Imagine standing in line at the food truck, placing your order, and waiting for them to cook it on a fairly busy day. How much time does that take? 10 minutes? 15 minutes? In a fraction of that time, you can complete your daily training!
One group of learners my team at Aristocrat Technologies supports consists of dispersed technicians, who often work solo. The product they install and maintain is high tech and highly regulated. We provide microlearning to close small gaps in knowledge around hardware and software versioning.
The microlearning is delivered in the form of a short video on a process or feature, or an article to read. That content is followed by a series of knowledge, comprehension, and application questions—Levels 1-3 in Bloom’s Taxonomy. Typically, established learners see videos once or twice a quarter. New-release videos follow the product release schedule, which tends to be quarterly. The learner has the option to complete extra training at any time.
We selected Axonify for our microlearning platform. The typical day’s learning, consumed in the food truck line, contains the Level 1-3 questions and the option to play a game for fun.
Learners spend roughly five minutes in the platform completing their daily training. Spending this daily time engaged in learning helps foster our culture of development. The 259 technicians have a strong culture of learning and helpfulness—both attributes of a successful company.
Circling back to the food truck scenario, that learner still has time to check Twitter or text a friend after their five minutes of training!
The technicians enjoy competition on the leaderboard associated with the microlearning app. Each correct answer adds 10 points to the learner’s balance. In a typical day, a learner can add 30 points. The leaderboard displays team balances, adding a new dimension to the normal rivalry between regions, which compete over who has installed the most product or has the best-case closure rates.
The leaderboard also provides a point ranking within each team. It becomes quite clear who is not doing their training. This layer of team accountability has changed conversations to a positive information flow and greater level of helpfulness, while also moving the responsibility of being the “training police” from the training team to the learners.
The technicians appreciate the simplicity of daily microlearning versus carving out an hour or more of time for online modules or webinars. Training used to be a chore they had to stop working to complete; now it fits easily into their days. Additionally, the change to daily microlearning has increased a sense of connection and belonging that is important for remote workers.
Our training is not 100 percent microlearning. New-hire technicians continue to attend instructor-led training for the foundation needed to perform their jobs. Microlearning modules and questions for reinforcement are incorporated into the classroom program. In a new hire’s early days, the microlearning content focuses on company culture and safety, with the product training focus in the classroom.
Microlearning and Axonify are part of a mobile transformation for technicians. Over the past two years, the technicians’ daily routines have changed to become more mobile-friendly, with dramatic results. Case management, part orders, customer communications, training—all can be completed in that food truck line. Case close rates have improved. Customer satisfaction is at 82 percent for this group. Employee engagement scores are in the 90th percentile.
Learn more about microlearning
This mobile and microlearning story will be shared in depth during The eLearning Guild’s Microlearning Summit on February 20–21. Join Christiana Houck and Elena Cistrunk for their session, Using Microlearning to Support a Dispersed Workforce, one of eight sessions exploring microlearning from every angle.