Computers have became an integral part of our lives and we have been using them for almost everything such as programming, banking, shopping, and gaming. So, why can't we use it for learning as well? This concept of computer based learning started in the early 90s and has caught the attention of many academicians and the industrialists. Today, we have many educational institutions and corporate universities using computers as the medium of instruction.

The formal definition of E-Learning is "Convergence of education, technology, and media". Having said this, who comprises E-Learning development team:

1. Subject Matter Expert
2. Instructional Designer
3. Content Writer
4. Graphics Artist
5. Programmer
6. Project Manager

Let us briefly look at the roles of each one involved in the process of creating E-Learning program:

Subject Matter Expert: A Subject Matter Expert of SME provides the content expertise to the course. SMEs are the people who are experts in their areas of work, have authored books, and have done extensive research in their own domain. However, they may not possess the teaching skills or presentation skills.

Instructional Designer: An instructional designer is a core team member in the design and development of an E-Learning program. He/she is responsible for interacting with the SME and other team members and see to it that the program meets the desired objectives. An instructional designer is mainly responsible for the application of learning/instructional theories and create a learner-centric e-learning program. He/she is a virtual facilitator between the SME and the end user (learner).

Content Writer: The content writer is responsible for the overall presentation of the content of the e-learning program. He/she uses the design document created by the instructional designer that contains learning objectives and course outline and describes in detail each element, such as text, audio, graphics, and interactions in the form of storyboards.

Graphic Artist: A graphic artist is responsible for creating the graphics by visualizing the ideas presented by the SME and/or instructional designer. As the saying goes "A picture is worth 1000 words", a graphic artist brings life to the e-learning program by the way of converting text into enticing graphics.

Programmer: A programmer integrates text, graphics, and media using sophisticated authoring tools and finally delivers a functional course. He/she is also responsible for fixing the bugs discovered during testing.

Project Manager: A PM is responsible for managing the resources (people, time, and money) and see to it that the program comes out as per the expectations of the sponsor or client who has requested it.

This article is meant to give a high-level overview of E-Learning and more articles will follow on this exciting learning methodology.

Happy E-Learning.

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