Author: Samantha Johnston, Consultant for TPP Education & Training.
There’s currently a big focus on e-learning and e-assessment in membership bodies. Not only does an online education platform mean that an organisation is more “up to date”, it also directly results in increased revenue and student numbers, as it means that distance learning both nationally and internationally can be easily achieved.
Feedback from organisations who already heavily use online learning and assessment techniques, as well as students themselves, states that a blended learning approach is most valued, whether this is face to face teaching and support or webinars, live streamed lessons, forums or Skype for 1:1 needs.
There are several criteria that membership bodies should consider before they start recruiting for e-learning professionals:
• Make sure you know exactly what kind of professional you need – a technological, software expert or an e-learning specialist – and exactly what part of the e-learning process they will be managing – an instructional designer, an e-learning project manager, an e-assessment developer or manager, etc.
• E-learning and e-assessment specialists are highly sought after, particularly in the private and higher education sectors, and can therefore command high salaries. Be sure to benchmark and be aware of what level of expertise you will get for your budget.
• Think about the duration of the project and whether it’s better to hire on a temporary, contract or permanent basis. You can also use different contract types to attract candidates, eg a higher day rate on a part time basis may attract a higher level of candidate who is used to working on several contracts at once and managing their time accordingly. It may be more cost effective too as often there are work gaps whilst waiting for project completions.
Typical E-learning roles & salaries
Below are some of typical e-learning roles from the junior to senior end, plus typical salaries for these roles and their main responsibilities.
Officer- £18k-£22.5k
• Entry level role
• Offering admin support
Coordinator- £25k-£30k
• Involved in the development stage
• Responsible for a specific area
• Intermediate/developing technical knowledge
Instructional designers circa £35k
• Designing, capturing and delivering the course content of e-learning programmes, using video and online/e-learning methods
• Providing consultancy advice to staff in development of their courses
• Helping to identify the best delivery of content for given learning outcomes
• Developing e-learning modules on different platforms and maintaining e-learning content
Manager- £35k-£45k
• Overseeing project
• Liaising between the back and front end development
• Managing day to day operations, strategy and business development
• Ensure working to deadlines and budgets- report to senior managers
• Excellent knowledge of technical side and content
• Commercial focus for the organisation
• Ensures quality
Head of- £50k-£70k
• Oversees several projects/programmes
• As above but for larger organisations
Case Study
TPP have recently recruited for a Medical Membership Education Body who have set up a new e-learning facility:
“My organisation has a fantastic reputation for face to face teaching but the impact of this education is always limited to those who can attend a training day at a certain time and a certain place. As such, we decided to set up some e-learning, to widen the audience for our education and enable our students and delegates to learn at a time of their choice.
We faced many challenges, including selecting the correct supplier to host and build the e-learning, getting used to the process of building an e-learning module and the timescales involved, as well as coordinating all of the necessary people and integrating the-learning with our website to provide a seamless experience for the user.
The benefits have been significant: new income for the organisation, a new channel of learning to complement face to face teaching, and high customer satisfaction – over 90% of those who have purchased modules would recommend them to others.”
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