Make Working with SMEs a Breeze with These 3 Downloads
One of my favorite things about being an e-learning designer is creating courses on a wide variety of topics. I’ve learned so much over the years! When I look back on it, it’s almost like I had to become an expert in every subject in order to create the most effective learning experience. And while some of my knowledge came from my own research, more often than not it was gleaned from the content provided by my project’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Subject Matter Experts play a critical role in course design. They have the knowledge, experience, and insight to help you create the most impactful training. Despite their importance to your projects, working with SMEs can also be challenging. From different perspectives around how content should be presented to old-fashioned beliefs around how people learn, many e-learning pros find themselves in a battle of wills with their SMEs when all they really want is a productive partnership. This problem can be especially vexing when creating custom e-learning in a powerful app like Storyline 360. With so many creative possibilities, there are countless ways to present content. So how do you help your SMEs visualize different treatments and bridge gaps in understanding, all while building positive relationships with your SMEs? Here are three documents I’ve found essential for communicating clearly and aligning expectations from the start. Document 1: Project Kickoff Questions Before meeting with your project’s SMEs, it pays to do a little prep work. If you already have some source content pulled together, study it to get a basic understanding of the material. And if you don’t have content, research the topic or the company to make the most of your time with your SMEs. As you study, prepare a list of questions to help guide the conversation and show the SME how much you value their time. Need to kick-start your thinking? Download and customize this Project Kickoff Questionnaire for your needs. Download With all of your prep work done, you’re ready to set up a meeting with your SME to discuss the project. Make sure to bring your list of questions, and then listen actively and take notes. This is your time to build trust with your SMEs and identify knowledge and performance gaps to determine the right solution. Document 2: Project Plan After you determine the right solution, it’s time to put the details in writing so you’re all on the same page. A project plan can be a great way to align expectations. In the project plan, you can include the project background, course information, deliverables, timelines, and any other important details. Once you’re done preparing the project plan, have the SME review it and confirm its accuracy before moving forward with design. Need help creating a project plan? I’ve got you covered! Download this free project plan template. Download Document 3: Storyboard Now that you and the SME are on the same page, it’s time to start designing the project. If you’re using a slide-based authoring app like Storyline 360, the best way to make sure you have a solid foundation for development is to create a storyboard. A storyboard is the blueprint for a course that outlines the content screen by screen. Storyboards help your SMEs visualize how the content will flow and allows them to make edits before you start development in your authoring app. Note: If you’re using a web-based authoring app like Rise 360, you can skip the storyboarding phase and go straight to development since it’s easy to use and quick to make changes. Need help getting started? Then download and customize this storyboard template with your content. Download What Next? After the storyboard is finalized, you can feel confident knowing you have a solid foundation to start building your course. Taking the time to develop project kickoff questions, create a clear project plan, and storyboard the content before you start developing it in your authoring app will set you, the SME, and the learners up for success. For more ideas on working with SMEs, check out this series on Everything You Need to Know About Working with SMEs. Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.Do You Storyboard Before Building in Rise?
When I'm starting a new Rise course, I often sketch out a quick outline first. Other times, I build right in Rise (especially now with AI!) and organize as I go. Lately, I've been wondering how others approach it—especially when it comes to storyboarding or outlining content ahead of time. If you build Rise courses, I'd love to hear: Do you typically create a storyboard or outline before jumping into Rise? 📝 (And if you do, what does it usually look like—simple notes, a spreadsheet, something more detailed?) I'm gathering some insights for an upcoming community project and would love to learn from your processes! 🙌🏼Best way to get feedback/workshop content with SMEs
I'm starting a project that involves a lot of SMEs contributing content, and I know there will be plenty of back and forth to get the language just right. What’s the best way to handle this? In the past, we’ve used Word storyboards with track changes, but it’s hard for SMEs to visualise, and it takes ages to format. I’ve also used Review 360 in Rise, but the feedback screenshots often end up in the wrong spot, making it confusing to know what the SME is referring to. A colleague suggested Storyline might be better for reviews. Is that true? Or should I just export as a PDF and get feedback that way?4 Easy Ways to Organize Content For E-Learning
Picture this: you’re designing an e-learning course and you’ve gathered content from your Subject Matter Experts and completed your own research on the course topic. You’ve sifted through all your materials and sorted the “nice to know” from the “need to know.” Now you’re ready to go! You can start laying out the content in your course … except, you’re feeling a bit stuck. You know order and organization are key to a successful learning experience. And as an e-learning designer, you want to set your learners up for success and present content in a way that helps them focus on what they need to know. But how do you decide what to present first and what to present last? And how do you make sure not to overwhelm your learners with too much information at once? Let’s walk through four tried-and-true methods for organizing course content in a way that makes sense. Alphabetically This is a straightforward and logical way of organizing content. And since we all learn the alphabet at a very young age, it’s an intuitive and traditional system for organization. This method lets learners easily find specific information without needing to provide much direction or instruction. This works particularly well for presenting textual content such as terminology or keywords. For example, if you work in an industry with a lot of technical jargon or acronyms, it makes perfect sense to present those industry terms to your learners—along with their definitions—in alphabetical order. Order of Importance Another effective approach for organizing content is to place items in order of importance or priority. Learners are likely more focused at the start of your course and they may lose steam (and potentially interest and attention span) as the content progresses. That’s why it’s a good idea to share your most important content early on in your course, while also communicating what concepts or information take priority over others. For example, if you’re developing a product course for your sales team, would you present the $500 rust-proofing kit as your first product? Or would you start by showing them the $30,000 car? Probably the car, as it’s more important and leads to more revenue overall—a key consideration for a sales team. Sequentially When it comes to explaining a process or a task, it’s best to share the information sequentially. It makes much more sense for learners to view steps 1-2-3 in the proper order, rather than viewing them backwards or even out of order. By organizing your content sequentially, it’s easier for learners to retain the process so they can carry out the steps on their own. For example, say you created an e-learning course that trains salespeople on how to close a sale. It would make sense to share that process in chronological order, starting with how to approach and greet the customer, how to handle objections, and, finally, how to close. Going about this process in another order could confuse your learners and be detrimental to the learning experience. Categorically Sometimes the best way to share content is to cluster it into shared themes. By grouping similar content together in logical categories, you’ll help learners identify related subjects or patterns. This is a particularly useful method when all the information you’re presenting shares equal importance and nothing needs to be shared in any particular order. Breaking content up into shared categories also reduces cognitive load and helps learners digest related information. For example, say you’re creating an e-learning course that helps onboard your sales team and teaches them about all the products available in your organization. Instead of presenting all the products at once—which could be intimidating for a learner—you can break them up into categories (Electronics, Outdoor Living, Furniture, etc.) and let learners explore smaller and more manageable sections one at a time. Wrap-Up As you evaluate your own content, let your subject matter guide you. Sometimes your content will naturally lean toward one particular organization method over another. Other times, you may find multiple methods could work and it’s up to you to make the call. The most important thing to consider is what your learners will need to do with the content you share. Do they need to replicate the steps in a process from memory? If so, sequential organization is the way to go! Or, maybe they need to quickly and intuitively reference the material while they interact with customers. In that case, alphabetical or categorical organization might work best. Do you use other content organization methods in your e-learning courses? Let us know in the comments below! And as you continue collecting and organizing content for your e-learning course, be sure to check out these helpful articles: 5 Steps for Collecting Content for Your E-Learning Project What to Do When Your Course Has Too Much Content Why & How to Tailor Content to Different Audiences Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.
