collaboration with subject matter expert

8/14/2019 Collaboration With Subject Matter Expert

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In this lesson we will focus on collaboration with the

Subject Matter Expert.

Project Team Collaboration

In the ancient history of digital media -- in other words the late 80's to early 90's -- it wascommon for a one person, a super-producer, to single handedly create a high qualitymedia product. However, creating effective digital media products in today's marketplace

is becoming an increasingly difficult prospect for one person.

Regardless of how much division of labor is applied, team members will likely play more

than one role. Only in the most monolithic media development houses are the duties sodivided that no team member has more than one area of expertise and no tasks are shared.

The extreme cases where one "producer" juggles all the responsibility - - from art design

and creation to programming -- result in an inferior product, an extended developmentschedule, or a burnt-out employee.

In the cases of contracted media product development, the client may be asked to play

certain and various roles by the vendor. The vendor conversely will be asked, required, or possibly demanded, to assume a set of roles and responsibilities.

Development teams are notoriously eclectic bunches. The team can widely vary between

self-taught members and those with academic credentials such as TAFE qualifications ininstructional design, psychology, programming, art, and other areas of study.



Click here for an outline of the roles and responsibilities of digital mediapractitioners involved in product design and development. In this lesson we will focus

on collaboration with the Subject Matter Expert.

SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS (SMEs)

Designers (Graphic, animators, instructional, etc.) will often have to work with people

who have expert knowledge of the product that is being designed and developed. These

experts are known as Subject Matter Experts and are referred to as SMEs. Their expertiseis required to provide advice on the subject matter and to identify sources of content that

are appropriate, relevant and current. The designer’s expertise is used to present the

content to meet the needs of the client.

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The subject matter expert (SME), contributes the core content and original materials

along with being available for information acquisition through formal or informalinterviews. She/he provides access to source materials and reference items such as books,

articles, videotapes, and static art. In the client/vendor model, the client assigns this

person as one who can give guided tours of facilities, explain processes, create flowdiagrams, provide sample dialogue, and shape simulated settings. It is the responsibility

of the SME to reviews design documents, scripts, and the final deliverable for accuracy.

In an elearing project the instructional designer (ID) is the training expert and the SMEs

are the subject experts, SMEs provide (or advise and suggest) the content to be used

while the ID arranges that content into material that can easily be learned:

• SMEs are responsible on what tasks to include, the steps that are to be performed,

while IDs are responsible on how that material will be presented (demonstrate -

practice - test).

•

SMEs are responsible for providing technical-jargon, while IDs decide if that jargon needs to be explained.

• SMEs are responsible for what is acceptable performance, while IDs decide how

that performance will be evaluated.

SMEs should be involved in all stages of the project, as follows:1. Scoping - SMEs provide valuable insight into the requirements for training and the

scope of knowledge required to perform the task being covered. As you scope the project

with your client, involve the SMEs to assist in defining the knowledge and skillsrequired.

2. Project Kickoff - Ensure the SMEs are listed on the project team and their roles areexplained to the client and other participants.

3. Knowledge Acquisition - The SMEs will run this part of the project, bringing the

content and suggesting resources.

4. Storyboard - SMEs will participate as content reviewers.

5. QA Testing - SMEs will test deployed content to ensure proper flow.

6. Deployment - SMEs standby when the course rolls out to ensure there are no further revisions that require their input.

collaboration with subject matter expert

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