How eLearning Writers Work With IDs And SMEs

Why Do You Even Need Me?

Sometimes I get asked, “If you’re not an Instructional Designer, and you’re not an expert in the topic we’re teaching, why exactly do we need you?”

I explained how I work with IDs in an earlier article here: Working With Instructional Designers

But I recently had to give a deeper explanation to a client, sharing not only what I do but what I don’t. And I thought I’d share what came out of that conversation.

Generally, I work with organizations that have a dedicated Instructional Designer (ID) who is trained and credentialed to design and organize the course structure, based on what we know about the skill level of the learners and the teaching goals of the organization. They are not necessarily experts in the topic, they’re experts in education, the organization and delivery of lessons, supplementary materials, progress quizzing and testing, gamification, etc. It’s their job to design a course that achieves the best possible measurable engagement, knowledge transfer, and completion rates.

They gather the knowledge base — the expert information that is to be taught — from the Subject Matter Experts (SME). SMEs know their stuff but they aren’t necessarily teachers and aren’t always the best at communicating their specialized knowledge to learners who aren’t already experts themselves. So the ID works with the SMEs to capture the knowledge in the form of interviews, essays, etc that the SME already has or creates for the project.

Then the ID decides what’s most valuable to the learner, and largely what order it should come in the teaching process. They decide what should be a video with a narrator, what should be a ‘scenario’ of best practices performed by actors, what should be a downloadable PDF, what should be an animation or an infographic, what should be an interactive gamified lesson, etc.

WHAT I DO

The ID isn’t necessarily a writer either, so they might not have the skill set to take all that hermetic, complicated, highly specialized SME documentation and turn it into conversational, accessible language that still captures and communicates the important knowledge.

That’s my job. The ID gives me the SME documentation, explains to me the knowledge level of the learner and the goals of the course, explains how the information will be delivered, and then I simplify and organize the SME info into accessible, conversational dialogues for narrators and actors in video content.

Sometimes that also includes:

• Making organizational decisions about the content within the lesson.
• Making recommendations about what should be on screen (an actor’s actions, specific props, a subtitle below or alongside a narrator, or a static presentation slide) — that info is usually given in a column alongside the dialogue content. (I do not design the slides or graphics.)
• Writing the content for quizzes, tests, or supplemental resources that the ID identifies (PDFs, articles, handbooks, infographics, etc) to support the learning. (I do not design the resources, slides, or graphics.)
• Research. I am not the SME. So where needed, I’ll ask IDs or SMEs for clarification on things I don’t understand, or for guidance on finding more information from trusted sources (it’s not my job to know where to find the latest legal requirements for home healthcare workers, or the current process for applying to Medicare, for instance.)
• Where necessary I’ll use the provided trusted sources to do additional research to augment or better understand the materials. When I add my own research to the course info I highlight it, cite a source, and tell the ID to doublecheck — maybe via the SME — that my addition is accurate and hasn’t weakened the learning.
• I also have a shortlist of my own preferred, qualified, and vetted resources for general research — mostly in the digital domain, but some that cover more industries and trends, like Statista. I sometimes use Wikipedia as a starting point, but don’t cite it directly – I follow the cited sources for specific publications and expert analyses.

Handling Complex Topics

I see my job as “making complex ideas understandable.”

How I go about this largely depends on the learner’s familiarity with the topic, their current skill level, and the actionable goal of the course — what should they know or be able to do when the course is completed?

• I use as little jargon as possible, but as much as necessary for the learner to become familiar with the industry-standard vocabulary. I don’t assume they know it from the jump.
• I’m a fan of providing definitions IN CONTEXT rather than making learners flip back and forth to a glossary or a footnote (although a separate glossary isn’t a bad thing as a supplement.)
• I always recommend information is delivered in the chronological order of operations. Don’t jump back and forth in your timeline.
• I try to provide a “recipe” not a “list of ingredients.” I don’t dump facts, I want to help learners understand how they can take what they learn and put it to work.

WHAT I DON’T DO

• Slide or graphic design — I know enough about quality design to know I’m not a designer LOL.
• Video production — I have been a producer in the past but am not one now, so I know how to consider production issues in my writing.
• Video editing — I have been an editor in the past but am not one now, so I know how to consider editing in my writing.
• Integration of materials into the chosen Learning Management System (LMS) — That’s the ID’s job. If I know what kinds of LMS interactivities the ID wants to include, I can plan for that in the script writing or slide content by indicating “click here to see an animation” or “click here to take a quiz” etc.

Want to talk?

If you’ve got an elearning project and need to add a writer, I’d love to talk with you about it.