8 Business Use Cases for Microlearning
Are you excited to try out microlearning, but unsure when to use it? Below, we outline eight common workplace situations that benefit from a short-form course. Each situation includes a sample microlearning. At the end, learn how you can customize these templates for your own company and training needs. 1. Create Organizational Alignment To hit a business target, everyone needs to be moving in the same direction. Creating that alignment starts with clear, frequent communication of the shared mission, vision, and values. Microlearning can help. The following editable template shows how you can align employees through regular executive “micro” updates: Executive Update 2. Highlight HR Information, Notices, or Reminders Educating employees about annual events like open enrollment, tax season, and compliance training is a critical function of HR teams. The problem? Important announcements often get missed when they’re embedded in long paragraphs or endless emails. Grab the following templates to see how microlearning makes HR communications more digestible and engaging: A Quick Guide To Open Enrollment Internal Company Newsletter 3. Strengthen Company Culture and DEI Initiatives Fostering an inclusive company culture is a continuous process—not a one-time effort. A series of microlearnings can support your larger culture-building and DEI efforts. Check out the following examples for ideas on how to get started: Are You an Ally? Try Taking on These 5 Roles How To Identify and Stop Using Ableist Language Gossip-Proof Your Workplace 4. Streamline Business Processes You can also use microlearning to document and streamline business processes or workflows—such as employee onboarding or performance management. Notice how the following examples make it easy for employees to work through the steps of a process independently: New Hire Pre-Hire Checklist Performance Review and Feedback 5. Increase Security Awareness Most successful data breaches, phishing attacks, and other cybersecurity incidents are caused by human error. Adding refresher microlearnings throughout the year can fortify your defenses. See an example for safeguarding against phishing attacks below: Spot the Phish 6. Enhance Employee Wellness A successful business needs thriving employees. But employee wellness training often ends up buried under competing priorities. Microlearning makes it easy for employees to fit in short breaks for self-care throughout the workday. Check out these two wellness-related microlearning examples: 3 Desk Stretches to Instantly Improve Your Day 5 Tips for Better Naps 7. Provide Quick-Reference Guides Microlearning is the perfect resource for one-off training questions: Employees can quickly find the answers they need—when they need them. Below, we’ve created templates for product and software training. But you could easily create quick-reference guides for sales, customer service, and other teams. Get To Know [Name of Product] Software Training 8. Reinforce and Assess Key Takeaways Finally, who says you have to choose between a more sizable course and microlearning? Repetition aids retention. Consider following up longer training sessions with a microlearning quiz, scenario, or summary. The examples listed below demonstrate how you might do this: Can You Recover From a Workplace Mistake? Training Refresher Wrap-Up There’s no shortage of creative ways you can use microlearning to achieve your business training objectives. The examples above are just a starter list. You might also check out submissions to one of our weekly community challenges, 40+ Microlearning Examples Created in Rise 360 #407. Interested in customizing one of these examples for your team? If you’re an Articulate 360 subscriber or trialer, you can edit all of the examples linked throughout this post by choosing the course from our Rise 360 microlearning content templates. Here’s a short video showing how to do that: What’s the latest microlearning course you’ve created? Tell us about it in the comments—and feel free to ask any questions you might have! Like this article? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and Twitter.7 Most Popular Storyline 360 Examples & Downloads of 2023
E-Learning Heroes Community is the perfect place to get inspired by examples from both our amazing community members and our Articulate staff members. Below are the top seven Storyline 360 examples from 2023. 1. Storyline Comics Style Communication: Branched Scenario See how you can use interactive storytelling elements and branching techniques to teach learners the skills they need in this cool example. 2. Power of Self-Motivation Scrolling Experience Check out this completely unique interactive example that engages learners right from the start. 3. Office Safety Training Template Want to teach workplace safety in a memorable and interactive way? Check out this downloadable template to help kickstart your project. 4. Interactive Storytelling Template Learn how to leverage storytelling in Storyline 360 to help your learners apply their skills in a real-life scenario with this inspiring example. 5. Room Exploration Interaction Template Make searching an office, home, warehouse, store, or any other 2D environment feel more cinematic with this downloadable interaction. With the help of hotspots, triggers, and layers, learners can use the on-screen flashlight to help them discover clues. 6. Reset Drag-and-Drop Incorrect Choices Template Ever wanted to reset only the incorrect drag choices in Storyline 360? Use this starter template and supporting video tutorial to learn how to reset your own drag-and-drop interactions. 7. Employee Health and Wellness Check out this stunning example to see some of the immersive and custom learning experiences you can create with Storyline 360. Wrap-Up We hope these examples inspire you as you work on your next e-learning projects! Did we miss any of your favorites? Be sure to let us know in the comments below. You can view more article recaps from 2023 by checking out our latest compilation of articles here: All the Best E-Learning Heroes Content from 2023 in One Place. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). And if you have questions, please share them in the comments.Honor AAPI Heritage Month With These Free Resources
Research shows that a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion helps organizations adapt better to challenges–and makes them more likely to innovate. With more change than ever happening in and around the workplace, diversity-focused training can help boost outcomes, improve agility, and make your organization a better place to work. May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, making it a great opportunity to affirm your commitment to diversity. This spring, we’re bringing you content that you can use to grow your team’s cultural awareness, collaborative skills, and ability to innovate. We hope this content will spark curiosity and encourage larger conversations that lead to more emotional and creative intelligence among your employees. 1. Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (full-length course) Use this course to educate your team and expand their cultural knowledge, opening up more avenues for collaboration and creativity. Teams will get a simple introduction to AAPI history, meet leaders in art, food, science, and other major industries, and explore accessible ways they can honor AAPI Heritage Month. 2. 9 Ways To Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month (microlearning course) Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month is a great way to demonstrate your commitment to diversity and bring your team together for a good cause. This microlearning summarizes nine easy ways you can celebrate as a team–and encourages employees to grow their own knowledge individually, too. 3. From Draves to Kim: A Celebration of AAPI Athletes (microlearning course) Want a quick, engaging way to inspire and motivate your team? Set them up for success with this simple, accessible microlearning. Employees will meet snowboarder Chloe Kim, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Vicki Draves, the first Asian American to win an Olympic medal and the first woman to ever sweep the diving events. Wrap-Up Packed with timely, engaging content, these resources can help improve your team culture, leading to even better collaboration and innovation. Add them to your e-learning strategy and watch as your team grows stronger and more agile. Remember, with an Articulate 360 subscription you can also tailor this content to best fit your audience and your organization–consider, for example, adding quotes and stories from AAPI figures in your field. To share and customize these resources, go to your Rise 360 dashboard, click +Create New, and select the course you want to use. Need other courses for your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts? There are plenty of other options to choose from in the Content Library, including: Power and Pride: The Origins of Pride Month What Is Black History Month? Diversity Basics: Taking Action Honoring Herstory During Women’s History Month Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial. And subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.Share Your Favorite E-Learning Challenge Examples for 2023
Best of 2023 E-Learning Challenges: Challenge | Recap Undoubtedly, the weekly E-Learning Challenges are one of the best ways to try new skills, find inspiration, and build your portfolio. But practice takes time. Building examples takes time. Coming up with design concepts takes time. I’ve heard from hundreds of challengers over the past 10+ years that their average time on a demo is around four hours. Whether that tracks with your experience, creating e-learning examples requires a small investment of time, creativity, and problem-solving. And to help celebrate your Herculean achievements, I want to showcase your favorite examples from 2023. And that's what this week's (unofficial) challenge is all about! 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share your favorite e-learning challenge example from 2023. You can choose any example from the 2023 challenges. When you share your examples, please briefly describe your project. Here are some prompts to help you get started: Why was this your favorite project? What were your specific goals or objectives for this project, and how did you meet them? Tell me about the software features, design elements, or concepts you incorporated into this project. Was your project designed for a specific industry? Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently in this project? How much time did you spend on this project? 💡 Writing Examples Looking for inspiration? Here are some writing examples from our team that should help give you an idea of what I’m looking for: Rise 360: Retail Microlearning Example Storyline: Spooky Escape Room Example Storyline: Self-Motivation Scrolling Experience And remember, you’re always welcome to include a link to a long-form blog post or discussion in the community. ✨ Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post. Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts so your great work gets even more exposure. Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness. 🙌 Last Week’s Challenge: While you’re reflecting on your 2023 challenge examples, check out the ways your fellow challengers are using Pantone’s 2024 color of the year in e-learning: Pantone Color of the Year 2024 RECAP #444: Challenge | Recap 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article.5 Ways to Use Animated GIFs in Your E-Learning
Animated GIFs—or image files that act like a short video that loops endlessly—are everywhere these days, on social media, in blogs, and even in e-learning courses! That’s right, instructional designers are using these eye-catching multimedia assets to grab their learners’ attention—and you can too. Check out these ideas to get inspiration on how to incorporate animated GIFs in your courses. 1. As Course Header Images If your learners have a ton of courses in their dashboard and you want yours to stand out, try using an animated GIF in the course header, like in this example: Mars Curiosity Rover. It’s a surefire way to get your course noticed. 2. As Attention Getters GIFs are eye-catching. Have you noticed how hard it is to look away even when you’ve already seen the same animation loop 10 times over? That’s what’s so great about them. Their movement naturally draws your learners in and incites them to pay attention. Not convinced? Take a look at this Rise 360 course: Space Travel–Themed Interactive Infographic See how the GIFs draw you in and make you want to click on the interactive parts? I thought so. 3. To Illustrate Key Messages But GIFs can do more than just catch your learners’ eye. They can actually help learners better understand the concepts you’re teaching them. Check out the GIFs in this course, for example: An American’s Guide to Driving in France. See how the GIFs support the key messages? 4. To Lay Out the Steps in a Process If you’re creating a how-to course, you might be tempted to make a video. And that’s definitely one way of doing it! But if people need to replicate the steps one by one, they might need to rewind each step and watch it over and over again. What a pain! Instead of creating a lengthy video or screencast, why not create a GIF of each step, making it easy for people to rewatch the steps as needed, like in this article on how to make coffee? 5. For Comic Relief If the topic of your course is particularly dry, it might be a good idea to work in some humor to make sure your learners don’t fall asleep. GIFs are a great way to do that! However, be careful to not overdo it. A humorous GIF here and there is one thing; peppering every section of your course with them is another. Here's an example that uses humorous GIFs effectively. Another thing to keep in mind with humor is that it’s subjective. Test your course out on a trusted coworker or two and make sure they find the GIFs to be both work-appropriate and funny. The Bottom Line As with anything, it’s important to keep in mind that too much of a good thing is bad. When using animated GIFs, make sure they’re helping and not hindering the learning process. After all, the goal is to get your learners to focus on the content and retain the key messages. If you’re sold on using animated GIFs in your courses but aren’t sure how to go about creating your own, check out this tutorial. Like this article? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (Formerly Twitter).Cropped Shadow with Pop Out Character
I like the look of the avatars in this dribble account and the way the shadows were inside the box while the character popped out. See the example here. About Me I love helping people learn to use the Articulate software to meet their needs at work. I especially like to help those new instructional designers who are trying their best to get a handle on things. I regularly contribute to the training team's blog where we assemble all sorts of tips and tricks. Follow it to stay up to date. I post every Wednesday to Articulate's company blogwhere I share more general instructional design tips. I used to write the Rapid E-learning Blog. Still lots of good tips & tricks in there. Connect with me on LinkedIn and follow my YouTube for more tips & tricks.20+ Examples of Interactive Comparisons in E-Learning #1
Interactive Comparisons RECAP #1: Challenge | Recap This week’s e-learning challenge asked course designers to build interactive graphics to demonstrate the relative size differences in the world’s largest aircraft. Ose Ndebbio Example | Ose Ndebbio | Website Emma Sajben Example | Emma Sajben Sharon Gan Example | Sharon Gan Paul Alders View project | Download | Paul Alders | Website | @paulalders Anuradha Gopu View project | Anuradha Gopu | Website | @AnuradhaGopu Alex Colburn View project | Alex Colburn Montse Anderson View demo | Montse Anderson | Learn more | @mLearning Jackie Van Nice View Demo | Learn more | Jackie Van Nice | @jackietrains Matt Guyan View demo | Matt Guyan | Website | @MattGuyan Dana Dutiel View demo | Learn more | Dana Dutiel | Website | @danadutiel Deanna Brigman View demo | Deanna Brigman | Website | @DMBrigman Johar Singh View project | Johar Singh | Website | @joharsinghs Maxwell Dziku View project | Maxwell Dziku Alexander Salas View project | Alexander Salas | Website | @stylelearn More About the E-Learning Challenges: The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Share Your Interactive Comparisons! The e-learning comparisons challenge is still open! If you have one or more ideas you'd like to share, please jump over to the original challenge and post your links in the comments section. I'll update this recap page to include your examples.Show How You're Using AI to Create E-Learning Courses #452
Using AI in E-Learning Design #452: Challenge | Recap When it comes to e-learning, today's authoring apps make it easier than ever to build interactive training. But here's the thing, even with today's modern apps and rich feature sets, building great learning experiences still takes time and expertise. You've got to juggle mastering new content, nailing the visual design, and doing it all under tight or unrealistic deadlines. Sounds familiar, right? Now, this is where AI apps can be game changers by helping you do more with less. So, whether you're generating quiz questions and feedback, animating characters, or transforming text into captivating images, there's likely an AI-based app that can help speed up production. And that's what this week's challenge is all about. Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share an example that shows how AI can be used to create e-learning. When you post your example, please briefly describe the app(s) you used to create your demo. ✨ Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post. Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts so your great work gets even more exposure. Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness. 🙌 Last Week’s Challenge: Before you add your new AI demo to your e-learning resume, check out the creative portfolio ideas your fellow challengers shared over the past week: E-Learning Portfolios for 2024 RECAP #451: Challenge | Recap 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challengesanytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. 📅 Next Week’s Challenge Challenge #453 (03.08): Using dials in e-learning. If you're new to dials, you should check out next week's dials webinar to get an overview of dials and how they work. Challenge #454 (03.15): Using variables in e-learning. This variables challenge will be different because you'll be asked to share a demo that uses all three variables. 🚨 Contact Information Just a quick heads up – if you want your blog, website, or LinkedIn included in our recap posts, could you do me a favor and add or update those links onto your ELH profile sometime this week? I found some broken links last week when I pulled the recap together. You spend a lot of time building creative examples, and your work deserves all the attention it can get. If you make changes, please let me know in the comments below. Thanks!
