Six minutes a day: how training comes inside the working day
CoreSkills brings the day's tasks to the employee: one lesson or exam part in full, short reviews beside it, a reminder by email or Teams. How the day is built, and why.
· 6 min read
In brief
In CoreSkills, training is not a calendar booking but part of the working day. Signing in leads to the Today page, which holds the day's plan: about six minutes of whatever moves the training forward most. The plan holds one whole lesson or exam part and short reviews beside it, and the same plan arrives as a reminder by email or in Teams. When the minutes are used, the day is done. The form rests on two research results: learning spread over time is remembered better than learning taken at once, and answering a question teaches more than reading. They are covered in Microlearning at work.
The day's plan
At the top of the Today page is a card that shows how many items and minutes of the day remain, and a Start button that opens the first task. The plan may hold a learning path's lesson, an exam part or the claiming of a certificate, and a text to read, a video, a question, an exercise, a reflection or an assignment. Each one says why it is in the day:
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Review | something learned earlier that is due to be recalled |
| Learning path | the next step on a path you are on |
| Your development area | a subject in which your target role requires more than you know now |
| New | new content from the library |
The order is the same every day. If the employee is behind a due date the employer set, the path's next step comes first, and one short review still fits in. Then come the reviews that are due, then the path's next step, and if time remains, development areas and new content. New content is offered by the organisation's sector: its own sector first, then content for everyone, other sectors' content last, and nothing is hidden.
A lesson or an exam part is not cut up. The day's first proper task comes in full, and reviews run beside it, so the day may stretch a little past six minutes. When the day's minutes are used, the day is done. Continue learning brings another day's worth for those who want it.
The week's news and current topics do not compete for the day's minutes. They sit in their own This week card for a week after publication, and can be opened at any time without pushing the path's steps back.
Review that is built in
The part most training programmes lack is review. In CoreSkills a learned point comes back for review at growing intervals: after a day, then three, seven, 14 and 30 days, and more rarely after that. If the employee answers wrong or judges that the point still needs work, it comes back the next day.
A review is a question, not a slide. It has to be answered, and the answer decides when the point comes next. This is the spacing effect and the testing effect in practice, and it asks nothing of the employee but an answer when asked. Reviews are about a minute long, and they run beside the day's main task without counting against it.
The streak and the missed day
The Today page shows the streak: consecutive working days on which the employee did something, and this week's days. The streak counts working days, so a weekend does not break it, and one missed working day a week is forgiven.
A missed day has no bad consequence. The undone tasks wait and come first the next day. If the employer gave the path a due date, Next step on the learning path shows it and whether the employee is on pace, and for someone behind, the path's step comes first in the day.
A video left halfway continues from the same point when the employee returns, and the Continue training card shows on every page: the course, the step and the point in the video to continue from.
A reminder that carries the day
The day's tasks can arrive as a reminder in three places, and a test message can be sent from each.
Email is sent at the chosen time, on weekdays only if wanted. The message holds the next step on the path, the day's tasks and an estimate of how long they take, and the link leads straight to the Today page. Microsoft Teams brings the day's tasks into Teams once the organisation has connected its Microsoft 365 environment and taken the Teams connection into use: the CoreSkills teacher starts the day's tasks on the command teach and shows them on today. The app's notification arrives at the bell icon, and the tasks can be gone through with the teacher in the chat in the bottom corner.
Reminders are off by default, the default time is eight in the morning Finnish time on weekdays, and each channel sends at most one reminder a day. If there are no tasks for the day and no next step on a path, no reminder is sent. The reminder opens with what is current right now: the due date if the employee is behind, a welcome back after a break, or the week's topic. The reminder and the Today page always show the same tasks.
When the employer assigns a path, everyone has, for its duration, at least one reminder that reaches them: email or Teams. For those who had neither on, the email reminder is switched on with the assignment, and the last reaching channel cannot be switched off until another is in use. The app notification alone is not enough, because it shows only when the app is opened.
The teacher, if you want
A task can be gone through with the teacher. The teacher is an AI that discusses the subject, explains and asks, and the way it teaches can be adjusted: whether it starts from an example or from the rule, proceeds one point at a time or from the big picture, gives a hint or a direct answer. To do the task directly, choose Without the teacher.
The teacher gives no grade. A task's result is decided by the answer given to the question, and a certificate always rests on a separate exam. Why the line is drawn exactly there is covered in The AI teacher: practice, not assessment.
Why six minutes
Six minutes is the real length of a lesson and an exam part, not a marketing number. It is long enough for one point with an example and a question, and short enough not to be postponed. The well-known estimate from Deloitte's Bersin research unit puts an employee's weekly time for formal learning at about 24 minutes, and six minutes a day fits roughly inside it. A half-day course does not, which is why it gets moved.
Frequently asked questions
What do the six minutes contain?
The day's plan: the learning path's next lesson or exam part in full, and beside it the reviews that are due, about a minute each. If time remains, a development area or new content from the library comes in. When the day's minutes are used, the day is done; anyone who wants can continue for another day's worth.
What happens if a day is missed?
Nothing bad. The undone tasks wait and come first the next day. The streak counts working days, so a weekend does not break it, and one missed working day a week is forgiven. If the employer set a due date for the path, the Today page shows whether you are on pace.
How does review work?
A learned point comes back for review at growing intervals: after a day, then three, seven, 14 and 30 days, and more rarely after that. A wrong answer, or your own judgement that the point still needs work, brings it back the next day. Reviews are short and run beside the day's main task.
Where does the reminder arrive?
By email, in Microsoft Teams or in the app's own notifications, as the employee chooses. Reminders are off by default, and the default time is eight in the morning on weekdays. While the employer has assigned a path, everyone has at least one channel that reaches them, email or Teams.