New Data Finding: 'Micro Learning' Leads to Lasting Lifesaving Change

A new study asks how we equip the people working in the field to implement lifesaving practices and sustain this over time — and finds that taking even a single online class can make a difference.

We know education and training are important for individual professional development in animal welfare, and for the development of animal services as a mature field that prepares people to lead modern lifesaving organizations.

Many people don’t have the time or other resources to pursue long, expensive educational pursuits — even when doing so would be rewarding personally and professionally and could lead to increased lifesaving.

The good news: newly published research shows even “micro learning,” like taking a single online class, is beneficial and can lead to lasting change.

The recent study examined the long-term application of the Best Friends Animal Society and Southern Utah University micro learning program — a joint effort that began in 2023, with short online courses (“microcredentials”) offering practical skills to practitioners.

The courses are on a range of topics relevant to lifesaving and achieving no-kill, like dog and cat lifesaving, and finding success in animal services. The micro-credentials can be stacked to lead to academic credit, certifications, and degrees — but also may be taken as one-offs.

The study yielded actionable and telling results:

77% of participants reported continuing to apply what they learned after completing the program.

Among graduates of the executive and management leadership tracks, that number rose to 88%.

This is important in a profession that calls for resiliency and fortitude, and where sustained application matters more than enthusiasm at graduation.

Animal services is still a young profession. Despite the complexity of the work and the public responsibility it carries, animal services has not yet fully matured into a formal discipline.

There is no universally accepted body of knowledge or professional foundation that prepares people to lead modern lifesaving organizations. Most of us learned on the job. We often inherited outdated policies, non-existent training protocols, and longstanding assumptions that ending companion animal’s lives was simply part of the work rather than a problem to be solved for.

This research signals an important shift for the profession. Animal services is becoming a profession with shared standards, evidence-informed practices, and accessible education designed for the realities of the work.

That matters, because movements like animal welfare do not sustain themselves on beliefs alone. They last when ideas become practice, when practice becomes repeatable, and when repeatability becomes a discipline.

Micro learning, and other forms of accessible professional education and development, offer a scalable way to build that foundation. They allow people who are already responsible for animals and communities to strengthen their skills without stepping away from their roles. They help create consistency in how lifesaving is understood and implemented across jurisdictions.

Most importantly, this work helps move the conversation away from whether no-kill animal services is possible and toward how it becomes standard practice everywhere.

You can read the research in full: Microcredentials as a Strategy for Social Change and Lifesaving Practices for Companion Animals in U.S. Shelters

And learn more about the partnership between Best Friends and Southern Utah University (SUU) offering microcredentials and other learning opportunities in contemporary animal services.