Amitabh Sharma, Features Coordinator
Enhancing skill sets is a pertinent exercise for professionals and employers alike. Faced with a competitive environment, the need for keeping abreast with volatile technological changes has necessitated companies to impart training for their employees. The paucity of time for executives to 'go back to classrooms', has given way to the unique concept of e-learning as an effective tool for education.
What is e-learning?
E-learning means different things to different people. It could be defined as the usage of network technologies to create, foster, deliver and facilitate learning anytime and anywhere.
E-learning gained global momentum in 2000 and is today acknowledged to be more about enabling learning and driving performance than training. In fact, it is increasingly being recognised as a competitive edge that would allow organisations to survive and grow in a complex and dynamic global business environment.
The job opportunities
There are four broad skill sets or clusters that are required for most e-learning jobs. Depending on the position, the weighing of these skill sets will be different but generally all four are present. These clusters are instructional design, technology, consulting and business.
E-learning job model
The job model is divided into three categories: executive and consulting roles; design, development and production team roles; and learning software, tools and application roles. It is not necessary that these roles be exclusive; in fact, a particular job may include several, if not many of these roles and skills.
The job model, however, describes 80 to 90 per cent of the most important activities in the field of e-learning.
Graphic designer/interface designer
Responsibilities:
Creating graphics, colours, layouts and styles
Creating multimedia content
Skill sets required:
Formal education in the graphic design field coupled with extensive experience and knowledge in design for interactivity, interface design and multimedia authoring.
Extensive knowledge with some or all of the following software and related skills:
MacroMedia, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, etc.
Fonts, images, high resolutions, EPS files and image management
Good understanding of colour
Instructional Designers
Responsibilities:
Understand the need and design the flow of the content
An interface between the subject matter expert and interface designer
Analysis of clients' needs
Skill sets required:
Basic education in psychology/industrial psychology/philosophy/literature
Excellent written and oral communication skills
Familiarity but need not be an expert with web-based authoring tools
Knowledge in creating storyboards and design documents
Content Writers/Course Developer
Responsibilities:
Writing and editing of training materials
Work closely with subject matter experts to design, develop and write effective core training solutions
Skill sets required:
Good writing skills
Experience in education sector
Certificate/diploma in adult education
Verbal and written communication skills should be exemplary
Programmers
Responsibilities:
Creation of Learning Management System (LMS)/ Content Packaging
Skill sets required:
Strong understanding of Operating Systems and Web Servers, eg. Windows Servers, IIS, SMTP and Networking, Apache Server
Knowledge of RDMS
Knowledge of Programming languages, eg. ASP, ASP.net, VB, or Java, J2EE, etc.
Writing queries and stored procedures is a must.
Management Implementation consultant
Responsibilities:
Thorough understanding of the issues in operating a training organisation in a large company
One or more years of experience in the implementation of media-based training would be an added advantage
Understand training programme evaluation and measurement
Understanding skill gap analysis
Skill sets required:
Knowledge of end user desktop applications
Knowledge of installing Windows and web-based applications
A theoretical understanding of client-server technologies and networking, the Microsoft Windows NT network operating system, installing and configuring web server software package like Microsoft Internet Information Server or Netscape Enterprise Server, Java applets and applications.
LMS Administrator
Responsibilities:
Administering the LMS
Publishing, testing, deploying and maintaining training content and class schedules
Manage the publishing of file or web-based training content
Publish, test, and deploy training content
Coordinate course/class creation through evaluation, scheduling and ongoing customer support
Assist and educate instructors on pre- and post-class delivery administrative functions
Technical support for LMS, sharing information about features, limitations and periodic changes and LMS reporting
Skill sets required:
Software and/or networking technical support
Proficient (advanced/expert level) in OS and browsers
Understand networking and network equipment
Experience with best practices, workflows, and documenting procedures are preferred.
As the traditional methods of training are being replaced with e-learning, it is opening up numerous opportunities for people with varied skill sets within this rich and often exciting environment.
amitabh.sharma@gleanerjm.com
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