the next module.
E-learning course for Gen-Z students
View demo👉 Interactive modules
Interactive modules offer short, structured learning units that combine text, media, decision points, and clickable activities. They guide learners through concepts and allow exploration at their own pace. This format of microlearning content is particularly suitable for training that requires a mixture of explanations, practice, and feedback.
👉 Checklists and job aids
Job aids and checklists are practical reference tools that help learners perform tasks correctly in the moment. They focus on essential steps or reminders that are designed for quick access during work. That’s pure JIT learning, which is suitable for on-the-job support materials and training related to actions involving multiple steps that must be followed correctly.
We’ve discussed all major microlearning instructional strategies and basic content formats, but how does it all work together?
📌 Microlearning examples in real training programs
Blue Carrot has more than 500 e-learning projects in its portfolio, but we would like to pay attention to these two to demonstrate microlearning in action:
👉 Studio SE online course development
Studio SE, our client, is a company that helps businesses adopt and master model-based systems engineering (MBSE). Blue Carrot was tasked to create an e-learning course for engineers and product architects in different industries, so that they can easily navigate through complex concepts and be able to use their knowledge in practice.
Studio SE – Online course
View demoThe main challenge of this project was to present complex information without a live mentor who could explain, aid, and give feedback. To integrate a mentor’s role in the course, our team decided to involve branched scenarios and micro-assessments as a part of the general instructional strategy. As a consequence, the Blue Carrot team designed such microlearning resources as:
- Interactive modules for creating real-world and job-related challenges. This enables learners to use their knowledge and skills in a context to gain their first hands-on experience with MBSE.
- A built-in simulation with programmed review logic that helps learners ensure they’ve completed tasks properly, used relevant knowledge, and followed best industry practices.
A built-in simulation program
Using these instructional strategies and content formats helped our team transform a 50-hour live course into a convenient web-based program. The course designed by Blue Carrot increases a learner’s independence and confidence.
👉Learn Crypto 2D animated lessons
Learn Crypto is a free fintech education platform that offers simple learning materials about cryptocurrency. The company had a series of learning text scripts and needed to transform them into a convenient and digestible format.
Blue Carrot experts opted for a microlearning approach. We created short 2D animated videos to improve learning experiences and convert complex crypto concepts into accessible and understandable topics presented in the form of short animations. We’ve produced 100+ short, animated videos that increased learner engagement and let the company present the course that is aligned with its vision of crypto education.
Looking at these cases, you may think that integrating microlearning into an education/training program is a low-hanging fruit. It is not necessarily so, as there are several challenges and myths that may seriously hinder the successful adoption of microlearning in a training program. For those reasons, it’s vital to discuss both myths and challenges of microlearning.
The myths and challenges of microlearning
To have a clear understanding of challenges related to the integration of microlearning, we need to debunk the most common myths about this learning approach.
📌 Myths
We’ll not only state that certain beliefs about microlearning aren’t valid but also highlight what happens in reality to have realistic expectations from the implementation of microlearning into a training program.
👉 Any short-format content is microlearning
If a particular piece of educational content is short, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is microlearning. Despite the fact that short format is the foundational principle of microlearning, just shortening learning material won’t automatically make it easier to absorb. You may create a series of short videos or guides, but fill them with irrelevant or unstructured information, so a short format won’t work itself.
In reality, a short format is not the goal but an instrument to present learning material in a visible, tangible, and measurable way. Just don’t get obsessed with shortening content, but try to stay focused on emphasizing what really matters for learners, and the content will naturally become short enough to drive the benefits of microlearning we’ve discussed above.
👉 Organizations can control just-in-time learning
Very often, organizations believe they can lead JIT learning by setting specific rules on when and how employees have to engage in it. Truth be told, trying to control JIT learning defeats its whole point. You can’t fake an individual’s need to explore how a particular process works or what steps they need to take to solve a workplace problem. Contemporary learners seek flexibility in acquiring knowledge, so a formal organizational approach only “kills the vibe” of JIT and microlearning.
Instead, we highly recommend thinking about two things. The first is environments in which learners will opt for picking a short and instant training format. The second one is how you can provide relatable aids within their reachable distance. Remember an example of a step-by-step guide under a shop counter? That’s how JIT naturally integrates into the workplace: without forcing employees to learn the procedure by heart. They’ll get to the guide every single time they feel confused. There is no pressure on employees, but easy and accessible learning opportunities are available whenever they need them.
👉 There are topics that are too complex for microlearning
You may think there are certain topics that can’t be simplified because of their very nature. This belief doesn’t really hold. Complex ideas usually aren’t too big for breaking into digestible segments; those topics just need the right learning path. Well-thought-out and well-built courses strike a balance between long and short module formats. Microlearning training should not always be at the center of the approach, but be a part of it, working in sequence with other techniques. The answer is sufficient design, not topic simplicity.
👉 Microlearning is just bells and whistles
It may look like microlearning isn’t special and doesn’t drive the expected results, just because it’s a trick aimed at wrapping the whole program in a different form without adding any real value. And nothing else busts this myth better than pure facts: 94 percent (Christopher Pappas. Microlearning Statistics, Facts And Trends For 2025. ELearning Industry. 2025) of learners would pick microlearning modules under 10 minutes. Even if we accept that microlearning is just a fad, why not give it to learners since they like it so much?
When all microlearning myths are busted, we can talk about the challenges that are likely to happen during the adoption of microlearning for education/training programs.
📌 Challenges
The most common challenges associated with the integration of microlearning are:
👉 Content management
As long as microlearning implies small portions of content, it’s obvious you’ll have tons of them. This is a breeding ground for confusion, human error, and inconsistencies in the content itself. And there is no better way to tackle large amounts of content than grouping it into standalone units, aligned with specific learning objectives. Create a clear structure and templates for repetitive parts so as not to get lost in dozens of videos, images, texts, and the like.
👉 Design consistency
Another common challenge of microlearning is keeping all designs and branding consistent across different course components. That’s why it’s critical to think about a simple yet recognizable design that is difficult to confuse.
If you can’t pick a simple but catchy design, it’s essential to involve a designer who will create a distinct design system and style guide for the entire course. This does seem like one more task to deal with, but once spaced repetition is another foundation of microlearning, making these repetitions recognizable and easy to remember is a job that shouldn’t be done poorly.
👉 A high level of detail
Microlearning means avoiding general and unnecessary information and focusing on factual and detailed knowledge. This means you have to dive deep into the nuances of the topic for every module to present information that learners surely need.
Not to miss any important detail, layer information by starting with high-level knowledge and gradually descending down to the details. In this way, you not only ensure that the modules are broken into chunks small enough to comprehend but also guide learners when specific topics branch into several subtopics.
👉 Choice of the right format
What content format will suit your program? It’s always hard to decide what can work best. However, we suggest a plain rule of thumb: think about what learners have to do, not what you need to tell them.
Additionally, remember the context: how much time learners have, where they’ll interact with learning content, as well as the complexity and risks of the tasks they’re expected to perform. A perfect format choice always means letting learners achieve learning goals with clarity, ease, and minimal effort.
👉 Dependency on interactivity
Microlearning has to be interactive; otherwise, it won’t deliver its benefits. The majority of microlearning resources are interactive, but if you use the same format across the course, think about applying different instructional strategies.
For example, quizzes can help measure success at the end of each module. But when using them too often, consider a quick simulation instead. It’s also possible to gamify the final test by turning it into a competition. Explore different pairs of instructional strategies and content formats to get an almost endless source of interactive microlearning content.
Let your people thrive with microlearning
Microlearning is indeed a powerful solution for education and training in the modern, fast-paced world. Learners look for accessible, fast, yet in-depth learning materials, so microlearning is not just a tool for bolstering a training course but a necessity. We’ve tried to equip you with all the essential knowledge necessary to start using microlearning for education/training programs. Still feel stuck or find the processes challenging? The Blue Carrot team is here to give a helping hand.
With 10+ years of experience and more than 300 clients all over the globe, we can help you tackle challenges in building a strong educational program. Whether it’s a full-cycle course development, partial production, or just localization of content, Blue Carrot can become a reliable partner. Also, we have a vast network of subject matter experts and can help optimize a project’s budget and time to market to ensure the e-learning program aligns with the core business goals.
Just get in touch with us, and we’ll get back to you soon to discuss the details.
