Two discussions inspired my posting this week, both about being all diametrical-like in approaches to facets of e-learning. Why is there an instinct to ricochet between the horns of a dilemma rather than just riding comfortably on the dang thing's head? (Look at that head: doesn't it look all soft and comfy? What in the world is your attraction to those horns!?) Does everything have to be a controversy; is everything either/or? or can we teach ourselves to make looking for the utility of two different approaches our default way of thinking?Let's focus on the first one, a well-posed question by Bob Little on eLearn: Rapid e-Learning Polarizes Opinion. Bob says:
Much to the disgruntlement of instructional designers and other e-learning specialists, rapid e-learning tools are offering in-house subject matter experts excellent opportunities to produce e-learning materials relatively quickly and cost-effectively...The e-learning experts complain that rapid development tools are helping e-learning amateurs to turn out low-quality and poorly-designed materials that merely pay lip service to the ideals of instructional design.
The same issue is being discussed in different flavors in a couple different LinkedIn forums. I'll cut to the chase and tell you my opinion on the matter: SMEs with no ID experience can create one kind of excellent instruction, and PhD-level Instructional Designers can make another kind of excellent instruction. And we should look for perfect applications for both types of training, and be proud of ourselves for making efficient use of the resources at our disposal.
How about an example: my dad taught me to ski by being a
great skier, and my mom taught me to fold fitted sheets because she knew a really cool trick for it. (OK, not a fair example - they were both teachers! But your parents taught you things too, without having ever heard of Don Kirkpatrick or Benjamin Bloom or Robert Gagne.) Point is, our parents were subject matter experts, and they didn't take a research-based approach to designing a learning event for us; they just showed us how to do it, watched us try, corrected our errors, and made sure we knew how to do it. Voila, learning.
Another example: Bill Preston was one of my high school English teachers, and because he was a thoughtful and deliberate designer of instruction, using a diligently planned approach, he managed to enable all manner of 16-year-old idiots to not just wade through McBeth, but to savor the intricacies of Shakespeare's games with language and actually get that play. Voila, learning!SMEs with a will to teach can create richly applicable training materials. And expert learning designers with a will to learn the subject matter can create elegant and efficient training materials. Smart people (like GCPLearning, of course!) will utilize both approaches.
What's the controversy?
Parents are certainly SMEs in many respects but also master the art of working with an individual - their child! - on techniques that motivate and inspire. Harder to do that in a course for many, possibly unknown, students.
ReplyDeleteGreat that Bob's column inspired you.
Hi, Lisa, thanks for commenting!
ReplyDeleteThe parental thing was just a quick example that I thought was a great metaphor for the personal, trusted relationship a SME and learners can have, which is part of what makes training they create so potentially powerful.
I saw an example of this at Boeing. SMEs were given a camcorder and access to Toolbook. They made some rough-around-the-edges, HIGHLY effective training on how to safely and efficiently perform various production tasks by recording the guy who was best at wiring piece "A" to part "B," or the gal who was the fastest at riveting this section to that, and putting it together in Toolbook.
Workers/learners could then have a laptop next to them while they did the task the first few times, or I suppose as long as they needed it. Rather than getting instructions disgorged upon them in a classroom, then getting tested on it before going to work, they did the work alongside their virtual trainer, replaying as needed.
SME-designed, SME-delivered training, perfect for fulfilling the learning objectives and assuring mastery.
Cheers!
-- Greg