Yolando Mitchell Brown

Subject Matter Expert As It Relates To Instructional Design

A Subject Matter Expert is an individual who has expertise in a particular field. “As the name suggests, the SME or the content expert is an authority on a particular domain of knowledge from whom the designer is attempting to elicit knowledge. (Lee, 1994) The SME may be a university academic or a business or military expert.” Subject matter experts, as it relates to instructional designed, proved to be a more effective resource in order to speed up the instructional design process. Their main objective was to eliminate self-doubt and the negativity the industry had with producing cheaper and faster instructional design and replacing it with better learning methods.

Designers faced many challenges when attempting to design an instructional unit

in an area in which they had no knowledge or training. Designers where running out of choices when face with unfamiliar materials. “Instead of reading reference materials and textbooks, they decided to talk to the experts in their fields.”(Coyner, 2004)

Facilitating the transfer of knowledge between the instructional designer and the subject matter expert can be tricky. The exchange of information has to be efficient and effective before an instructional design can progress. Designers can and sometimes rely on subject matter experts to conceptualize unfamiliar territory to assist them with their designs and accuracy. (Yancey, 1996)

"The mark of a good instructional designer is the ability to build instruction that meets its goals. Many trainers do not build instruction, and many trainers who do build instruction do not have any formal training in how to do that adequately."

In fact, Shank says, many trainers don't have the most basic skills in ID, and don't know that they need them. That's because of the way many of them become trainers, or even end up in charge of all training.

Many trainers get into training because they were SMEs who were asked to train others in their area of expertise. Often they start training in one area, and then end up with the whole enchilada-but either way, they often don't have any background in ID fundamentals. "They learn how to write instruction by working with others who do it, and they write it in the same way," Shank says. "Sometimes an organization has templates for training, and they just take the content and put it in the template. If the template has good thinking behind it, that's fine, but if they don't have an ID background, they might not have the skills to know when that template won't work."

"A PowerPoint presentation is not training. It can be part of training, but it's not training," she says. "You don't train someone in how to use Excel or how to fly a plane with a presentation. That's a key thing that trainers without an ID background don't know; they don't know that there's a difference between knowing about something and knowing how to do it."

THE FACULTY SME

Keynote Topics:

• Quality Management

• Leadership

• Creating Reliable Organizations

On-site Training:

• Quality Management

• Problem Solving

• Communication Skills

• Quality Work Group Education

References:

1. Coyner, S. C., & McCann, P. L. (2004). Advantages and Challenges of Teaching in an Electronic Environment: The Accommodate Model. International Journal of Instructional Media. 31(3), 223.

2. Armstrong, J.B., & Sherman, T.M. (1988). Caveat emptor: How SMEs can ensure good ID. Performance and Instruction, April, 13-18.

3. Ingram, A.L., Heitz, K., Reid, C., Walsh, M.B., & Wells, C. (1993). Working with subject matter experts. Performance and Instruction, 33(8), 17-22.

4. Lee, W.W. (1994). Subject matter experts and instructional designers: Making distinctions. Performance and Instruction, 33(8), 23-25.

5. Maple, R.J. (1994). "Well, you're the CE ... I'm the ID ..." Describing your role-and selling your worth-to content experts. Performance and Instruction, 33(8), 36-40.

6. Rodriguez, S., Stephens, R., & Arena, S. (1991). Interviewing subject matter experts: Strategies for instructional design success. Educational Technology, December, 27-32.

7. Yancey, C. (1996). The ABCs of working with SMEs. Performance and Instruction, 35(1), 6-9.

8. Verstegen, D., Barnard, Y., & Pilot, A. (2008). Instructional Design by Novice Designers: Two Empirical Studies. Journal of Interactive Learning Research. 19(2), 351-383. http://www.aace.org;

9. Fadde, P. J. (2007). Seeing is Believing: Video Mock-Ups to Evaluate and Demonstrate Multimedia Designs. TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning. 51(4), 32-38. http://www.springerlink.com;

10. Mattoon, Joseph Sterling. (2005). Desing and Developing Technical Curriculum: Finding the Right Subject Matter Expert. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, 42 no2, 61-76. Abstract retrieved May 11, 2008 from, WilsonWeb database.

11. Dolezalek, Holly. (2006, January). Who has time to design? Training (Minneapolis). 43(1), 24-28. Retrieved May 11, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 972984491).

Additional links for information Subject Matter Experts and Instructional Designers

1. Definitions of subject matter expert –

http://ssbsd.com/sme_welcome.php

2. What is instructional design? –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional%5Fdesign

3. How to train to be a subject matter expert? -

http://www.motorcontrol.com/training_mti/additional_info.htm

4. Work as an subject matter expert-

http://www.etech.ohio.gov/programs/elearning/criteria.jsp

5. Instructional design course -

http://www.instructionaldesigninstitute.com/certificate_programs.cfm

6. Instructional design forums -

http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/htm/IDC_instructionaldesignforums.htm

• Pictures provided by Yahoo and Google Images:

Videos provided by YouTube:**

7. Youtube video for SME –

8. YouTube video for Instructional Designers

9. YouTube video Instructional Designers