Micro-Learning in Formal and Informal Education: A Systematic Review

Introduction

The rapid development of digital technologies has brought significant challenges to the way we work, communicate, learn and ultimately coexist in a new networked world. As an example, one could describe a real-life scenario as follows: more than a decade now, we use a range of different digital devices, we access a wealth of information with a single click and we are always on the go while seeking for continuous access to personalized digital content for information, entertainment and learning.

Here, the role of technology is threefold: a) it forms the underlying condition for the individuals to act, b) mediates between the individuals and their communication and learning needs as they derived from this condition and c) enhances individual’s digital skills, as lifelong educated citizens who will be able to keep up with the ever-changing demands of the post-industrial society (Becker, 1993; Castells, 2000) and the 4^th Industrial Revolution (González-Pérez & Ramírez-Montoya, 2022). In this context, the role of technology is also closely related to the evolutionary view of teaching, as a cultural invention that allows subjects to relate their own personal development to cultural goods and value orientations of the society (Scheunpflug, 2001 in Sofos, Kostas & Paraschou, 2015). The way in which the educational process is carried out has evolved through history, responding to the challenges and opportunities imposed by different socio-cultural, historical and economic contexts. Such a change occurred with the transition from traditional to technology-enhanced educational settings.

Technology-enhanced learning (also referred to as e-learning) (Todri et al., 2021) aims not only to enhance traditional educational methods while opening the way to new ones but also to mitigate social inequalities and provide equal educational opportunities for all. Nowadays, there is hardly any form of education that does not make use of digital technologies (Polasek & Javorcik, 2019). This is related to the ability of digital devices like computers, tablets, mobile phones, etc. to act as cognitive tools to support and enhance individuals’ cognitive operations (Sein-Echaluce et al., 2017). Moreover, they can be used to improve existing methods of interaction between teachers and students, to create new learning conditions and new teaching methods and to utilize learning analytics for decision-making (Hug, 2005).

In this context, mobile learning (m-learning), as a flexible, dynamic, and alternative way of e-learning (Job & Ogalo, 2012), revealed new ways of using mobile devices, directly or indirectly related to online education. Here, the mediating nature of technology focuses, among other things, on the adaptation of traditional educational content to more flexible forms of presentation and “consumption”.

Additionally, the need for a transition from “learning” to “micro-learning” arises also from the fact that very often we are witnessing a reduction of individuals’ attention rate and concentration level, account considering the limited human short-term memory and processing power of audio-visual channel (Shaffer, Doube & Tuovinen, 2003). Instructional designers must consider, for example, the fact that the average waiting time to listen to music on the FM radio has decreased from 23 to 5 sec on the Internet, or that 40% of users abandon a website if it does not load in less than 3 sec (Leong, Sung & Blanchard, 2020).

Micro-learning is essentially a type of e-learning approach that consists of teaching units with very short duration (3-5 min) and very specific learning objectives which the learner can “consume” on the go (related to the fast pace and interrupted nature of everyday life) and the combination of these two characteristics, is what prompted the use of micro-learning in professional training, as well (Göschlberger & Bruck, 2017).