Is it possible to create microlearning via WhatsApp? Yes, if we are to believe the innovations of Singapore's National Gallery, which is offering several micro-courses on art and the environment via this medium.

It was almost by accident that I discovered these microlearning courses via WhatsApp. I took a course on Future Learn, Open University's distance learning platform. It was a MOOC on Art and Environment in Southeast Asia. And at the end of the course, as is often the case, the creators of the course - the National Gallery of Singapore, in this case - proposed various extensions to this MOOC:

• subscribe to the gallery newsletter
• register for new online courses coming soon
• register for a course via WhatsApp

It was this last option that intrigued me, and I signed up.

Microlearning via WhatsApp in the guise of daily micro-lessons

The idea is very simple. And it works.

It's a chatbot that offers to send you daily content as soon as you sign up. It also suggests a time for you to receive it:

• morning
• afternoon
• evening

Then you get your first lesson via WhatsApp. Just as you would receive a message from a friend.

Le guide qui vous accompagne pendant tout le parcours est un « pekaka » : un martin-pécheur, en malais. Le storytelling est efficace. Ce ne sont pas des leçons sèches et anonymes qui vous parviennent, mais des messages personnalisés, interactifs et qui vous invitent à réagir.

Photographs of the landscapes affected and works of art linked to environmental degradation illustrate the theme.

The whole thing is a masterpiece. You just want it to keep going.

I have completed the ‘Lessons from a Pekaka’ course. The gallery is now offering me another course in microlearning via WhatsApp: ‘Acrobatic Souls’, a course focusing on how certain artists have responded to the Coronavirus pandemic. Like the previous tour, it's completely free (but only available in English).

Guess what? I signed up, of course.

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