Your Chief Virtual Learning Architect

Learning to Performance

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Custom Design & Delivery

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Predictive Evaluation

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Enterprise Learning Strategy

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Dave Basarab Consulting has elevated the training experience, offering an end-to-end comprehensive approach that includes training strategy, instructional design, development, delivery , post program training transfer, and evaluation (via the unique Predictive Evaluation methodology). Virtual Chief Architect Dave Basarab has combined all of these individual training elements with his user-friendly, comprehensive Learning to Performance approach, which significantly increases companies' training ROI.

Why we are different

Innovation: Our primary focus is creating learning programs using a Learning to Performance approach.
Expertise: Dave offers the depth and breadth of his experience, including working internally at prestigious companies (Motorola, Ingersoll Rand and Pitney Bowes) as well as his knowledge and expertise as a highly-respected, sought-after consultant.
Partnership: Basarab collaborates with companies, serving as their own Chief Learning Officer whenever they need to plan, strategize, or implement training initiatives.

Training Services

Enterprise Learning Strategy

Enterprise Learning Strategy

At Dave Basarab Consulting, we're experts in creating Enterprise Learning Plans. We work with you to develop your company's learning strategy and direction.

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom training is an effective way of developing the capability required to execute your strategy. We are a custom design house that creates programs specific to your business.

Learning Burst Development

Learning Burst Development

We can create and deliver your courses via our unique Learning Burst Method - keeping your employees at their jobs while receiving world-class training.

Predictive Evaluation

Predictive Evaluation

We predict the ROI for your courses and establish success gates. We then evaluate the course against the success gates to show value realized and continually improve results.

Leadership Development

Leadership Development

Turn-key virtual custom leadership development program that combines world-class leadership speakers/educators with post-event personalized coaching to provide you with a cadre of highly skilled leaders.

Predictive Evaluation

Designing Learning Bursts for a Five-Minute Window

Five minutes can seem too brief for meaningful learning, yet a focused learning burst can change a decision, reinforce a process, or help an employee apply a skill at the moment of need. The value comes from deliberate design rather than from compressing a traditional course into a smaller package.

Effective microlearning respects the learner’s attention, workload, and environment. It presents one useful outcome, removes unnecessary explanation, and gives people a clear way to use the idea immediately. When connected to a broader enterprise learning strategy, short interventions can support performance without overwhelming employees.

The strongest learning bursts also produce evidence. Completion rates, practice results, workplace adoption, and business indicators help learning teams determine whether a five-minute experience is creating real value.

Start With One Observable Outcome

A five-minute module should answer one practical question: what should the learner be able to do differently when the experience ends? Outcomes such as “understand customer service” are too broad. A better objective might be “identify the correct escalation path for a billing complaint.”

Limit the content to the knowledge or behavior required for that outcome. If several concepts compete for attention, create a short sequence of bursts instead of forcing everything into one interaction. Each installment should stand on its own while contributing to a larger capability.

A clear project plan keeps the scope realistic. Teams can use these instructional design steps to connect the burst with audience needs, performance goals, delivery requirements, and evaluation measures.

Build Around a Real Work Moment

Learning becomes easier to remember when it reflects a situation employees recognize. Begin with a short scenario, decision, mistake, or customer interaction rather than a definition. The context gives the information a purpose and helps learners connect it to their daily responsibilities.

For example, a sales burst might show a buyer raising a common objection and ask the employee to select the strongest response. A cybersecurity burst could present a suspicious message and require the learner to identify the warning signs. These activities create relevance without requiring a long lecture.

Use plain language and remove background details that do not affect the decision. A short video, graphic, or animation should clarify the task, not decorate it. If narration is used, provide readable on-screen text so the experience remains useful in shared or noisy environments.

Choose the Right Five-Minute Format

Different objectives call for different structures. A process reminder may work best as a visual walkthrough, while judgment-based skills need a scenario and feedback. Selecting the format according to the behavior prevents teams from treating every learning burst as a quiz or video.

A useful design sequence is brief explanation, active response, and immediate feedback. Even when the learning experience takes only five minutes, the learner should have an opportunity to retrieve information, make a choice, or rehearse a behavior.

Learning goal	Suitable format	Essential design feature
Recall a policy or fact	Flash cards or rapid quiz	Immediate corrective feedback
Follow a procedure	Annotated walkthrough	Clear sequence and decision points
Make a judgment	Branching scenario	Consequences for each choice
Practice communication	Model-and-respond activity	Example language and retry option
Reinforce a skill	Spaced challenge	Follow-up prompts over time

Make Interaction Do the Teaching

Passive consumption is rarely enough for behavior change. Replace long explanations with a decision, prediction, ranking task, or brief practice exercise. The interaction should reveal how the learner is thinking and provide guidance that can be used immediately.

Feedback should explain why an answer works or fails. “Correct” confirms a result but does not build judgment. A stronger response identifies the relevant principle, points out the critical clue, and directs the learner toward the next action.

Assessment design deserves particular care. A short knowledge check may measure recognition without demonstrating capability, so use custom competency assessments when the target involves performance, judgment, or applied skill.

Connect Bursts to Performance Data

A learning burst should have a role after the screen closes. Link it to a job aid, manager conversation, workflow prompt, or performance expectation. This helps employees transfer the learning into the environment where the behavior matters.

Organizations can monitor several signals: participation, response accuracy, repeat attempts, time to proficiency, manager observations, and operational outcomes. Predictive Evaluation provides a useful framework for forecasting adoption and connecting learning activity with business impact before and after launch.

Avoid treating completion as proof of success. A burst may achieve a high completion rate while failing to influence decisions or performance. Compare learning data with workplace indicators and use the findings to refine the content, timing, and reinforcement strategy.

Recommendations for Sustainable Microlearning

Five-minute design works best as part of a planned learning ecosystem rather than as a collection of isolated tips. Establish standards for accessibility, mobile delivery, branding, review cycles, and measurement so every burst supports a consistent learner experience.

Use these practices when developing a new series:

Define one observable behavior before choosing media or technology.
Open with a realistic work situation that makes the skill immediately relevant.
Include an action, decision, or retrieval task instead of relying on passive viewing.
Provide feedback that explains the reasoning behind the correct response.
Schedule reinforcement and evaluate workplace adoption, not just completion.

A well-designed burst can fit into a calendar gap without feeling disposable. Start by identifying one high-value behavior, design a focused five-minute experience around it, and measure whether employees use the skill when the work demands it. Dave Basarab Consulting can help connect these targeted learning assets with instructional design, enterprise strategy, training delivery, and measurable business results.

Learning to Performance

Learning to Performance, a complete training approach, gives companies world-class training to drive significant return. This approach includes upfront work (Impact Mapping, design), training (for staff and company executives), and post-training efforts to ensure training transfer. This unique recipe - the key for successful training and adoption - is changing the way companies implement training. This methodology could work with any content for organizations in any industry.