So what is it and what do you need to do differently?

I have known for some time that bite-sized learning has been moving up the learning agenda, but it wasn’t until I ran a session at Pearlcatchers’ Experiential Learning Zone at this year’s World of Learning that I realised just how much it had caught people’s attention….and just how little people knew about how to design and deliver successful bite-sized learning interventions.

image-1This was by far the best attended session with all our chairs (and fold up reserve chairs) taken up, as well as most of the aisle taken up with people standing. As a result of this popularity, when I was asked to contribute to the WOL blog, this was the first thing that popped into my mind. So in this blog, I thought I would share what I have learned about best practice in bite-sized learning translated into 7 easy-to-remember Pearls of Wisdom.

So firstly, what do we mean by bite-sized?
Definitions of the word bite-sized include:

However, I found it harder to identify one definition of bite-sized learning that I was comfortable with. Some included:

Although all of these had some value, none of them quite covered for me the full picture, so the definition I came up with after creating my 7 Pearls of Wisdom was:

A focussed learning intervention (generally no more than 90 minutes) with just enough content and chunked into learning bursts to achieve clear outcomes.

image-2In this first ‘bite-sized blog’, I will take you through the first 3 of the 7 Pearls of Wisdom. I would be really interested to hear your thoughts on my definition and the accompanying pearls.

Before I start though, I want to point out that a lot of what follows is really best practice for any learning intervention.  Those of you who are familiar with Pearlcatchers’ award-winning Fusion® Learning methodology will see some clear links with this model.   This is quite intentional as Fusion Learning was created to apply to any form of learning intervention. However, the shortness of intervention brings up some specific/additional needs for best practice with bite-sized learning, as we will now see.

Pearl 1 – Focus on Outcomes not Coverage

For me this is always the first consideration for any learning intervention. Pearl 1 of our Fusion Learning
Methodology is ‘Start with the End in Mind’. It is even more essential with bite-sized sessions, when you don’t have the luxury of time to refocus during a session. You need to have laser-like clarity from the outset on:

In other words, it is about the end action, not what you think they might need to know. It is effectively focussing on levels 3 and 4 of the New World Kirkpatrick model – behaviours and results.

This also means that your content needs to be in context for your audience, so that they can make sense of it ‘in their world’ and easily translate it into specific actions and outcomes back in the workplace.

Pearl 2 – Mass Customisation and Modularisation

image-4Personally, this is my biggest dilemma with designing and delivering bite-sized sessions. I don’t find sheep dip training to be effective, so as well as creating bespoke programmes, I always like to flex the content to meet the needs, knowledge and objectives of delegates on the day. However, you don’t have enough time in a bite-sized session to do any ‘on-the-day tailoring’.

This is where mass customisation comes in – it is a half-way house between sheep dip and total tailoring – what has been called the ‘Starbucks approach’. Think of your local Starbucks (or other coffee shop). They have a limited menu of options, from which people create their individual drink.   For Starbucks, they are offering a standard set of ingredients to the masses.  But for the customer, they are able to customise these to what they want.

In the same way, you can have a selection of bite-sized courses and people pick those that are appropriate to them – to create a bespoke learning programme – that meets their specific needs. A great way of doing this is modularisation, where you might break a wider topic into smaller chunks and delegates choose which bits are relevant to them.  For example, a programme on performance management could be split into 3 bite-sized sessions on:

These 3 modules could be planned into 1 day that can be attended individually or altogether. In this way, each long course is split into distinct, independent and high-value experiences that focus on specific needs and avoid wasted time or energy on an area that isn’t a priority or that they are already skilled in.

Pearl 3 – Less is More

One of our deadly sins of training is ‘cramming it all in’ and this is a major challenge for me as an external image-5consultant: clients wanting to include a long list of content to cover ‘while they are there’.   However, true learning facilitators know that to learn, people need the opportunity to explore a topic – and therefore the less content you have, the more learning can take place. This is so important for any learning intervention, but absolutely critical for bite-sized.

In a 90 minute session, you can only really include 2 or 3 main points/models if you want delegates to actually take anything useful away with them. And this is also where my biggest personal challenge comes in – when I am passionate about a topic I want to tell them all about it, but I have to remember that I don’t need to tell them everything I know about the topic – just what they need to know to achieve the desired outcomes. Think about the Pareto Principle (sometimes called the 80/20 rule), where for example 80% of news is contained in 20% of a paper or 80% of sales come from 20% of customers etc.   Go back to your desired outcomes and consider what is the 20% of content that will enable them to solve 80% of their real-world problems.

So these are the first three of our seven Pearls of Wisdom for Bite-Sized Learning. In my second blog, I will cover the final four pearls and give a little more information on the benefits of bite-sized learning.

In the meantime, if you would like to know more, then please email us at [email protected] and ask for further information about:

Happy learning, Sharon Young

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