EXPLORING REQUIREMENTS FOR E-LEARNING
PROFESSIONALS
Myeonggil Choi
Dept.of Systems Management and Engineering, INJE University,
607,Obang-dong, Gimhae, Gyeonam,621-749, South Korea
Keywords: Electronic (e) -learning, requirements, e-learning professionals, Delphi method.
Abstract: Rapid progress of IT technology made a new type of online based learning system, called electronic (e) -
learning, born, and it is now considered to be a key driving force of next generation for the growth of
industry. Recently, the needs for competent professionals who can lead the growth of e-learning industry are
recognized to be in pressing. This paper presents requirements which the e-learning professionals, which are
instructional designers, developers, and project managers (PM) & consultants, respectively, should be
educated and trained to be marketable in competitive e-learning markets. To identify the requirements for
each professional group respectively, we first investigated lots of literatures relevant to e-learning, curricula
of universities and educational institutions, and job searching websites. Through the investigations, we
could single out no small number of items which were considered to be necessary for e-learning
professionals, and they were broken down into three categories, which were fundamental, professional,
practical requirements. Then they were reviewed by a group of e-learning professionals to see whether they
were properly singled out and classified. From this procedure, a phase of Delphi method was used and
totally 42 requirements were created. Among the 42 items, to identify requirements especially important for
each professional group, respectively, and to estimate the priorities of each item among the items which
were selected as requirements, we gathered data through questionnaire survey. The requirements which
were presented in this paper will provide useful guidelines or criteria in designing curriculum of e-learning
education for e-learning instructional designer, developer, project manager and consultant.
1 INTRODUCTION
Advances in networking technology, the explosive
growth of the Internet, and the liberalization of
telecommunication markets increasingly allow
businesses and private individuals to reap the
benefits of sophisticated networked computer
applications (D.Spinellis et al., 1999), and these kind
of evolutions enabled new and interesting designs
for the support of traditional learning and for the
development of new forms of learning (Kostas
Metaxiotis et al., 2001), which is termed e-learning.
It provides new opportunities for people to learn
without attending classroom of school (Anna
Comacchio et al., 2004).
Although the demands of e-learning have been
increasing and e-learning can be used in the various
fields of industry for either/both educational or/and
training purposes (Shirley, 2001; Alstete, 2001),
there are many problems to be resolved such as
standardization, technology development, security
issues, professional training and education, and the
other problems hindering the growth of e-learning
industry.
The demands for e-learning professionals
underline the need for identifying knowledge, skills,
practical abilities and prior experiences which are
important for e-learning professionals, and it will
surely provide directions or guidelines for education
and training of e-learning professionals. In reality,
more e-learning professionals are wanted, but we
run short of them who are educated and trained
systematically. Therefore, Identifying the specific
knowledge, skills, practical abilities and prior
experiences for e-learning professionals is critical.
However, no analysis of them for e-learning
professionals has been undertaken as of yet.
The purpose of this research is to identify
knowledge, skills, practical abilities and prior
experiences required for e-learning professionals for
323
Choi M. (2006).
EXPLORING REQUIREMENTS FOR E-LEARNING PROFESSIONALS.
In Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Business, pages 323-326
DOI: 10.5220/0001425803230326
Copyright
c
 SciTePress

the accomplishment of their job-related tasks. In this
paper, we define the required knowledge, skills,
practical abilities and prior experiences as
requirements in shortly. The requirements identified,
which are the results of this research, could be used
in determining what kinds of knowledge, skills,
practical abilities and prior experiences should be
included in the curriculum of e-learning education
programs and be educated and trained to be a
competent worker for e-learning company. And also
the results could be used as a guideline in designing
a systematic educational program for e-learning
professionals in Universities or other specialized e-
learning institutes.
Generally e-learning professionals can be
classified into Instructional Designer, Developer,
Subject Matter Expert (SME), Interface Designer,
Project Manager(PM)/Consultant, and
Administrator. In this paper, we consider only
Instructional Designer, Developer, and Project
Manager (PM)/Consultant.
2 ANALYSIS OF REQUIREMENT
S FOR E-LEARNING
PROFESSINALS
To identify the requirements that e-learning
professionals should have, we investigated lots of
literatures relevant to e-learning, curricula of 17
universities, 7 public or private educational
institutions, and 5 job-search websites. Through the
investigations, we could additionally recognize the
current educational situation of e-learning as well as
identify the requirements.
Mentioning, firstly, the current educational
situation of e-learning, we could not find any
university’s e-learning curricula, but we could find
several e-learning related courses of study which
were mostly opened in school of educational
technology or education. While some educational
institutions were running programs for e-learning
professionals, all were short-term curriculums
lecturing for about eight weeks, which would be not
enough to learn and train the needed requirements.
When we investigated the websites for job-search,
we could see that there are many companies which
are recruiting e-learning professionals and the
demands for them have been rapidly increased.
Saying decisively about the current educational
situation of e-learning, there were no systematic
educational programs in spite of the soaring increase
of demand for qualified e-learning professionals.
Through our investigations, we could identify the
necessary requirements, and it was collectively
composed of items which are technical and non-
technical. The technical requirements were almost
concerned with IT skills such as proficiency in
computer and its applications, coding, networking.
The non-technical materials were theories and
knowledge that e-learning professionals surely have
to know to perform their tasks successfully, and it
contributes to the creative and effective performance
of tasks. And human skills, such as inter-personal
relations, cooperative organization skills, and
positive working attitude, were recognized to be
essential qualifications for team working.
To be a qualified professional, he/she must be
balanced technically and non-technically (Kai et al.,
2002), to say, must know theories and principles
well and also should be able to apply it to practical
fields.
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The requirements could be classified into three
categories, which are basic knowledge and skills
relevant to computer and distance education,
professional knowledge and skills relevant to e-
learning, and abilities that they can adopt the
knowledge and skills of the previous two categories
to practical industry field.
The created 42 requirements were broken down
into 3 categories, which are 10 fundamental, 23
professional, and 9 practical requirements. Although
the lists of requirements are composed of items
which are generally recognized to be essential to e-
learning professionals, the task domains of e-
learning instructional designer, developer, and PM
& consultant are quite different as described in the
first section, and it is difficult to cover all knowledge
and skills perfectly. Requesting opinions and
obtaining consensus from the professionals relevant
to e-learning would help get validity of the research
results. To get data necessary for this study, a phase
of Delphi method was used.The research processes
used in this study can be outlined as the following
steps.
Step 1: Create a full list of requirements.
Step 2: Prepare a questionnaire to get data.
Step 3: Carry out the survey.
Step 4: Integrate and analyze the survey results.
The details for each above step are as follows. To
create a full list of requirements for e-learning
professionals in Step 1, the researches which were
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already mentioned in the previous section 3 and 4
were performed, and then we asked a working group
of an e-learning company in Korea to check each
item of the list and to contribute to the creation of a
full list. In this procedure, simplified Delphi (Sehun
Kim, 2002) was performed. In step 3, the
respondents were asked to check the items which
were thought to be important for e-learning
instructional designer, developer, and PM &
consultant, respectively. After checking the items,
they were also asked to rank the checked items
within each category in consideration of its relative
importance for each professional group respectively.
The questionnaire was sent to 650 people, who are
relevant to e-learning, by e-mail and we got 59
returned e-mails, 9.1 percent responsive rate. We got
in contact with many of them by phone asking to
reply the questionnaire to improve the responsive
rate, but most questionnaires were ignored like spam
mail and refused to reply. In step 4, the returned
questionnaires were analyzed through the following
procedures. First, we identified the requirements of
each category for the three professional groups,
respectively.
4 DISCUSSIONS ON THE SURVE-
Y RESULTS
4.1, 4.2,and 4.3 shows the survey results of this
study, which indicate which items are required for e-
learning instructional designer, developer, and PM
& consultant, respectively, and also which items
among the requirements should be more importantly
considered for competent e-learning professional.
4.1 Discussions on Fundamental
Requirements
Instructional Designer has 7 requirements. (1) WBL
Programming and Tools, (2) Understanding
Computer, (3) Knowledge of Visual Communication
Design Theory, (4) Human Relations &
Interpersonal Communications, (5) Knowledge of
Computer Operating Systems (OS), (6) Knowledge
of Computer Networks, (7) Leadership.
Instructional Developer has 9 requirements. (1)
Human Relations & Interpersonal Communications,
(2) WBL Programming and Tools, (3) Knowledge of
Distance Education, (4) Knowledge of Visual
Communication Design Theory, (5) Understanding
Computer, (6) Computer Programming, (7)
Knowledge of Computer Operating Systems (OS),
(8) Knowledge of Computer Database Systems (DB),
(9) Knowledge of Computer Networks.
PM & Consultant has 10 requirements. (1)
Leadership, (2) Human Relations & Interpersonal
Communications, (3) WBL Programming and Tools,
(4) Knowledge of Visual Communication Design,
(5) Theory, (6) Understanding Computer, (7)
Computer Programming, (8) Knowledge of Distance
Education, (9) Knowledge of Computer Database
Systems (DB), (10) Knowledge of Computer
Operating Systems (OS), (11) Knowledge of
Computer Networks.
4.2 Discussions on Professional
Requirements
The two professional groups, except for instructional
developer, included all 23 items, but the priorities of
each item are different.
Instructional Designer has 23 requirements. (1)
Knowledge of Instructional Design Theories, (2)
Knowledge of Instructional, Learning and Cognition
Theories, (3) Understanding Instructional, (4)
Design Strategies and Tactics, (5) Understanding
Corporate Education, (6) Understanding Andragogy
for Lifelong Education, (7) Knowledge of
Instructional Message Design, (8) Contents Design
and Development, (9) Web based Curriculum
Design, (10) Interface Design, (11) Learner Analysis
Ability to Evaluate Training and Performance, (12)
Knowledge of Instructional Media and Programs
Evaluation, (13) Knowledge of Learner Motivation
in Instructional Design, (14) Ability to Analyze
Needs Assessment, (15) Ability to Analyze
Task/Contents, (16) Ability to Establish
Individualized Learning System, (17) Risk Analysis,
(18) Understanding Blended Learning, (19)
Understanding Human Resource Development and
Training, (20) Management of e-Learning
Development Project, (21) Knowledge of Computer
Security and Privacy, (22) Knowledge of
Performance Technology and Consulting, (23)
Knowledge of e-learning Management.
Instructional Developer has 7 requirements. (1)
Contents Design and Development, (2) Knowledge
of Instructional Design Theories, (3)Web based
Curriculum Design, (4) Interface Design
Understanding Instructional Design Strategies and
Tactics, (5) Understanding Blended Learning, (6)
Knowledge of Computer (7) Security and Privacy
PM & Consultant have 23 requirements. (1)
Management of e-Learning Development Project,
(2) Ability to Analyze Needs Assessment, (3)
Ability to Analyze Task/Contents, (4) Knowledge of
EXPLORING REQUIREMENTS FOR E-LEARNING PROFESSIONALS
325

Learner Motivation in Instructional Design, (5)
Understanding Instructional Design Strategies and
Tactics, (6) Understanding Human Resource
Development and Training, (7) Risk Analysis, (8)
Understanding Blended Learning, (9) Ability to
Establish Individualized Learning System, (10)
Knowledge of Instructional Design Theories, (11)
Knowledge of Instructional Learning and Cognition
Theories, (12) Understanding Corporate Education,
(13) Understanding Andragogy for Lifelong
Education, (14) Knowledge of Instructional Design
Theories, (15) Learner Analysis (16) Interface
Design, (17) Ability to Evaluate Training and
Performance, (18) Knowledge of Instructional
Media and Program Evaluation, (19) Contents
Design and Development, (20) Web based
Curriculum Design, (21) Knowledge of Performance
Technology and Consulting, (22) Knowledge of
Computer Security and Privacy, (23) Knowledge of
e-Learning Management
4.3 Discussions on Practical
Requirements
In practical requirements, “Optimum Learning
Environment Design” and “Instructional System
Development” are considered to be the most
important items for both instructional designer and
PM & Consultant, and these are highly related to the
own tasks of both professionals.
Instructional Designer has 9 requirements. (1)
Instructional Systems Development, (2) Optimum
Learning Environment Design, (3) Training Program
Design, (4) Implementation of e-LMS and LCM, (5)
e-learning Consulting, (6) Educational Software
Design and Development, (7) Ability to Prepare
Storyboard, (8) Ability to Prepare Proposal of e-
Learning Program, Development, (9) e-Learning
Internship.
Instructional Developer has 5 requirements.(1)
Educational Software Design and Development, (2)
Ability to Prepare Storyboard, (3)
Training Program
Design,
(4) e-Learning Internship, (5) Implementation
of e-LMS and LCM.
PM & Consultant have 9 requirements. (1)
Optimum Learning Environment Design, (2) e-
learning Consulting, (3) Instructional Systems
Development, (4) Training Program Design, (5)
Implementation of e-LMS and LCM, (6) e-Learning
Internship, (7) Ability to Prepare Proposal of e-
Learning Program Development, (8) Ability to
Prepare Storyboard, (9) Educational Software
Design and Development.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, to explore the requirements which are
important to instructional designers, instructional
developers, and PM & consultants, respectively, we
investigated the literatures relevant to e-learning,
curricula of universities and educational institutions,
and job searching websites. Through the survey
mentioned at above, 42 items of requirements were
identified. We could classify the 42 items into three
categories, which are fundamental, professional, and
practical requirements. Each of the three kinds of
professionals has their own tasks, and they should be
balanced both theoretically and practically.
Conclusively, the results of this research are
expected to help organizations employ qualified and
competent experts for e-learning implementations, to
help individuals determine which educational factors
should be educated and trained to be a competent e-
learning professional, and mainly to contribute to
create an educational program for the development
of e-learning professionals.
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Helen Armstrong, Nimal Jayaratna, 2002, “Internet
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