Top 5 eLearning Skills for 2011 – A Follow-Up

Kevin Thorn writes, "Following up on last week’s post titled, “Top 5 Skills for eLearning in 2011,” I’d  like to explore this at a different angle. We could go two ways with this: Brand new to the eLearning industry, or a seasoned veteran honing their skills."

The comments generated from the original post focused a lot on why Instructional Design was not included in the top 5, so let’s start there with three key points:

1. Instructional Design is not eLearning Design. Whether you are formally trained in Instructional Design or you have spent a number of years in the industry practicing the craft, ID is not a specific skill rather a conglomerate of methods, models, practices, theories, and techniques.

2. Instructional Design is the “design” of “instruction.” This profession has been around long before eLearning arrived and Instructional Design encompasses everything from classroom instruction to a job aide, while eLearning falls somewhere in the middle.

3. Instructional Design is not a single skill but a varying degree of many perishable skills. The eLearning skills you need for 2011 may be directly influenced by the industry in which you work, and therefore some are more prevalent than others.

While I don’t necessarily disagree with this first list as each have their merit, but I’m not quite sure these fit as the top 5 skills needed for 2011 as opposed to the next 5-10 years. Let’s look at these 5 again from broader approach and discuss a few more I’ve thrown in.

1. Video Production
2. Social Media
3. Mobile Development
4. Graphic Design
5. Rapid Development

More skills:

• Project Management
• Writing
• Storyboarding
• Rapid Prototyping

With eLearning Weekly’s permission, let’s shake the list up a bit. From the perspective I shared above, two of the original and four additional skills make a new list of the Top 6 eLearning Skills for 2011:

Photo: eLearning Weekly 

1. Project Management
2. Writing
3. Storyboarding
4. Rapid Prototyping
5. Graphics (design or researching skills)
6. Rapid Development
Read more... 

Source: eLearning Weekly