Call for Manuscript Proposals

The guest editors of a special issue for the Journal of Educational Technology & Society (ET&S) titled, Designing Microlearning for How People Learn, invite you to submit a manuscript proposal.

Guest Editors 

Dr. Joseph Rene Corbeil (corresponding guest editor)

Professor of Educational Technology, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA

 

Dr. Maria Elena Corbeil

Professor of Educational Technology, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA

 

Focus

Although the term microlearning has been around since 2005 (Hug, 2005), its popularity has resurged in recent years as adult learners have become increasingly more mobile and must deal with competing work, family, and educational priorities to invest in lengthy courses or learning materials. Today’s learners can benefit from smaller lessons that deal with a single topic or objective and can be consumed in an accelerated time frame. But what is microlearning exactly? What does a successful microlearning event look like? How long is it? Who is microlearning designed for? And how do you assess the learning in microlearning? These are among the most common questions people ask about the design and implementation of microlearning for today’s learners. Accordingly, the focus of the special issue will be on the design, development, implementation, and assessment of microlearning with an emphasis on designing microlearning with today’s learners in mind.

Scope

According to Corbeil, Corbeil, and Khan (2021), “the benefits of microlearning in training and performance development contexts are well documented as workers need to be able to learn new skills and knowledge quickly to apply them to specific tasks or situations on the job” (p. 3). By definition, microlearning content is brief, making it ideal for learners of all ages to find, and consume relevant learning resources when they need them quickly and easily, in and out of formal educational environments. As a result, in the past few years, applications of microlearning have increased significantly in K-12 and higher education.

 

This special issue will examine the recent phenomenon of “microlearning” and include case studies examining the effectiveness and appropriateness of microlearning in educational, professional development, training, and personalized learning contexts. 

To be eligible for publication, submissions must fit within the scope of ET&S. This journal publishes research that bridges pedagogy and practice in advanced technology for evidence-based and meaningful educational applications. Therefore, contributing authors should collect data from multiple sources including self-reported data (i.e., surveys, questionnaires, and interviews), in addition to results from empirical treatments, to triangulate the data and increase research validity. Please refer to the following documents when developing your proposal: 

1. Aims and Scope of ET&S: https://www.j-ets.net/journal_info/scope
2. Author Guidelines: https://www.j-ets.net/author_guide 

Note to Contributing Authors

Please read before submitting your proposal:

• Manuscripts should be original, unpublished, and should not be in consideration for publication elsewhere at the time of submission and during the review process.
• Manuscripts should be should between 6,000 and 8,000 words in length, including references.
• Manuscripts will be subject to the standard double-blind review process, and initial submissions should not contain any author-identifying information (includes using only “author” and year of publication for any citations and references involving any of the authors).
• Manuscripts must meet the aims and scope of the ET&S Journal. 

Rationale

According to a recent report by the Association for Talent Development (ATD), “microlearning is one of the most widely discussed and debated trends in the learning industry” (2017, p. 1, as cited in Corbeil, Corbeil, and Khan, 2021, p. 3). The explosive growth of social media over the past decade, as well as the abundance of mobile devices in the hands of learners and professionals will cause microlearning to quickly permeate educational and corporate learning environments as “personalized mobile learning through bite-sized learning snippets” (Corbeil, Corbeil, and Khan, 2021, xxiii).  

 

While the applications of microlearning are becoming more popular and varied, there is consensus that creating microlearning is not as easy as dividing existing content into smaller chunks. As Kumar (2020) observes, “microlearning is not about chunking large pieces of content but designing a standalone piece of content that can be administered to learners for a holistic learning experience” (So What Exactly is Microlearning?, para. 3).

The proposed special issue will explore effective instructional and multimedia design principles and practices for the purposeful design, development, assessment, and implementation of microlearning for meaningful learning. This special issue will be of use to professionals, including designers, developers, and instructors, in all levels of online, blended, and mobile learning education and corporate learning environments. 

How to Submit your Manuscript Proposal

The submissions to the special issue should fit within the scope of ET&S as described in the Aims and Scope of ET&S (https://www.j-ets.net/journal_info/scope). Of the utmost importance is that ET&S publishes the research that well bridges the pedagogy and practice in advanced technology for evidence-based and meaningful educational applications. Papers collected and analyzed using only self-reported data obtained from interviews or questionnaire surveys without a meaningful educational treatment are not within the scopes of ET&S.

Please submit your 1–2-page manuscript proposal using this Online Manuscript Proposal Submission Form.

Important Dates

Call for manuscript proposals is published online	January 30, 2022
Manuscript proposal submission deadline	April 30, 2022 (See note below)
Manuscript proposal decision notification	June 30, 2022
Full manuscript submission deadline	November 15, 2022
Full manuscript decision notification	February 15, 2023
Full manuscript revisions due	April 30, 2023
Final acceptance notification	July 15, 2023
Final camera-ready manuscript due	August 15, 2023
Editorial preface submission	September 30, 2023
Estimated publication date	January 24, 2024

NOTE: While the call for manuscript proposals has passed, we will consider additional submissions on a case-by-case basis.

References

ATD. (2018). Microlearning: Bite-sized content. 

Corbeil, M. E., Corbeil, J. R., & Khan, B. H. (2021).  A multidimensional roadmap for implementing effective microlearning solutions. In J. R. Corbeil, B. H. Khan, & M. E. Corbeil (Eds.), Microlearning in the digital age: The design and delivery of learning in snippets (pp. 3-13). Routledge. 

Hug, Theo. (2005). Micro Learning and Narration Exploring possibilities of utilization of narrations and storytelling for the designing of "micro units" and didactical micro-learning arrangements. 

Kumar, S. (2020). Microlearning: What is it not? trainingzone. https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/community/blogs/suresh-kumar-dn/microlearning-what-is-it-not