How to create a microcourse with Genially? No need to resort to expensive or difficult-to-manage platforms: Genially now offers templates and tools for creating microlearning courses.

The microcourse or microlearning is beginning to establish itself in the world of training. Platforms are multiplying. But prices remain high. Or platforms, which are piling on new features, risk becoming bloated just like traditional LMSs.

The teams at Genially have understood the problem well. Microlearning is first and foremost a philosophy of learning. It's not just about creating smartphone training courses. Microlearning consists of:

• focus on one concept at a time
• in a very short educational sequence (less than 7 minutes)
• with extensive use of multimedia and interactivity
• using the spaced repetition principle
• by adding a playful dimension with gamification

I have created the following micro-course on the definition of personal data within the meaning of the GDPR. You can try it out and copy it from our page on free educational resources in English.

Select a template to create a micro-course with Genially

If you are a beginner or don't want to start from scratch, choose an existing template. Genially offers many different styles, so you are sure to find one that more or less suits your needs. You can always adapt them.

That's what I did: I chose a template with vibrant colours and a header bar in a shade of green similar to our logo. I replaced the colour of the bar with our brand colour. These colours and our logo are registered in Genially. We currently have a Genius subscription, but we are seriously considering upgrading to Edu360 in the near future. Genially really fits with our philosophy: creating lightweight multimedia tools that can be adapted to all audiences. Like us, they emphasise accessibility. In fact, it's one of the pillars of Teacher's Kit which I mentioned in a previous article.

Create a micro-course with Genially: two possible formats

Genially microcourses are designed to be practised using a smartphone. Among those offered by Genially,you can adopt two different formats for your courses:

• the landscape format, 16:9, which better corresponds to our field of vision ;
• the portrait format, 9:16, which has the advantage of being easy to use with just one hand. Handy if you're revising on public transport or during your lunch break.

To illustrate this article, I have chosen a horizontal format, 16:9. In a future article, I will show you a vertical format. Easier for your learners to handle. More difficult for designers to lay out. The educational engineer who created the vertical format videos for the Bonjour France app (renamed Karibou) can attest to this: filling the screen harmoniously and positioning the various components of a vertical video can be a real headache.

Note on landscape format

If you choose a horizontal format and the learner is holding their smartphone vertically, Genially will display an animated image to indicate that they should rotate their device to view the media horizontally.

You can start creating your content.

The advantage of creating a micro-course with Genially is that you have a range of different tools available in the same window:

Page management

You can add or remove as many pages as you like. Remember: these are micro-courses. The whole thing should not exceed seven minutes. So limit your pages according to the concept you want to develop in this micro-unit.

Integration of visual resources

The integration menu offers you multiple visual resources:

• images : sourced from various directories (Canva Studio, Fox, etc.), they constitute a veritable visual library that you can use to illustrate a wide range of situations.
• GIF : I distinguish them from static images because they generally serve other purposes. While static images are often explanatory – photos or drawings – GIFs add a playful dimension to your lesson. This can be an opportunity to add a touch of humour: congratulate a student who has answered all the questions correctly; or, conversely, illustrate feedback on a series of incorrect answers. You can also create your own GIFs that show in a few seconds how to use an element of your lesson. Like the one below, which I created to show how to use the translation tool. on the platform CourseNetworking.

However, in general, you will use GIFs more for their emotional impact: to create a positive atmosphere in a class, to liven up certain dry passages, to reward appropriate behaviour, etc.

Interactive elements :

This is undoubtedly one of the keys to creating a micro-course with Genially: the seamless integration of interactive elements into your micro-course. No need to code or rack your brains. insert an iFrame code to animate elements on a page.

Among these interactive elements, you will find:

Buttons : they come in all shapes, sizes, and colours. And as an added bonus, they are adaptable. You have no excuse!

Clickable areas : one of the favourite resources of escape games creators. Because it allows you to make any part of an image, illustration, etc. interactive. Ideal for hiding secret doors, opening explanatory windows from a complex image, etc.

Links : these can link to another page in your course or to an external resource: website, bibliography, etc. Don't overdo it with external links. While they can enrich your course, they can also distract students and break their concentration.

However, the strength of microlearning lies in focusing on a single concept at a time, while using all available educational resources.

Tweet

Effect stickers: (animated stickers) from the world of social media, they behave like animated emojis. Like GIFs, they brighten up your micro-course and contribute to a cheerful atmosphere.

Contents : this is a reorganisation. These are the labels, windows and audio files that you can insert directly from this new command.

Interactive questions

These interactive questions allow you to create different types of quizzes, which is essential for creating a micro-course with Genially or another solution.

Widgets

Widgets are a micro-revolution for Genially. Previously, to add a timer or dice roll, you had to join a group that produced plug-ins for Genially. It could sometimes be a real headache. Now, all you have to do is click on one of the Widgets in the menu to integrate it into your micro-course. A significant saving in time and energy.

The timer : it can add a certain amount of pressure to solving challenges: quizzes, escape room puzzles, etc. Be sure to adjust the timing according to the level of your learners. Otherwise, you risk discouraging them instead of motivating them.

The dices : they are essential in escape games, but not only. We have used them to our board game : this adds to the fun aspect of the exercise.

Countdown : a terribly effective game mechanic. Humans have an innate perception of danger as soon as they see a countdown. And that was long before the Apollo rockets!

Randomise : from the English word ‘random’, meaning ‘chance’. It is a device that randomly displays a letter, image or character. These widgets are particularly useful. for escape games. But they can also be used to define the next step in a journey, the profile of the student who will have to express themselves next, or the number of random points earned after winning a challenge (this is a mechanism widely used by game designers). The combination of regular rewards and random rewards is particularly effective in keeping players active: they don't want to miss out on the opportunity to earn points by missing an activity. It's worth thinking about how to use them when you gamifies a micro-course).

The graphs : here too, simply click on the desired graph to integrate it into your micro-course. You can modify the data in the associated spreadsheet. You can use bar graphs, column graphs, doughnut graphs, etc. The colours can also be modified, so you can adapt them to the graphic style of your micro-course.

The others

Inserting files

video, audio, maps, Wooclap questions, Mindomo mindmaps, etc. This allows you to enrich your course with a multitude of media.

It is not about filling space, but rather about responding as effectively as possible to the needs of your learners.

Ask yourself the question : which medium will give my learners the best opportunity to learn something, manipulate objects, interact with the outside world, experiment with vocabulary, etc.?

Styles

the tools in this menu form a palette that you can adapt to your brand or institution. For example, a series of microcourses on the same theme can share the same graphic charter. This will create a familiar environment in which your learners will feel comfortable. And it will create a beneficial tension between the variety of educational activities and the continuity of the learning environment.

Fund

The background is the backdrop for your microcourse. It is the framework within which all the other components of your microcourse will evolve. You can control all the settings for this background. You can define its colour, a background image that will be repeated on all pages, etc.

It differs from the editing area and extends beyond it. Depending on the size and shape of the screen your learners are working on, it may appear differently. It may be wider or narrower. It also contributes to the graphic continuity that is so important for reassuring learners, confirming that they are still navigating within the same graphic universe, and therefore within the same course unit.

Now you know (almost) all the tools Genially offers to help you create your own micro-course. All that's left to do is roll up your sleeves and get to work! Good luck!