Month: May 2015

  Subject Matter Experts or SMEs can enable you to truly meet the business and learning objectives of your courses. SMEs are the Inside Men who typically understand the business needs of the training and the learning needs of the target audience. They are the ones who can ensure that your training design and development will achieve the desired goals.   However, the Instructional Designer (ID) and SME relationship is tender and the onus falls on the IDs to make sure it is managed well. The underlying strain is prevalent because SMEs typically are of the opinion that they can make better courses than IDs since they are the Experts of the Subject. IDs, on the contrary, realize that they are training design experts and know the best way to make a course. Hence, IDs and SMEs are typically in a battle of supremacy and want the course to shape up the way they envision it. For the greater good of the learners, it is necessary that peace reigns over a possible battle between the IDs and SMEs. This calls for collaboration between the two. We, the IDs need the SMEs to learn first, and only then can we teach. Hence, the proactive initiatives to collaborate should come from the IDs. Here are five ways that will certainly win over your SMEs and ensure that they enjoy working with...