Nanolearning is a bite-sized learning solution. It involves providing learners with information in smaller amounts, over a shorter period of time
Credit: A. Demotiere, E. Shevchenko/Argonne National Laboratory

Is Nanolearning the future?

Nanolearning is a bite-sized learning solution. It involves providing learners with information in smaller amounts, over a shorter period of time. Sometimes applying the right strategies for improving motivation and engagement is not enough.

In 2019 a team of European scientists from Technische Universität Berlin, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, University College Cork, and DTU, published a new study on the empirical evidence regarding one dimension of social acceleration, namely the increasing rates of change within collective attention.

“It seems that the allocated attention in our collective minds has a certain size, but that the cultural items competing for that attention have become more densely packed. This would support the claim that it has indeed become more difficult to keep up to date on the news cycle, for example,” says Professor Sune Lehmann from DTU Compute.

Our brains are bombarded with distracting alerts and notifications day in day out. This constant fragmentation of our time and concentration has become the new normal, to which we have adapted with ease, but there is a downside: more and more experts are telling us that these interruptions and distractions have eroded our ability to concentrate and process large amounts of information.

If we consider this phenomenon in the framework of continuous or professional learning addressed to adult people we can observe how this stress adds to other pressures—from health, finances, and family, etc…—and the ability to focus plummets even further.

The answer may lie in nanolearning.

In a nutshell, nanolearning is a bite-sized learning solution. It involves providing learners with information in smaller amounts, over a shorter period of time.

It has the following main features:

  • Ranges from one to 15 minutes in duration
  • Focuses on one to three concepts or learning objectives
  • Is accessed on a “pull,” or voluntary basis, at the learner’s moment of need
  • Is often electronic in format—though it doesn’t have to be
  • very often is accessible via mobile phone

Learning in short bursts is proven to increase our ability to take in and retain information. By providing your trainee with small, “pellet” like bits of information, you are much more likely to increase their productivity, capture their attention and aid their ability to learn.