Abstract:

In today’s information society there is an increased need for individualized learning content integrated into everyday life and accessible on demand (Gassler, Hug, & Glahn, 2004). Adult learning with the aim to foster personal and professional growth is facilitated increasingly through modern technologies. Micro-learning represents a mean to accumulate knowledge impartial from formal learning settings (Gabrielli, Kimani, & Catarci, 2006). Through this didactic approach, people can increase their skills and knowledge through small learning units, which are self-contained, individually addressable, reusable and often in digital form. Underlying the concept of micro-learning is the basic notion of human cognition theory. People tend to retain more information when the learning content is provided in smaller chunks (nuggets) and include learning activities (steps) which are adapted to the limits of the information processing of the human short-term memory (Simon, 1974).

Following the principal of micro-learning, a pilot support scheme to train members of the local stakeholder network in the Alpine Space was developed. This paper focusses on the implementation of micro-learning activities for network stakeholders. Within the framework of the EU-Interreg Project SCALE(up)ALPS twenty-four learning nuggets were produced for training purposes. The support schemes’ objectives are to provide an accessible, topically focused and easy to grasp micro-learning nuggets, which increase the stakeholders’ knowledge about the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Alpine Space. The underlying notion for the twenty-four learning nuggets is that the micro-learning chunks can be experienced informally and in-between other activities or on the move.

The concept of micro-learning integrates different forms of media amongst others video, text and audio (Zhang & Ren, 2011). Therefore, the learning nuggets for this pilot scheme are lively and colorful pictures with integrated pieces of information in order to attract the stakeholders’ attention. The aim is to display the micro-learning content in an innovative way and adapted to new technologies. The social media platform Twitter was chosen to distribute the micro-learning nuggets. Twitter is a micro-blogging social network with a public orientation through its characteristic follower/followee metrics. Any Twitter user can follow another without expecting a reciprocal action (Stephansen & Couldry, 2014). The twenty-four learning nuggets were posted on the social media platform from December 1st until December 24th 2017. In the Alpine Region the time before Christmas, the advent is a distinguished time marked with traditions and rituals meant as preparation for the Christmas festivities. Each day in advent, one learning nugget was posted on Twitter and promoted with hashtags to increase visibility. The official account from the SCALE(up)ALPS project and project partners on Twitter shared the micro-learning nuggets to facilitate the stakeholder training throughout the Alpine Region. In addition, a video with all twenty-four learning nuggets was produced and put online to ensure a sustainable and long-term usage of the micro-learning pilot support scheme.

In conclusion, this paper suggests a blueprint to apply the concept of micro-learning through a pilot support scheme in a real live setting with the purpose to train members of the local stakeholder network.

Keywords:

Micro-learning, stakeholder training, social media, live long learning.