Working with subject matter experts
A subject matter expert (SME) is experienced and knowledgeable in their industry and role. SMEs play a critical role in elearning projects, helping to set learning objectives, provide source content, review scripts, prototypes and the final product, and more. This means that knowing how to best work with SMEs is vital for an instructional designer.
Many SMEs are very keen to invest their time in an elearning project. However, other SMEs can be challenging to work with, especially if they are not familiar with the elearning development process. It’s important to develop a strong relationship with SMEs, to help ensure the success of each project.
Here are some things I do to maximise the chances of success when working with SMEs.
Make a positive start
Before meeting with SMEs, I take some time to research the subject matter. This baseline knowledge helps boost the efficiency of early meetings, and shows that I value their time and am interested in their field of knowledge and practice.
Being friendly, approachable, and conversational helps make SMEs more willing to commit to the project. I try to express gratitude to SMEs early and often, as assisting is often an extra responsibility for them.
Consider finding a SME with recent practical experience
Sometimes, a SME may have a wealth of theoretical knowledge about the subject, but less recent practical experience.
Interviewing or observing another SME, a top performer working on the frontline daily, can help. Having multiple SMEs is often valuable, as a source of real-life examples of where things were done correctly or incorrectly. These examples can form the basis of relevant scenarios for the elearning course.
Ask what learners need to do in their jobs
I ask SMEs questions such as why they think this elearning course is required and how it will help learners.
Other questions I like to cover include:
What tasks does the learner need to do?
Why aren’t they currently doing it? What are the most common mistakes they make?
What barriers are they facing? Think about whether an elearning course will address these barriers.
In what situations will learners use this information?
I sometimes send a list of questions to SMEs prior to the meeting, to give them time to consider their responses.
It’s critical to ask lots of follow-up questions that include “why”: For example “Can you help me understand why this is important?”, “Why is this happening?”, “Do you know why this has become an issue?”, “Why do employees do it this way?”
Give a brief overview of the course development process
SMEs need to understand what is required to create high quality elearning courses, especially SMEs who have no prior experience with elearning.
Early in the project, I give SMEs an overview of the design and development process of the elearning course, to help them to understand their role and my role.
It’s useful to show specific examples of prior elearning scripts, prototypes and end results from previous, similar projects. This helps SMEs understand the process and start to envisage the possible outcome. I sometimes also share stories about what worked or didn’t work to help guide the current project.
Discuss pre-existing content
Often SMEs will have pre-existing content, possibly in the form of PowerPoint slides or other text-based materials. I always let SMEs know that the pre-existing content will help me understand the problem that learners are facing. However, some SMEs assume I am only going to repackage this content for the new course with minor changes.
I try to create distance from existing content and start with a blank slate to ensure effective learning design. I only want to include information in the course that is relevant to the learners. This can create an issue with some SMEs, as they may be unwilling to exclude information that they think is important. A good way to differentiate is asking “If Oliver knew this information but Zara didn’t, what would they do differently on the job?”
Showing interest in and respecting SMEs’ prior work and content and finding out why SMEs feels strongly about certain content may help guide learning objectives and prioritise content to include in the final course. We sometimes add any extra material in elearning course as additional information.
Schedule efficient meetings
It’s ideal if management commit a certain amount of days or hours of SMEs time to the elearning project. This helps SMEs commit to the project and possibly reduce their ongoing regular duties.
However, when SMEs don’t have time officially allocated to the elearning project, it’s particularly important to schedule short, efficient meetings. I often share an agenda and questions beforehand. Then I send through action items after the meeting so we’re on the same page.
Set realistic milestones and goals and stay on track
I try to plan realistic milestones with SMEs that include some flexibility that accommodate for their busy schedules. A project plan that includes goals and deadlines can create a shared roadmap for the project. For example, providing background content within two weeks, reviewing a prototype within a week, signing off on final course within three weeks.
Concluding the project
At the end of the project, I let SMEs know that I appreciated their involvement and ask them for feedback about how they felt about the overall experience.
I find that following these steps helps me to work effectively with SMEs, making projects more effective at providing a great end result for learners.