In their model, the authors suggest 5 moments when people, employees, employees,... need to learn:

• Do something new: someone has to do something new for the first time, and therefore needs information and background to complete that task successfully.
• Learn more: someone wants to further expand existing knowledge and skills.
• Remembering and applying: someone once learned something and is now trying to apply it.
• Fix: If something goes wrong, you need quick access to very specific and detailed information to resolve a definite problem.
• Change: this is when we're used to doing something a certain way, and that process or approach needs to change now.
  

Hungry for more? On the Sitio web de '5 Moments of Need' you can find a lot of extra information and examples.

This is probably the best-known learning moment. Imagine a new hire getting started and a onboarding is presented. Or a colleague who has a new task gets, a new machine that is driven into the production hall, or that new software you need to master.

In the world of e-learning, with a basic course, you can lay the foundation on which you will then continue to build. It is important to have students show what the benefits of these new skills or knowledge will be. By showing them what the practical use is, they will already be more willing to learn. But that does not open the gate for a real garden hose e-learning where we spray the student as hard as possible in the hope that some water will eventually stick. While in reality, most of that water runs in the grass.

Give people the opportunity to at your own pace to learn. To do a bit, and try to apply that. Perhaps making a mistake and then continuing to learn.

The moment when someone feels or decides that a deeper knowledge whether a better skill of something is necessary is a second important moment of need. For example, it could be someone who wants to get better at a task, but also a colleague who has a different position. aspires and likes to acquire the necessary skills to do so.

A useful way to get started with this could be, for example, a short placement test; see what level someone is at today, and where we can pick up on the learning content. Of course, this is also important for the motivation: the student can quickly measure the level of knowledge, and then does not have to go through all the knowledge that has already been acquired again. A personalized process has a significantly higher success rate here.

An employee who tries to remember something she once learned, because she just needs to apply it, is in the third moment of need. Very typical here is the need for real-time input. She has someone on the line who needs help, or an exotic action in a software package is no longer clear. Plenty of examples.

Typical of solutions at the moment is that they concise, clear and to the point must be. No learning goals, introductions, or storytelling. Now just tell me what I need to know! So you can focus microlearnings deployments, short learning cards or a clear step-by-step plan. Everything to solve the learning question within a minute, so to speak.

We've all experienced this before. You get an error in a certain application, your password does not work, the Wi-Fi is down... In many cases, such an error will not have occurred for the first time. So you can already set up a procedure for many incidents to contain and solve the problem. You will often find the user on the basis of this choices to the most likely solution lead.

People who have already asked or offered phone support by now know those first questions by heart: “Have you restarted the computer before? Can you still surf to other websites? ...”.

This moment requires some extra attention. Because this is about the moment when a certain procedure, action or appointment changes. Perhaps a login procedure is changing, there is an update to a specific policy, or a new version of a tool is being implemented.

Tricky part here is that you have to unteach people something first, and then learn something new. And that is more difficult for our brain than learning something completely new. Our brain loves habits, and also tries to automate them as well as possible. For example, we no longer think about every action you perform while cycling, brushing your teeth, or the shortcuts in MS Word. That's why you can start, for example, by giving 10 tips beforehand that highlight the most important differences.
But for a new Company Compliance Policy, you won't get rid of it with a short e-learning.

Maybe you can bet on 'spaced rehearsal', by repeating a bit every few days. And preferably not with the same warning or pop-up message over and over again. But use a short “remember that” or maybe a 3-question flash quiz.