Microlearning: The Solution for the Modern Learner?eLearning projects internally, without relying on...
Transcript of Microlearning: The Solution for the Modern Learner?eLearning projects internally, without relying on...
Microlearning: The Solution
for the Modern Learner?
An exploration of why making learning “micro” might be the right
solution for sales enablement at Athenahealth.
By David Rosenfeld
Abstract
At the Association for Talent Development’s 2017 International Conference,
“microlearning” was as big as buzzwords can be. This is in direct response to addressing the
needs of what is referred to as “the modern learner”. In this proposal, I will delve into recent
research on why learning and development professionals need to be paying attention to “the
modern learner”, and why microlearning might be the right solution for sales enablement at
athenahealth. I conducted a needs analysis, interviewed an instructional designer, and outlined
several ways to leverage this new research to suggest microlearning implementation at my
organization.
Microlearning: The Solution for the Modern Learner? 2
Table of Contents
Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3
Needs Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4
Content Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4
Limitations………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
Research and Definitions…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5
Sales Enablement……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…5
The Modern Learner……………………………………………………………………………………………………………6
Microlearning………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………7
Interview with an Instructional Designer……………………………………………………………………………….……….8
Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10
Resources………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………11
Appendix – Interview Questions……………………………………………………………………………………………………12
Microlearning: The Solution for the Modern Learner? 3
Executive Summary
athenahealth is a network-enabled suite of cloud-based services for providers across the
continuum of the healthcare industry. As a tech company with consistent updates and
fluctuations due to dynamic healthcare requirements, there is a great need for flexible,
scalable learning solutions. athenahealth began with two main teams dedicated to learning
and development - athenaU and Product Education. athenaU is the internal onboarding and
certification team while the Product Education team covers external customer training. The
latest addition to their learning ecosystem is a Product Marketing Enablement Team. This
team creates further training support in the form of sales “enablement” to a diverse set of
teams with specific client-facing responsibilities?
With my help as an intern this summer, the Enablement Team will attempt to handle more
eLearning projects internally, without relying on the assistance of athenaU. My comprehensive
project is to take long, bulky content, mostly in the form of sales decks, datasheets, and
product release updates and turn them into instructionally sound, manageable educational
pieces for the intended audience. While I do not have the power to choose the tech tools and
learning management system strategy, I have been given the assignment of proposing a “suite”
of creative solutions.
This paper investigates the issues that learners currently face at athenahealth, and the relevant
solutions that are possible, given certain constraints. The Enablement team is in search of
instructional design expertise, and I will assist them by proposing the choice between
microlearning and their current macrolearning solutions.
Microlearning: The Solution for the Modern Learner? 4
Needs Analysis
Audience Analysis
My first step at athenahealth was to assess the learning audience. A typical instructional
design initiative always begins with an in-depth needs analysis. The end users of the products
produced by the Enablements Team will be sales executives and client organization specialists
who possess a substantial amount of prior knowledge. My major limitation in this effort was
timing. It was the end of second sales quarter of the year, and the sales teams were busy
trying to close their quarters. While I was not able to directly interview these individuals, I
assessed some of their needs by reviewing previously developed eLearning courses and
materials and speaking with my direct reports.
The Senior Manager of Product Marketing identified three main pain points:
1. Buyers are more educated, and training methods are becoming outdated.
2. 40% of our Sales Executives’ time is spent searching for resources.
3. 75% of what Sales Executives learn is forgotten in a month.
While I was unable to verify the source of these claims, they are fresh in the minds of the team,
and solutions are needed quickly.
Content Analysis
The content created for athenahealth sales teams is very regulated, and often comes to the
Enablement Team as an already finished product. This package is often a collection of:
• PowerPoints for sales decks
• Videos of sales pitches
• PDFs for datasheets
• FAQs for product release updates
Most of the content is currently delivered in an instructivist-style approach that consists of the
learner interacting solely with digital content. Instructivist approaches are used in situations
where the learner is the passive recipient of knowledge. Other weaknesses of their current
approach included unmeasurable learning objectives, little to no interactivity and lack of
opportunity for assessment.
Microlearning: The Solution for the Modern Learner? 5
Limitations
Athenahealth is a HIPPA-compliant organization with a high level of cybersecurity measures.
HIPPA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and is in place for any
company that deals with protected health information (PHI). All learning content must be
delivered and housed through a learning management system that is only accessible via
encrypted company laptops, on a highly secure network. This infrastructure currently
eliminates the chances for any mobile-accessible learning. Content accessible via mobile
device is a key tenant of the modern learner’s needs, so this realization forced me to further
refine my creative solutions.
Another infrastructure setback is the limitations of eLearning course reporting. When the
Enablement Team requests reports, they are limited to completion (yes or no), and time from
beginning to end. Modern learning management systems can report detailed quiz scoring and
content interactivity that yields greater insight into how users are utilizing the content. With
such limited reporting, it will be difficult to increase engagement scores and show ROI. They
also are requesting reports from the athenaU team, who is overwhelmed with other projects.
The last limitation is the product update cycle. Once product or policy updates are enacted,
the Enablement Team pushes out an eLearning course, and that content is only relative for a
short period of time. I took this short life cycle into consideration during my research.
Research and Definitions
Sales Enablement
According to Hubspot, sales enablement is the technology, processes, and content that
empower sales teams to sell efficiently at a higher velocity. athenahealth’s team shares the
same goals of equipping sales teams with the information they need to succeed. Out of a
survey of 405 talent development professionals, ATD’s 2016 whitepaper on sales training
provides the following recommendations:
• Deliver content that’s tailored to employee needs.
• Make content short and easily accessible through mobile learning
• Make learning engaging
(ASTD, 2017)
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The Modern Learner
In the age of information overload, there are active efforts to provide learning that is attractive,
accessible, and palatable. According to the ATD’s Learners of the Future whitepaper, “Only 38
percent of survey respondents said their learning functions will be ready to effectively meet the
needs of learners in 2020” (ASTD, 2015). In 2014, Bersin by Deloitte released provocative
research on “The Modern Learner”. Here are three major findings this report unveiled:
• 1% of a typical workweek is all that employees have to focus on training and
development.
• Most learners won’t watch videos longer than 4 minutes.
• 70% of employees access answers to on-the-job questions through search
engines.
(Bersin, 2014)
These key points directly correlate to the “pain points’ outlined by the manager of the
Enablement Team. athenahealth’s sales executives are decisively modern learners because
they are overwhelmed, impatient, collaborative and untethered, and asking for information on-
demand.
Figure 1 – Bersin by Deloitte’s, The Modern Learner (Bersin, 2014)
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In the age of Google, workers are conditioned to access information on-demand rather than
store large amounts of knowledge. This goes beyond just Millennials; Baby Boomers and Gen Z
also rely on web searches to expand their knowledge. Amy Rouse, a director at AT&T’s
corporate university, characterized this mindset “as an ‘I-want-it-when-I-want-it-and-how-I-
want-it’ perspective, heralding a greater need for learning to be easily consumable and readily
mobile” (Future of Learning, 2015).
When defining the needs of a modern learner, it is also pertinent to define the movement
beyond traditional workplace training interventions. Large courses, hour-long eLearning
modules, and lengthy self-study content can no longer serve a population that needs access to
information quickly. Information must make the shift to modular, easy access units.
Microlearning
While the term might be new, small, bite-sized learning is not. The difference is that
microlearning used to be viewed in the category of performance support. That category has
now been expanded and improved to provide robust learning experiences, including pre-
training, blended learning solutions and even stand-alone training. Elise Greene Margol defines
microlearning as “training delivered in small, short bursts.” (ASTD, 2016). The size factor alone
supports Robert E. Mayer’s famed segmenting principle, in which people learn better from a
multimedia lesson that is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit
(2014).
Mayer’s spacing principle is also front and center with microlearning. According to the spacing
principle, reinforcement spaced out over time will counteract the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve.
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Figure 2 – Ebbinghaus and the Forgetting Curve (wranx.com)
While some say microlearning must be delivered in five minutes or less, the real spotlight is not
on length of the lesson, but rather, the focus of the lesson. It all comes down to this: for the
learning to be “micro”, it must only cover one objective, the performance objective. That is the
first step in Carla Torgerson’s MILE Model. I propose using this model at athenahealth as a
structured form of implementation.
1. Identify Performance Objective
2. Determine program structure and technology
3. Create or select resources
4. Promote
5. Monitor, Modify, and Evaluate
(Torgerson, 2016)
Interview with an Instructional Designer
According to research from the ATD, 38% of participants in their research study plan to
implement microlearning solutions over the next year (ASTD, 2016). To gather direct feedback
from a contemporary instructional designer who has taken the lead on microlearning
initiatives, I interviewed Lotus Yun, the Director of Human Resources and Learning for
Northwest Community Health.
Lotus described using the Bersin by Deloitte and ATD research resources within her
organization. When asked about her biggest microlearning initiative, she was quick to assert
her hesitation to jump to try new training methodology.
Stop chasing the shiny new toy. When we see new developments in the L&D space, we
need to stop moving all of our learning solutions to that new development. To me, the
real modern strategy is customization. The trick is pinpointing exactly what to use when
and how.
She cited a highly successful program where she designed short mobile-accessible videos for
physicians during their workdays. According to her needs analysis, the physicians did not have
time in their day for anything longer than five minutes, and were very unengaged by technical
training. They created 5-minute video simulations of real life scenarios. The physicians were
able to access these videos on the job, in the time of need, and could relate to the real-life
situations being portrayed. I then followed up on her success story by posing my limitation of
no mobile options. Her response was very assertive.
Microlearning: The Solution for the Modern Learner? 9
For example, whether your employer provides a work phone or not, Millennials and
Gen Z are going to want their learning to be accessible on their mobile phones – if all of
your training is stored in-house and can only be accessed when on your company’s
internal network, you’re in trouble! However, some employees refuse to do training
unless they are on-site and being paid for it. Do you change mindsets or do you
personalize your training options to meet your learners where they are?
In short, Lotus is a proponent of leveraging the needs analysis to determine whether
microlearning is a relevant solution. I agree with her, and you will read about my synthesis of
the Athenahealth need analysis and my solutions in the conclusion.
Considerations
Since the release of a rapid-eLearning software solution called Articulate 360 back in 2016,
collaboration on eLearning projects has never been easier. athenahealth has already taken
the opportunity to produce content with Articulate that is at the cusp of modern learning
needs. It is in the best interest for them to continue to build on and utilize this technology to
its fullest potential. The question is whether to keep it macro or make it micro.
If athenahealth stays with macro-courses, they will be able to deliver each course all in one
release, and then move onto the next one. This choice, however, will do nothing to improve
learning transfer and accessibility.
If athenahealth moves to micro-courses, they will be able to track larger amounts of data,
increase accessibility, and combat the forgetting curve.
Microlearning: The Solution for the Modern Learner? 10
Recommendations
While the Enablement Team “pain points” align with nearly all the needs of modern learners,
athenahealth’s hyper-secure environment, aging learning management system, and current
workflow are hefty limitations on modern learning solutions. Despite these hurdles, my needs
analysis and industry research has led me to believe that microlearning is still a relevant and
realistic intervention for optimal content retention and learner engagement.
My original assignment was to propose a suite of solutions. I presented my manager with an
interactive module built with Articulate software to highlight the following suggestions:
Micro-eLearning modules. These will act as reinforcement to combat the forgetting curve.
They are also quick to produce, and to update.
Scenario-based learning. This strategy will contextualize digital content for better transfer,
also to counteract the forgetting curve. It can also double as a fun, engaging assessment tool.
Interactive video modules. These can be utilized to transform regular video into an engaging
eLearning assessment tool, perfect for sales pitch videos.
Podcasts. In Torgerson’s MILE model for eLearning, “promote” is an important step. Because
access is such a quagmire at athenahealth, utilizing podcasts to promote enablement projects
and other resources will assist the learning ecosystem.
All of these instructional strategies can be offered in “micro” format to create a well-rounded
suite of options for the Enablement Team. The only content that must remain in larger,
“macrolearning” form are sales pitch decks. These include long PowerPoints that cannot be
altered. The upside is that microlearning can be used as a reinforcement tool after the initial
larger training.
The pain points for the Enablement team were related to outdated training methods,
accessible learning, and forgetting curve. Microlearning along with these other suite options
will provide updated training based on modern research, be easily accessible (even without
mobile options), and can be implemented according to principles that counteract the
forgetting curve.
In conclusion, because of the relevant needs of modern learners, microlearning has its place in
athenahealth’s Sales Enablement team suite of solutions. I look forward to collaborating on
strategies for implementation.
Microlearning: The Solution for the Modern Learner? 11
Resources
ASTD DBA Association for Talent Development (ATD) (2015). Learners of the Future: Taking Action
Today to Prevent Tomorrow’s Talent Crisis [White Paper] Retrieved on May 27th 2017,
purchased from www.td.org/research
ASTD DBA Association for Talent Development (ATD) (2017). Microlearning: Delivering Bite-sized
Knowledge. [White Paper] Retrieved on May 27th 2017, purchased from
www.td.org/research
ASTD DBA Association for Talent Development (ATD) (2017). 2016 State of Sales Training. [White
Paper] Retrieved on May 27th 2017, purchased from www.td.org/research
Axonify (2016) Microlearning: Small Bites, Big Impact. [White Paper] Retrieved on May 27th 2017,
from Source http://mhlms.mc-
mc.com/Training_McMcU/Research/Microlearning%20Small%20Bites%20Big%20Impact
Bersin by Deloitte (2014). Meet the Modern Learner. Retrieved from
http://2syt8l41furv2dqan6123ah0.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/10/unnamed.png
Ebbinghaus and the forgetting curve. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2017, from
http://www.wranx.com/ebbinghaus-and-the-forgetting-curve/
Hubspot. (n.d.). What is Sales Enablement? Retrieved June 11, 2017, from
https://www.hubspot.com/sales-enablement
Mayer, R. (2014, May 5). Research-based principles for multimedia learning. Retrieved May 27th,
2017, from http://hilt.harvard.edu/event/richard-e-mayer-uc-santa-barbara
Torgerson, C. (2016) Making Microlearning Work at Work. Spectrum Health University. Retrieved
from http://www.torrancelearning.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/05/TorranceDownload-5_13_2016.pdf
Microlearning: The Solution for the Modern Learner? 12
Appendix - Interview Questions
• Have you or your organization embraced any new research (such as Bersin by Deloitte’s
The Modern Learner Infographic or ATD’s Microlearning Whitepaper) to support new
initiatives?
• At the ATD conference, Carla Torgerson presented on her MILE Model for developing
microlearning. Do you use any models or project management processes to design
and develop these programs?
• How do you determine when to make a “training” program vs. a reinforcement/
performance support program? Can you give an example?
• Have you ever convinced a stakeholder that an eLearning solution wasn’t a necessary
solution, and recommended a simpler solution?
• How do you assess the 4 Kirkpatrick levels (reaction, learning, behavior, results) for your
learning programs? Does this change when evaluating microlearning programs?
• If mobile accessibility is not an option for your learners, how do you still employee
modern strategies?
• Please tell me a little bit about your most recent micro learning project with animated
videos and how you came to choose this solution.