We routinely partner with people who have built training, based on their special subject expertise, that isn’t giving them the expected performance changes – and they’re puzzled.
Perhaps they get great feedback about how much learners enjoyed their training, but those same learners are still acting on the job as if they’d never done the training. Perhaps the learners are reporting feeling overwhelmed, or confused.
“But why,” they wonder? “I’ve given them everything they need to know, and I thought I explained everything clearly.”
This is a common problem for people who wear two hats at the same time: the subject matter expert (SME) and the instructional designer (ID).
The SME’s job is to be the advocate for the content, making sure the course material is complete and accurate.
As the SME, you will have a lot of passion and experience in your field, along with insights that you are excited to share. The “basic” stuff is so ingrained, it is like breathing; you don’t even think about it. This can lead to providing learners with insufficient support in understanding important foundational concepts which are “easy” in your rush to share the “good stuff” – or the reverse, going into so much fascinating detail that they get information overload.
The ID’s job is to be the advocate for the learner, making sure the learner’s needs are met.
If you’re the ID, you need to understand your learner’s hopes, fears and motivations to create a course that is meaningful to them. You’re structuring the training so that the learner sees the value in taking the course and knows how to apply all that valuable knowledge in the real world.
SME vs ID Showdown
Sometimes these two roles are at odds with each other. The SME often sees every piece of information as crucial, while the ID is focused on the information needed to help learners apply what they learned. The two need to discuss what is essential for the learner and why. Then they can work through the material and create the best possible result for the learner.
But if you are building your own course based on your own knowledge, acting as both the SME and the ID, how can you have that discussion?
And if it comes down to a struggle between your SME side (“The learner should know all this”) and your ID side (“Why?”)… who do you think is usually going to win?
For most people, it’ll be the SME. And as a result, many self-built courses are telling, not training. They can become unfocused, long and rambling. They might be entertaining, they might tell great stories or impart useful facts – but without an advocate for the learner to structure the content, telling them what they’ll learn, why it’s important, and when they’ve succeeded, the course will fail to fulfill its purpose.
A prime example was a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion course that a client once took. They came away from it musing, “I learned a lot, but how do I take that back to my job and implement what I learned? Do I need to update our policies or create new ones? How do I roll this out? Do I create a course so I can teach people all the same things?” The course didn’t explain how to connect the lesson to the needs of her business, or how to apply these ideas to her organization. The “course” she had attended was nothing more than a presentation, with no lasting impact or practical application.
Bringing Out Your Inner ID… Or An Outer One
So what do you need to keep in mind about the learner when building your own course? You can start by asking yourself these questions:
- Who is this course going to benefit?
- Why do they need it?
- What’s going on right now that I see the need for a course?
- If the person completed the course, what would they be able to do?
Above all, remember not to wear too many hats at once. Talk to other people – even another SME to get a fresh perspective on the material. Involve an instructional designer. Their job is to take the perspective of all learners, without biases or assumptions on what they need based on your expert knowledge. You don’t have to do this alone, and when you include others on your team, your training outcome will benefit.If you’d like expert guidance planning and building your course, reach out to us at Clearest Course so we can help you take your e-learning to its full potential.