Offering unprecedented opportunities for knowledge sharing, the new rapid e-learning trend to develop e-learning in-house has improved course quality, reduced course-development time and boosted profitability. But delivering this change comes with new challenges.

Training managers in rapid e-learning need to manage a new process and identify the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) within the organisation, and then encourage these new recruits to participate in the course-creation process and make sure they understand what is expected of them.

So what does today’s forward-thinking training manager need to consider when managing the development of rapid e-learning? From working with large enterprises like Pepsi, BBC and Bosch Siemens, I would like to share with you a process flow that is enabling these companies to successfully create rapid e-learning courses using their SMEs.

Clear trends are emerging and new processes are crystallising. At the centre of the change is one requirement essential for success in rapid e-learning: winning the hearts and minds of the SMEs. Deliver a workflow and process strategy that wins over the initial SME and the rest of the business will follow. As enthusiasm grows, these first-generation SMEs are likely to evangelise and, as the concept gains favour across the enterprise, spark new initiatives. Ultimately, as the potential of rapid e-learning permeates, anyone in the organisation could find themselves leading the creation of e-learning.

But while the SMEs in these operations may hold world-class industry know-how, their lack of familiarity with the rapid e-learning often means they are prone to two extremes that training manager should remain sensitive to. The first is known as ‘high in the sky’, and is brought on by unrealistic expectations about what can be achieved. The second is known as ‘valley of despair’, which occurs when reality clashes with preconceived, unrealistic expectations.

However, if a clearly staged rapid e-learning development model is used, the negative effects of such peaks and troughs can be minimalised or negated. These stages are known as ‘the workflow’ and are: planning, authoring, Q&As and publishing. Let’s explore the stages in more detail to illustrate how to effectively manage the SME through each milestone:

Planning: This is an important stage for the training manager, as it is essential to define learning objectives and layout course structure. Trainers need to engage with the SMEs and ensure objectives are realistic and obtainable, then confirm that SMEs understand when they will be required to participate and how much time they need to set aside to create content. Finally, the training manager secures approval for the plan from all stakeholders.

Authoring: A workshop environment is recommended to kick start the content creation. Schedule an initial workshop to allow the SME to gain hands-on experience of the e-learning software and begin creating content as per the agreed chapter structure. Then ask the SME to complete an agreed amount of content before a second workshop. In this second workshop SMEs can share learning and work through any challenges they are experiencing with their content creation.

Q & A: Carefully managed feedback helps build, or even re-ignite, enthusiasm for the project. One of the key secrets for success in nurturing SMEs through the content-creation phase is making sure they understand the value of feedback. If an SME doubts their ability to create content, holding a small review cycle with colleagues can provide encouraging feedback and rekindle the SME’s confidence.

Publishing: This consists of final testing and publishing of the course into a business’s Learning Management System, and any repurposing or localisation of course material.

Throughout the entire workflow process outlined here, the workgroup ethic provides an open forum to debate and solve problems like time pressure or loss of confidence that so frequently allow projects to stumble and fall, plus an opportunity to allocate responsibilities, secure buy-in and certify deliverables across the team.

Using a rapid e-learning development model that includes good workflow process allows even fairly inexperienced project managers to create high-quality, scalable rapid e-learning internally.

In simple terms, the larger and the more dispersed the course-creation team, the more likely project managers are to benefit from using the scalable model presented here.

The processes and techniques outlined enable our most forward-thinking organisations to cultivate the strong ‘knowledge sharing’ culture that is becoming critical for success in today’s rapidly changing business environment.

Lars Unneberg is CEO of rapid e-learning business Mohive. He can be contacted on +44 (0) 20 7956 2113. A full white paper on project management in rapid e-learning is available at www.mohive.com/tj

Posted by: David Perring
Added Thursday, 12 June, 2008, 12:54

I think Lars raises some useful points here, especially about the importance of process and intent. This is something we highlighted in our Blog a couple of weeks ago, but I also believe there issues here about his definition of the Rapid e-learning trend. http://elearnity.blogspot.com/2008/05/myth-of-rapid-authoring-tools.html We've been working on a series of research papers into Rapid e-learning and what we've begun to uncover is that Rapid e-learning is not exclusively an internal development trend. http://www.elearnity.com/EKCLoad.htm?load=ByKey/DWIN7ETHHZ One of the most significant aspects of Rapid e-learning in progressive corporates is the involvement of external providers. So, it's clearly not exclusively an internal development phenomenon - that's a narrow view and not the complete story. The more sophisticated adopters of rapid approaches are "pick and mixing" external resources to supplement and augment the development process in part, or in its entirety. There is clearly a range of resourcing options of which internal, external and all the shades in between, can play a part. I'd also like to raise debate about is Lars' implicit definition of Rapid e-learning. What I think he alludes to is Rapid e-training. There are a range of media that can create ULTRA RAPID outputs that are much more immediate than creating a course; podcasts, webinars, blogs, wikis, forums, pdfs, documents, short video-cast - all have a role to play, and they are potentially more significant in stimulating organisational learning than a course can ever be - especially if it incorporates novelty, humour and creativity. I firmly believe the real story of Rapid is the re-appraisal of traditional management and development techniques against the background of the ever increasing pace of change, innovation in cognitive psychology and learning technologies. Without innovation there is stagnation. And the real questions that Rapid raises are about the comparative effectiveness of different learning media, blended learning, project efficiency and the comparative total cost of ownership of different production models. What rapid has done is highlight that in certain instances more established models are failing to deliver. That spending twice as much on a problem doesn't necessarily deliver twice the value. As a response to these business pressures and questions; really to deliver more from less (or the same); the innovators are delivering value where previously it would have been untenable. The only issue is whether people are focussing more on the failures than the successes, because therein lays a threat to their vested interests. For all the technology advances, perhaps the e-learning industry as a whole, has been stagnating with it's approach to courseware development for too long. The need for a some deep impartial research into Rapid e-learning is long overdue and we're looking to initiate a collaborative project into the subject over the summer. Hopefully, that will bring some clarity to what has become quite a murky subject.

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