Building your own expert

Extract from an article in IT Training - December 2003

by Janine Milne

Donald Clark, Epic, agrees that you need someone who understands and loves technology, even if they do not work in that field. "A real gutsy knowledge of the internet is essential," he claims.

For example, he believes that people who understand computer games will have a better idea of how to keep people interested online than someone who stands in front of a classroom all day. "You need to find someone who's not afraid of technology and sees it with an open mind."

In fact, creating an e-learning course requires a combination of skills and the subject-matter expert is just one person in a team made up of different strengths and disciplines. For that reason, the expert should not be the individual in charge of creating the coursework.

"The expert is not the right person for creating the course." claims Clark. "If you're a good documentary maker, you're not an expert in Roman history, you're good in distilling it. This is why experts are poor trainers." He adds tellingly. "The higher up the academic tree, the worse they are."

Clark suggests that people from an operational background make better experts than professional thinkers. In fact, the key quality any expert needs is an understanding of the business.

Secrets of success- Business Alignment

The one thing all the experts agree on is that regardless of whether you find the best subject-matter expert in the world, unless your learning strategy is aligned with your business aims, then it doesn't really matter how interactive or inspirational the course is. Yet as Donald Clark, Epic, points out: "Very few companies actually have a clear learning strategy and it's not always totally business driven."