How to start an e-learning team: making your dream teamwork

Creating teams with e-learning: challenges and how to address them

As the cornerstone of e-learning projects, the learning and development team should possess great dynamics and a strong blend of expertise to develop effective online training courses.

However, this does not come without certain challenges.

It may take some time to transform a group of subject matter experts into a successful team. So it’s key to ensure that activities spent with each other should be strategically planned to make the most of everyone’s time and expertise.

Furthermore, especially with online learning and creating e-learning courses, physical presence may not always be a factor. Working remotely has its pros and cons – it can bring together people from various locations with more ease but establishing rapport may be tricky, especially with the lack of face-to-face interaction. To address this, team facilitators should take advantage of technologies to beef up communications and create group activities that will help blend different personalities.

It is key to acknowledge these challenges and find a way to address them, as creating a group with several team members could create conflict if not handled well. It is important to create a diverse group with different skills, experiences, knowledge, insights, and personalities to develop online learning courses that will serve their purpose.

Here are five other steps to ensure your e-learning dream team lives up to its full potential:

1. Know the strengths and weaknesses of the individual team members.

Understanding your members is essential in assigning roles and projects. Allow your team to know each other’s credentials, skills, and career background, so they know who and when to tap into the other’s expertise. Likewise, discuss knowledge gaps and skills that are not present within the existing team. Work to fill in these gaps and discover where existing skills and experience can complement one another.

2. Once the strengths and weaknesses are known, then it’s time to assign roles.

A successful team geared towards creating e-learning projects should have a good blend of skills and expertise. Typically, roles will include:

• A coordinator.
• A facilitator or discussion moderator.
• A rock star skilled at project management.
• A cheerleader who keeps the morale of the group high.

As the project becomes more specialized, the team could use the help of technologists, analysts, graphic designers, copywriters, legal experts, editors, and individuals skilled at creating presentations. Consider the following roles:

• The learning leader – who drives the team towards the vision and a common goal
• The authoring tool expert –who knows the ins and outs of the authoring tool and your learning management system (LMS)
• Learning designer – understands the learning objectives and is an expert in instructional design, with learning experiences as top of mind.
• Subject matter expert – the expert in the field who provides the content

3. Clarify the common goal and let the teamwork on a united front.

It’s easier to create harmony in a group when everyone is working towards a common goal. Make sure that each team member understands the mission. Align their roles and goals to that of the team so that developing an online course together is more meaningful and worthy of everyone’s time and input.

4. Agree on the systems and processes.

According to Atomic Habits by James Clear, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Your goal is your desired outcome. Your system is the collection of daily habits that will get you there.”

Set systems and processes that will drive the common goal. These goals are particularly important, especially in remote settings when team members cannot be together in one room all the time. By adopting systems and processes religiously, the team can work more seamlessly and progress as desired. And remember, an agile team treats these systems as something that can evolve as needed!

5. Start early.

Last but not least, invest in an e-learning team early on in the process. By creating an e-learning project with a learning team in mind, you’re one step ahead in ensuring a successful rollout of your learning and development program.