About This Site

A practice-what-you-preach reference for instructional designers who need to move beyond "make it shorter."

The Argument

The push for bite-sized learning is universal. Every sector — corporate L&D, government training, higher education — is being told to make content shorter. But shorter is not a design principle. It's a constraint.

This site teaches the structural principles that make microlearning actually work: single-objective framing, standalone completeness, spaced retrieval, moment-matched formatting, and job aid design. Every section is grounded in research and ends with something you can apply in your next project.

The Approach

This site is itself a microlearning experience. Each page is self-contained. Each block teaches one thing. Each expanded view ends with an action-close — a concrete prompt you can use immediately. The site practices every principle it teaches.

Content is organized around Gottfredson & Mosher's 5 Moments of Need — the framework for when people actually need learning and support. Most training only addresses the first two moments (New, More). The real value lives in the three performance moments (Apply, Solve, Change).

Creator

Ruchir Bakshi is an instructional designer and technologist working at the intersection of learning science, performance support, and AI. This site is part of the instructionalai.org ecosystem — a family of sites that apply research-backed design principles to the tools and frameworks instructional designers use every day.

Acknowledgments

This site synthesizes the work of researchers and practitioners who built the evidence base for effective learning design:

Gottfredson, C. & Mosher, B. (2011). Innovative Performance Support. McGraw-Hill.Rossett, A. & Schafer, L. (2007). Job Aids and Performance Support. Pfeiffer.Kapp, K. & Defelice, R. (2019). Microlearning: Short and Sweet. ATD Press.Thalheimer, W. (2006, 2017). Spacing Learning Events Over Time. Work-Learning Research.Quinn, C. (2014). Revolutionize Learning & Development. Pfeiffer.Bersin, J. (2018). A New Paradigm for Corporate Training. Bersin by Deloitte.Dillon, J.D. (2018). Modern Learning Ecosystem. ATD Press.

Methodology Note

All content on this site synthesizes published research and practitioner frameworks. Where specific studies are cited (Kapp & Defelice 2019, Cepeda et al. 2006, Rossett & Schafer 2007), the original sources are referenced in the Principle & Evidence blocks on each content page. This site does not conduct original research — it translates existing research into actionable design guidance.