The average human attention span dropped from 12 to 8 seconds in just 15 years.
According to research by Microsoft, our attention spans are now shorter than a goldfish 🙃.
That makes engaging your learners and holding their attention pretty difficult.
But there’s a solution… microlearning.
Microlearning platforms let you design and deliver training programs in a short, bite-sized format that helps you catch and keep your learners’ attention and improve course completion rates.
But not all microlearning platforms are created equal. To help you find the best microlearning platforms for your organization’s needs, we’ve pulled together our list of the top 16 solutions available right now – plus key tips on how to choose a platform.
Skip ahead:
- What is microlearning?
- Top 16 best microlearning platforms for 2024
- How to choose the best microlearning platforms
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What is microlearning?
Microlearning is an educational strategy that delivers content to learners in mini, bite-sized chunks to help learners absorb more information and boost knowledge retention.
Microlearning programs use small learning units with super quick content including videos, graphics and gamified activities. Each lesson generally takes less than 10 minutes to complete – and many are as short as 2-5 minutes long.
When it comes to individual lessons, microlearning programs also use specific, focused learning outcomes to maximize gains for learners.
Microlearning has risen in popularity in recent years as more educators recognize the power of this learning strategy. For organizations, microlearning is ideally suited to the learning needs of fast-paced, multitask-oriented and digitally savvy employees.
There are now a wide range of platforms available designed specifically for organizations looking to take advantage of microlearning for their teams. The trick is knowing which platform to choose…
Top 16 best microlearning platforms for 2024
This list of microlearning platforms are the best on the market right now.
These can be used for any learning purpose – but we’ve evaluated them specifically for organizations looking to scale their education programs, including pros, cons and pricing.
Click the links to skip ahead:
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An emerging platform in the microlearning space, The Leap offers AI-powered tools to build and market mini-courses, digital products and lead magnets like guides, tutorials, and more. The focus for Leap is to help creators and organizations produce concise courses and guides as easily and efficiently as possible, with an AI-generator tool to help you create your content in just a few clicks.
This all-in-one platform has everything you need to launch a course or digital product including creation, distribution, payments, and fulfillment. And all content on the Leap is mobile-first so your audience has frictionless access that makes learning on-the-go as easy as pie.
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Designed to be quick, easy-to-use and feature-rich, Thinkific makes it extra simple to create and launch scalable microlearning programs. Thanks to detailed onboarding support and a dedicated customer success manager for every Thinkific Plus customer, getting started with Thinkific’s course creation and microlearning platform is seamless and straightforward.
Trusted by global brands including Hootsuite, Later and Shopify, Thinkific offers plans to fit any business size and accommodate any microlearning program. The platform provides customizable course site themes to blend your microlearning program with your brand and a Thinkific Mobile app to make your course content accessible to your audience on the devices they use every day. Plus with Thinkific’s Branded Mobile solution, you can stand out with a custom white-labeled mobile app that shows off your brand at its best – it’s built and maintained for you, so you can focus on growing your business and leave the technical stuff to the experts.
What’s more, Thinkific Communities lets you grow strong, engaged learning communities around your online course to boost learner success. The Thinkific App Store also features hundreds of products to customize your microlearning program even further in just a few clicks, so you can create the course content your learners crave.
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Tailored to frontline employee training, Axonify is a microlearning platform that focuses on delivering learning content in a personalized, repetitive and methodical way. It aims to help employees learn what they need to learn – and remember it long-term. Axonify uses AI tools to make learning fun, fast and individualized for every learner. The platform also includes an Employee point-based rewards system to add a competitive element to training and boost employee engagement.
Use Axonify’s two-way communication tools for better communication and feedback within your organization, so your employees stay connected and informed wherever they’re working from. And if you have a multilingual team, the platform operates in 60+ languages and provides professional content translations too.
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This microlearning platform offers something a little different for organizations – TalentCards is a mobile learning app that uses digital flashcards to help employees learn essential information.
Designed for deskless workers, TalentCards helps individuals learn remotely for as little as 5 minutes a day, working to improve learner success and make employee training easier. Assessments are also gamified and set at regular intervals to reinforce learning gains and reduce knowledge loss. The ultra bite-sized microlearning format helps turn training into a daily habit and increase course completion rates.
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With a focus on gamification, OttoLearn is designed to boost knowledge retention for learners and improve employee performance through a wide range of research-led microlearning techniques.
Built especially for mobile workers, this microlearning platform delivers learning in 2-minute micro-lessons and includes features like customizable leaderboards, contests and badges to celebrate learners’ achievements and milestones. For administrators, OttoLearn features a fully customizable analytics dashboard and intuitive data visualization features to track learners’ progress and success.
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Offering mobile-based training for frontline employees and gig workers, EduMe is a microlearning platform that uses bite-sized content like text messages, videos and surveys to engage learners. This microlearning platform is especially suited to organizations looking for safety and compliance training and includes reporting and analytics features like course completion and pass rates, as well as real-time insights into individual and organizational performance.
EduMe is designed to integrate with the apps that your team uses every day to make learning part of their routine – including Microsoft Teams, Azure, and Slack, as well as your own branded app to help provide seamless training access for your deskless workforce.
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Create a mini-course in 15 minutes or less with 7taps. Users can choose from 7taps’ library of ready-made templates to craft beautiful microlearning programs without the need for a graphic designer or developer – including quizzes, forms and custom graphics and fonts. Integrations with Unsplash and GIPHY also make it easier to create beautiful courses with minimal effort.
All 7taps training is accessible in just a few clicks across any device, so your users can find your training on their desktop, mobile, and on-the-go. You can even create your own AI video directly on the platform for more dynamic learning content.
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Designed as a Learning Management System (LMS) for corporate and retail organizations, EdApp brings together digital and in-person training to help you onboard, train and upskill teams. Choose from ready-made courses or create your own course in minutes using EdApp’s AI Create tool that instantly builds courses based on a topic, keywords or summary.
Use the EdApp analytics dashboard to track training performance and completion rates, so you can continually improve and refine your content for learners and hit your training goals.
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An award-winning microlearning platform, Code of Talent caters to organizations looking for a fun, snackable way to train employees with the help of an AI content creator to generate training fast. Choose from a range of premade microlearning journey templates to build your training and design customized learning paths for your team.
To get personalized help with setting up your training program, sign up for a Partner or Enterprise plan. This platform’s paid plans also give organizations access to additional features like the Code of Talent community and better customer support, as well as more customization options on themes, certificates, reports, and more.
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Mobile-friendly microlearning platform Tovuti LMS is designed for deskless learning, so you can create courses and engage learners from anywhere. With a strong focus on security, this solution offers organizations end-to-end data encryption, SSO, disaster recovery, and more. Tovuti LMS also offers white labeling on even their basic plan, so you can create a fully branded user interface for employee training and onboarding and give your training program a more professional face.
Speak directly to learners with in-house communication tools and easily integrate the LMS with other enterprise applications, including your CRM, HRIS, Identity Provider and other platforms.
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Marketed as a scientifically-proven microlearning solution, QStream draws on interval reinforcement tactics to increase knowledge retention for learners by up to 170%. The platform uses mobile-learning tasks and challenges to create more engaging, personalized learning experiences for your employees and customers.
QStream offers a wide range of low-code integrations to help reduce digital fiction for your learners, including integrations with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and more. Admins can also take advantage of detailed analytics and reporting to track learner success and drop-off rates.
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With a mission to create simple, learner-centered experiences, LearnUpon is a microlearning platform that’s built on ease-of-use and customer support. Get access to 24//7 help or search for questions in LearnUpon’s extensive knowledge base for easy set-up and administration. All plans also come with an Implementation Consultant to help you get started with integrating and launching your training and development program.
If you have a Premium or Enterprise plan, your organization can choose from over 20 out-of-the-box platform languages to make your training accessible for global teams and customers. LearnUpon’s Enterprise plan also offers white labeling and integration with Salesforce.
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Related: LearnUpon vs Thinkific
Looking to improve your customer experience? MobieTrain is a microlearning platform designed to boost the performance of customer-facing teams and enhance customer experience through on-the-go training that’s tailored to your frontline workforce. Create branded and personalized learning paths for employees to improve course completion rates and learner success.
MobieTrain’s top features include a content academy and gamification tools to encourage more social learning and communication within teams, as well as attendance reporting features like absence management and progress tracking to admins.
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Deliver training to your sales team in their flow of work, without needing to switch apps or interrupt their focus. Spekit focuses on delivering bite-sized learning for employees embedded in the tools they use every day, offering just-in-time training for customer-facing teams.
Spekit integrates with key organizational tools including Salesforce, Slack, and Seismic to deliver personalized training and onboarding. Knowledge checks and real-time analytics help to ensure your training is effective and continuous, providing employees with the answers they need to hit the ground running and reach their goals faster.
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Onboard, train and engage your employees with iSpring Learn. This microlearning platform includes a wide range of automation features, including smart user groups and automatic assignment and reassignment, as well as progress reports, notifications, and deadlines to make admin easy and efficient. Invite team leaders and managers to act as admins so they can take an active role in employee training and monitoring progress.
iSpring Learn also includes social learning features to engage learners including a newsfeed with reactions, chat functions, badges, and personalized feedback on courses.
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Guide your users through complex processes in real-time with Whatfix’s digital adoption platform. This platform helps employees learn how to use the software, applications, and digital tools they need for success. Designed around core microlearning principles, Whatfix breaks learning content into chunks with gamified features and interactive learning elements.
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How to choose the best microlearning platforms
If you’re looking for the best microlearning platforms for your organization – here are 7 steps to help you choose the right solution for your team. Plus top tips on what to watch out for.
Determine your needs and objectives
The platforms that are right for some organizations are not necessarily going to be right for you. To choose the best microlearning platforms for your needs, you first need to define your specific objectives.
Before you do anything else, ask yourself:
- Why are we implementing this training program?
- What do we want to achieve from training?
- How will we evaluate performance?
- What are our measures of success?
If you can set clear goals and objectives for your training program, it will be easier to find a platform that aligns with your requirements and expectations.
It’s also helpful to define the key performance indicators (KPIs) for your training program – these will depend on your organization and your specific reasons for introducing the training.
For example, if you’re implementing a microlearning program to comply with regulatory requirements, your KPIs might include:
- Training completion rate
- Average completion time
- Pass/Fail rate
- Employee satisfaction score
The KPIs you choose to track should correspond with your goals for the training program to allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of your microlearning program.
Understand your target audience
To choose the best microlearning platforms for you, it’s also important to know who you’re targeting with your learning program. That means you need to know who your audience is and what their training requirements are.
Here are some criteria to keep in mind:
- Age
- Location
- Skill levels
- Digital literacy
- Number of employees
- Learning preferences
- Types of intelligence
These factors will all influence which microlearning platforms are best for your employees.
For example, a younger demographic with high levels of digital literacy may be more likely to prefer a mobile-first platform with video-based content compared to other groups.
To find the most effective solution for your employees, start with audience research to gather as much information as possible on their preferences. Use surveys to learn more about what your audience needs and wants from your training program and help you choose between platforms.
Check out the features on offer
When you’re clear on your goals and objectives for your training program and what your employees’ requirements are, it’s time to start checking out the different microlearning platforms on offer.
Different microlearning platforms deliver a wide variety of features to users – so it’s important to know exactly what you’re getting.
From the methods of content delivery to the administrative features you’ll be using behind-the-scenes, every platform has its own list of features and perks.
Some features to look out for include:
- Content delivery methods e.g. video, podcasts and live teaching
- Tracking, reporting and insights
- Assessment and examinations
- Administrative features
- Security and encryption
- Options for gamification
- Community-building and social learning
For example, if you’re set on making your microlearning program as social as possible for your workforce, you’ll want to make sure that the microlearning platforms you’re using offer community-building and social learning features to help your employees get the most out of their learning experience.
Pay attention to accessibility
The success of your microlearning program will depend heavily on content delivery and usability. The truth is, your students won’t complete your training models if the platform is clunky and awkward.
While all microlearning platforms are designed to deliver bite-sized lessons, to be truly effective, your chosen microlearning platform needs to fit into the work day of every employee.
That means they need to be adaptable and accessible for your entire workforce and meet learners where they are, including on their mobile devices, tablets and computers.
Not all employees learn the same way, so it’s important to make sure that your microlearning platform also supports a range of different content mediums and is suitable for Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
See what other people are saying
Like any purchase decision, it’s a good idea to do some digging when you’re choosing the best microlearning platforms for your needs.
Check out what other people are saying, including:
- Customer reviews
- Case studies
- Testimonials
This gives you a chance to see if the promises live up to the reality and make sure your chosen microlearning platforms can deliver what your organization needs.
If there’s the option for a free trial, you can also try it out yourself. See what it’s like to use the platform as an administrator and a learner and how it compares to other platforms. You can also ask for a demonstration from their sales team if no free plan is available.
Do the math
Of course, any choice to sign up for a microlearning platform has to include a thorough cost analysis. You’ll need to do the math to make sure that the solutions you’re looking at match up with your budget and are the best choice to make sure you get return on your investment.
Gather feedback from your learners
To make sure you’re delivering the best possible experience for learners, it’s important to continually gather feedback to monitor the performance of your training program.
Give learners the chance to provide feedback after every module. If the feedback is continually negative, talk to your dedicated customer success manager to find out how you can improve the learning experience for employees.
In extreme cases, you might need to consider switching to one of the other microlearning platforms out there to find the right fit for your organization’s training needs.
Free Buyer’s Guide: The Best Online Course Platforms
Get a run-down of the 9 of the best Online Course Platforms, 6 must-know features, and what their customers say about them with this guide.
Sign up for the best microlearning platform today!
The best microlearning platforms are the ones that work for your organization’s specific needs, objectives and requirements. From detailed customer support to community-building features, your platform should include a range of features to help you create engaging, accessible programs for your team.
Want to build and sell your first mini-course today? Try out the Leap for free.
This blog was originally published in October 2022, it’s since been updated to include the most relevant information in April 2024.
