Significant Effects

Performance Nuggets - Relevant, Flexible, Rich in Variety

Saarbrücken (GER), April 2017 - What’s the use of further education if there is too much information within course units and if the bulk of what is learnt is immediately forgotten? Information that will not be quickly and practically applied in the real world will shortly fall victim to the human short-term memory.

Modern and constantly changing worlds of work and living, which increasingly demand the application of up-to-date and immediately available knowledge, are more than ever making obsolete the classic learning style of stocking up on large amounts of information in advance. The generation of digital natives that has grown up with PCs expects that the exact nugget of information they need can be called up at any time.  

In this context, instead of classic learning formats, training managers should be thinking about establishing performance support. Performance support should not be equated with learning, but it can trigger and support learning processes.  

What "performance nuggets" have to achieve can be summarised in just a few points:

  • Richness of variety instead of standard formulas - Whether an explanation video, mini-quiz, or step-by-step guide, the attractiveness of the numerous digital learning formats available today lies in the richness of variety. A clever use of available formats depending on the context and the target audience will do the trick.
  • Taking a new path - Being clever means organising differing content in training pathways suitable for each target audience. This way many different, tiny modules that work on their own can be brought together in a coherent overall concept.  
  • Favouring relevant content - For many people during working hours, time is not available to engage extensively with learning content that they might need in the future. For this reason, it is recommended to place the most important content prominently and to make it easily accessible. Also important is to additionally offer optional information and to mark it as such.  
  • Document progress reliably - Even though learning content is available more and more in small nuggets, it is important for learners to verify their learning progress. This could be in the form of nanodegrees or badges. Companies should acquire a suitable range of digital badges and enable their employees to deposit these in a personal profile.       

As a leading full-service eLearning provider, IMC supports contextual and target-audience-oriented learning directly at the workplace. The company, therefore, offers solutions for many different types of learning scenarios in the area of on-the-job training as well as differing short learning formats such as learning cards.