Review: How Elearning Solutions Help SMEs

Subject Matter Experts or SMEs have enjoyed a lot of beneficial training from an extremely popular type of Technology Supported Education/Learning (TSL) we all know and love as elearning. It is advantageous in a lot of ways, but the best reasons why it is a blessing to a lot of industries are because it can be used anytime, anywhere and at extremely low costs.



The development of various elearning solutions has helped the SME training process along by making it far more engaging and effective at an economical cost. The best kinds of solutions are actually the open sourced authoring tools and learning management systems (LMS) available online. They help people produce quality output at the best price ever—for free! Here are some examples of how SMEs can use these solutions to their advantage.

Combining the functions of both Moodle and CourseLab is an ideal and great elearning solution for SMEs to use in creating their course plans. Moodle is a free open source elearning software platform, known as a CMS (Course Management System) or LMS. It is specifically designed to help instructors or educators build courses and integrate rich media interaction. CourseLab on the other hand is one of the most powerful authoring tools of today and it offers WYSIWYG environment for the creation of interactive content without having to go through any programming. It can be published online, in an LMS, CD-ROM, and other storage devices.

Sometimes, there are those who would prefer more complex and advanced processes to create equally effective yet higher impact training plans. A recommended combination for this preference is using Moodle and PPT2Flash together. PPT2Flash is a powerful tool for electronic learning and it aids users even at the beginner level to create gripping Flash presentations and courses using PowerPoint by incorporating rich media, tests, interactive simulations, and so on.

I think that these free, open-source elearning solutions are a great way to help the industry along in the face of this harsh economic climate because they truly are a great way to help people develop themselves through effective, high quality individual education.

My Career in Elearning Solutions

Elearning is something that is close to my heart. I was once a teacher for middle school and it has always been my passion to teach even before I got into elearning solutions. A lot of people love asking me about how I got into this career path in the first place. They are very curious since I seem to be enjoying my job as an instructional designer. So I thought about it long and hard and decided to write this post for you guys.



First of, what exactly does an instructional designer do in the first place? This is basically being part of an elearning solutions team and being the one who makes sure that the over all effect of the module, is effective. We are the guys who try to give the elearning solutions students and trainees the best possible elearning experience that they could ever get. The act consists generally speaking of analyzing what the current level of the student is and determining their specific needs. Then the instructional designer will define what the final goal of the instruction should be. Then there will be some intervention materials that will be created if there is a need to help the students or trainees along their transition. This whole activity requires at least some level of knowledge of theories regarding pedagogy and andragogy. That is why being a teacher; this job was already very well suited to me.

I will of course miss a few things that I left behind along with my teaching career. I really miss the wonderful students that I met and made friends with throughout my years as a teacher. But all in all, I am really satisfied with my work in the field of elearning solutions because it pays a lot and it is just a little less stressful. I also love that I get to learn so many different things every time we have a new project individual.