Title: Activating learners
Course: Producing Micro Content in a Team (Digivisio 2030) > Section: How to Create Micro Content?

Activating learners

Involving students actively in the learning process helps to support knowledge retention and foster a deeper understanding of the learning material. It can also boost their motivation to study and engage with the course material and activities. This is in contrast to passive forms of teaching, which are more similar to the transmission of knowledge from one person to the next, like in some traditional lectures, for example. However, it is, of course, possible to activate students in lectures, too!

So, how do you activate learners with micro content?

Some examples include fostering interaction between learners, giving them agency and involving them in creating material, making engaging assignments, and encouraging learners to think critically. You can also tailor learning experiences to meet the learners' individual needs, but personalised learning pathways are a bit beyond the scope of this course.

Foster interaction between learners

Interaction allows for the sharing and deepening of knowledge. Discussions and collaboration with others help learners understand and apply what they have learned. Interaction increases learners’ motivation and engagement in the learning process. Discussions and collaboration with others help develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Hearing different perspectives challenges learners to think more deeply and find new solutions. For example, how have others perceived the video material, and are there any differing interpretations or thoughts?

- You can foster interaction between students using informal groups (on social media perhaps), in peer groups or teams, or have discussion forums and conversations in online learning environments (such as Moodle).

Students as Producers

In micro learning, learners can also act as content creators. This puts them in the driving seat, which can increase their engagement and improve their learning outcomes. For example, you might ask students to produce their micro content learning material on a particular topic you have presented; it could resynthesize the material in a new way or redefine the topic through discussion. Producing smaller pieces of content can help lower the threshold to start the learning activity and break one's larger subject areas into concise subtopics, making learning more accessible. Further, this content could benefit others if you gain permission to share it!

- Micro learning facilitates quick and efficient learning. Learners can produce and share small learning materials that meet their real-world needs.

Create engaging assignments

It helps to create assignments for learners that are personal and involve some degree of self-reflection. These might include:
- A reflection post in a forum about the micro content
- Self-evaluation of their learning process
- Upload an image and share it
- Create a poem out of the course reading
- Post on social media or discuss on a platform like Threads or X.

These assignments are not focused on “assessment” but on the skills and knowledge gained by the learner. When you need assessment in the traditional sense, avoid longer-form essays and learning diaries with micro courses. Instead, create interactive quizzes about the critical information the learner should have learnt in the section—or intelligently worded multiple-choice questions.

- Most online learning platforms offer plenty of assessment options, so why not ask your learning specialists for ideas?

Developing Critical Thinking

To develop critical thinking, it's important to place the learner in charge of their learning. You can use open-ended questions to encourage them to develop their reasoning and articulate their thoughts clearly.

In a similar vein, debates are a fantastic tool for developing argumentation skills - and the question becomes, how do you do this on an online platform? Well, you could include online meetings where the debate would occur or ask the learner to post a video with their position on a topic and then ask someone to post a critique. Finally, the original learner would post a response. Watching their videos back can also be an effective learning exercise.

Concept mapping is especially useful with micro content, as it can help to reduce learning fragmentation. You can ask the learner to find connections and relationships between different parts of the course. This exercise helps them see new connections and better understand the course material.

Read more

Dwyer, C.P., Hogan, M.J., and Stewart, I. (2014). An integrated critical thinking framework for the 21st century. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 12, pp. 43-52. DOI: 10.1016/j.tsc.2013.12.004.

Freeman, S., Eddy, S.L., McDonough, M., Smith, M.K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H. and Wenderoth, M.P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), pp.8410-8415. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1319030111.

Hynes, M. (2018). Students-as-producers: Developing valuable student-centered research and learning opportunities. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 7(4). DOI: 10.5861/ijrse.2017.1858.

Hyytinen, H., Toom, A., and Shavelson, R.J. (2019). Enhancing Scientific Thinking Through the Development of Critical Thinking in Higher Education. In Redefining Scientific Thinking for Higher Education (pp. 59-78). Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-24215-2_3.

 Van den Eynde, J., et al. (2019). The Effects of Microlearning: A Scoping Review. Educational Technology Research and Development. DOI: 10.1007/s11423-022-10084-1.

Yannier, N., et. al., (2021). Active learning: “Hands-on” meets “minds-on”. Science, 374(6563), pp.26-27. DOI: 10.1126/science.abj9957.