Elearning - Winter 2005 - (Page 30)

partneringwithcolleges time — a considerable advantage as you start to create your e-learning program. Another benefit to partnering appears when you begin to market your new program internally. Tapping a trusted, well-known expert as your resource lends credibility, and an affiliation with a respected academic institution can enhance the perception of your programs within your organization. Ultimately, this will raise the level of interest among your users and help speed adoption. Finally, professors and instructors often bring tremendous enthusiasm for extending their ideas and research to new audiences. Their engagement in the learning process can inject new energy into the process of developing the content for your program. These experts are usually very willing to help, and can provide excellent feedback on your materials, which will help create a topquality offering. ACTING AS TRANSLATORS: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE While it might seem that working with an academic institution will provide you with ample ready-made content for your "We think of ourselves as translators. We take the world-renowned content from the professor we're working with and mold it into a digestable, yet engaging format." e-learning program, you will still be responsible for much of the content development. Professors and instructors are typically brilliant lecturers with deep knowledge in their area of expertise, but they package and deliver their content to a completely different audience than corporate trainers do. Your effort will be needed to package their concepts into a successful e-learning program. “We think of ourselves as translators,” says Sara Cummins, executive producer and design architect, Harvard Business School Publishing eLearning. “We take the worldrenowned content from the professor we’re working with and mold it into a digestible, yet engaging format that managers can apply within their jobs right away.” There is often quite a large gap between the broad concepts a professor introduces in a lecture or article and the specific, applicable knowledge a person needs to be successful in their day-to-day job. While a professor may be the subject matter expert, you are the learning and development expert within your organization. When working with a professor, examine his or her content from your audience’s point of view. How can you take the author’s framework and present it in a meaningful, useful format? Such thinking should lead your program design and content development effort. The way content is packaged for presentation in class is often very different than what’s needed for an elearning course, where interactivity and tools must replace a dynamic lecture or classroom discussion. For example, the managers using our e-learning products are pressed for time. They need tools and easily accessible, packaged information grounded in real-world examples. Translating management concepts into programs that include tools such as assessments, worksheets, quizzes, and case scenarios has helped meet the needs of the trainer. It’s also important to consider the level of your audience and how it may differ from the student audience an expert has experience teaching. Business training materials need to address audiences at many levels, including many with considerable experience. It's important to present concepts in a manner that assumes a certain level of understanding and is geared toward reinforcing and refining critical leadership skills. This pragmatic approach allows important concepts uncovered through academic research to 30 Winter 2005 Elearning!

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Elearning - Winter 2005

Elearning - Winter 2005 Contents Editor’s Note News & Analysis Witness Buys Blue Pumpkin Deals in the Making People on the Move Trendline Executives Rate Importance of Training Requirements for Support Put Pressure on Tech Companies Hiring Trends: Small Companies, Big Plans Measuring the Return on Your E-earning Investments Building Interactivity into E-learning Partnering with Colleges and Universities for E-learning Content Strategy VoIP Voice Over IP Case Study: LMS Content Development & Collaboration Tools Case Study: ePerformance Last Word

Elearning - Winter 2005

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