Integrating bite-size learning into your L&D programmes

“Let’s break this down, shall we?” Think back to how often you’ve heard this being said in a classroom, in a briefing, in a diagnosis with a doctor, in the locker room huddled with your coach… “Let’s break this down” equals, let’s try to understand this bit by bit. As long as we’ve had the need to explain, train, absorb, imbibe, or what have you, we have had the need to be able do it in a way that we can easily chew. In bite-sizes. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the learning world is seeking bite-sized learning that learners can easily “chew on”.

In a world where opinions and ideas are shared in 140 characters, it’s very understandable that knowledge is shared and imbued in smaller chunks as well.

Be mindful though, bite-sized learning is not just a short learning module. It has characteristics of its own. In a recent discussion with colleagues, someone brought up an interesting analogy: think of bite-sized learning as a Google search.

Most Google searches are phrase-based, i.e. people like to “ask” Google about something they want to know about. It’s about finding the solution for one problem, at the point of need. Few things jump out from this: