1 Why Engage in Short-Duration Learning Programs?
Short-Duration Learning Experiences 101
What are Short-Duration Learning Experiences (SDLE)?
While there are many definitions for short-duration learning experiences (SDLE), all short-duration learning is characterized by brevity.
These may be exemplified through:
- case studies,
- hackathons,
- seminars,
- conferences,
- competitions,
- bootcamps,
- flipped classrooms,
- problem-based learning,
- peer mentoring,
- design thinking,
- team-based learning,
- simulation-based learning,
- active learning,
- experiential learning,
- community engaged-education
- a myriad of other techniques.
Short-Duration Learning experiences cater content for learners to study in bite-sized chunks. This content can be made in many different formats, from text to interactive multimedia, but should always be intended to present information as concisely as possible.
Here are some examples of short-duration learning content:
- Text (phrases, short paragraphs)
- Images (photos, illustrations)
- Videos (short lessons)
- Audio (short snippets of speech or music)
- Games (e.g. simple single-screen challenges)
In this era of busy schedules and short attention spans, short-duration learning experiences are an effective model of teaching and learning, and they may be used for all kinds of training. Examples include skills training, leadership development, effective communication training and ideation.
What Are the Benefits of Short-Duration Learning Experiences?
Shorter Instruction Time
With bite-sized content instructors can have shorter course delivery times. With short-duration learning experiences instructors can create learning experiences with dozens of modules covering individual topics in an hour. This enables instructors to quickly adapt learning material to the needs of the students and new training requirements.
Cost-Effectiveness
Short-duration learning experiences are also very cost-effective to create. It requires fewer resources and needs fewer instructors.
It’s Flexible
As short-duration learning experience courses can cover any subject that regular eLearning courses can; just in a bite-sized way. You can create courses that give a broad overview of a subject or even create ones for complex topics.
Much More Engaging for Learners
Short-duration learning experiences can be a very engaging training delivery method, as they often require hands-on participation from the learners. Generally, in short-duration learning experiences, participants will work together to solve, create or accomplish a task as they learn about the content.
Improved Knowledge Retention
As everyone knows, when you study something repeatedly and revisit it when you are close to forgetting it, you improve your understanding and retention of the knowledge. Such repeated study fits nicely with SDLE units since they are small, self-contained, and easy to return to.
It Gives Learners More Freedom
Conventional training which uses text-heavy content i