How to work with SMEs on an eLearning project

The SME knows the subject. The learning designer owns how that expertise becomes a usable learning experience. Problems begin when those responsibilities are vague: the SME may try to include everything they know, while the designer may simplify something that is operationally important.

Agree who approves factual accuracy, learning design, brand, accessibility and final release.

Before asking for slides or documents, ask:

• Who is the audience?
• What must they do differently after the learning?
• What mistakes happen now?
• Which mistakes carry the greatest risk?
• What would an expert notice that a novice misses?
• What must be memorised and what can be referenced?

These questions surface usable expertise faster than “send me everything about the topic”.

Experts often skip steps because those steps have become automatic. Ask for a recent difficult case, a common misconception, a near miss and an example where the obvious answer is wrong. Then probe what cues changed the expert's decision.

Those cues make strong scenarios and feedback.

Sort source material into four buckets: must perform, must know, useful reference and out of scope. If a policy must be available but does not need to be memorised, link or provide it as a job aid rather than reproducing every paragraph in the course.

Use a storyboard or early prototype to agree flow, examples, decisions and assessment before spending time on visual polish. Ask SMEs to comment against specific screen IDs and explain the factual or operational reason for requested changes.

Our storyboard template includes reviewer fields for this.

1. Accuracy review: facts, policy, terminology and realistic consequences.
2. Learning review: outcomes, practice, feedback and cognitive load.
3. Final QA: typos, links, accessibility, tracking and release checks.

Do not invite unlimited redesign in every round.

Return to the learner outcome and evidence. Instead of “this is too much text”, say “learners need to choose the correct action; which of these paragraphs do they need in memory to make that choice?” This keeps the conversation about performance rather than taste.

Record the content owner, policy source, review date and triggers for update. A good course becomes risky if nobody knows who should review it when the process changes.

Before release, use the eLearning QA checklist.