I'd love to hear how others have worked with SMEs and other stakeholders who are adamantly against interactivity and learner participation/engagement in eLearning, and who insist that we develop courses that present content as bullet items.
More specifically, I am currently designing eLearning for physicians, and I see wonderful opportunities for decision-making and talking point scenarios, and other interactions. Though we don't want to insult anyone's intelligence by providing them with interactions that they would find silly, we also know that eLearning must engage learners in some way in order to actually teach them.
I'm interested to hear ideas that have worked for others in similar situations.
One tactic I've used in the past centers on the nature of expertise.
Explain to your doctors that they are of course complete and total experts in their field of medicine.... they went to school... they did residency.... they stay current.... etc. That's what makes them great at what they do and why people turn to them for solutions/help. In a similar vein, YOUR expertize is understanding how adults learn, what works best for retention and to hold interest. And you too have studied such things as a professional. So between you, it should be an awesome partnership as you naturally trust them to guide the content, and they should trust you to guide the delivery methods. Collaboration of course, but mutual respect for both specialties.
Remember this only works if you are humble and pay all due (and then some) homage/respect to your SMEs experience first.
I agree with Bob's approach. I've used similar tactics successfully myself.
I would also try to dig into what problem you're trying to solve. What is the actual problem? How do you know training can fix it? What would success look like? How are you going to measure that?
Once you're talking about problems and solutions, it's easier to talk about the research supporting your arguments. If you want behavior change, practice with feedback will make more of a difference than just passively receiving content. You can provide citations to support that argument.
Yes, those are good things to remember about expertise - both the fact that we need to pay homage to the respective areas of expertise of our SMEs, and to the fact that a partnership should exist between our areas of expertise. I think that sometimes, people think that the role of an instructional designer is just to make a PowerPoint "look pretty," and don't realize the value and expertise that we bring.
I recently went through such an exercise with some SMEs, where we asked similar questions. The initial answers were along the lines of "The actual problem is that learners need to know how to use X." As we persisted, we were able to reach more specific and satisfying answers to pinpoint the actual problem we needed to solve, and the real expected outcome.
I like how you verbalized "If you want behavioral change, practice with feedback will make more of a difference..." That is a great way to present it.
Heidi: If you really feel strongly about, show them both approaches. Topic done as glorified lecture (presentation style) vs. Topic treated as short scenario or challenge or whatever super cool thing you come up with. Hey, at the VERY least, you'll have something for your portfolio.
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Heidi,
One tactic I've used in the past centers on the nature of expertise.
Explain to your doctors that they are of course complete and total experts in their field of medicine.... they went to school... they did residency.... they stay current.... etc. That's what makes them great at what they do and why people turn to them for solutions/help. In a similar vein, YOUR expertize is understanding how adults learn, what works best for retention and to hold interest. And you too have studied such things as a professional. So between you, it should be an awesome partnership as you naturally trust them to guide the content, and they should trust you to guide the delivery methods. Collaboration of course, but mutual respect for both specialties.
Remember this only works if you are humble and pay all due (and then some) homage/respect to your SMEs experience first.
Good luck!
I agree with Bob's approach. I've used similar tactics successfully myself.
I would also try to dig into what problem you're trying to solve. What is the actual problem? How do you know training can fix it? What would success look like? How are you going to measure that?
Once you're talking about problems and solutions, it's easier to talk about the research supporting your arguments. If you want behavior change, practice with feedback will make more of a difference than just passively receiving content. You can provide citations to support that argument.
Thank you, Bob.
Yes, those are good things to remember about expertise - both the fact that we need to pay homage to the respective areas of expertise of our SMEs, and to the fact that a partnership should exist between our areas of expertise. I think that sometimes, people think that the role of an instructional designer is just to make a PowerPoint "look pretty," and don't realize the value and expertise that we bring.
Great suggestions, Christy!
I recently went through such an exercise with some SMEs, where we asked similar questions. The initial answers were along the lines of "The actual problem is that learners need to know how to use X." As we persisted, we were able to reach more specific and satisfying answers to pinpoint the actual problem we needed to solve, and the real expected outcome.
I like how you verbalized "If you want behavioral change, practice with feedback will make more of a difference..." That is a great way to present it.
Thanks!
There's also a difference between talking about "interactivity" and "practice with feedback." SMEs may respond better to the latter.
Heidi: If you really feel strongly about, show them both approaches. Topic done as glorified lecture (presentation style) vs. Topic treated as short scenario or challenge or whatever super cool thing you come up with. Hey, at the VERY least, you'll have something for your portfolio.
I'd add my support to Daniel's suggestion, it makes it a lot easier to win people over when you show them why your approach can add value.
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