When working on projects as an internal consultant, who is responsible for content creation/development when the SME does not have what you need or the information simply does not exist?
Is message development a function of the Marketing Department? Should the Instructional Designer try to fill the gaps? What are your thoughts, experience or best practices in this situation?
It depends on the situation, but generally I would say it's the instructional designer's job to do the research. When you do a needs analysis at the beginning of your process, you'll identify what the SME can provide and what needs to be gathered in other ways. You'll figure out how to gather the rest of the information: interviewing other people in the organization, job shadowing, surveys, involving additional SMEs, manager reports, other documentation, etc. Even if your needs analysis didn't uncover gaps at the beginning (like if your SME said they could provide something but can't), then it's still the same basic process. You as the ID have to figure out how you're going to gather that information. Just like a good ID doesn't just take content from a SME as is and just plop it into development, a good ID uses all the available sources of information to develop the final content.
Thanks for your response Christy!! I do believe that ultimately, it does fall on the ID to get whatever resources are needed for developing a course, performance support, etc.
2 Replies
It depends on the situation, but generally I would say it's the instructional designer's job to do the research. When you do a needs analysis at the beginning of your process, you'll identify what the SME can provide and what needs to be gathered in other ways. You'll figure out how to gather the rest of the information: interviewing other people in the organization, job shadowing, surveys, involving additional SMEs, manager reports, other documentation, etc. Even if your needs analysis didn't uncover gaps at the beginning (like if your SME said they could provide something but can't), then it's still the same basic process. You as the ID have to figure out how you're going to gather that information. Just like a good ID doesn't just take content from a SME as is and just plop it into development, a good ID uses all the available sources of information to develop the final content.
Thanks for your response Christy!! I do believe that ultimately, it does fall on the ID to get whatever resources are needed for developing a course, performance support, etc.
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