Principles at the heart of an instructional designer - subject matter expert interaction

Research on instructional design has not adequately addressed the conceptualization by the instructional designer of unfamiliar content as presented by a subject matter expert. There is widespread acknowledgement in the field of instructional design of its importance but there appears to have been no systematic efforts to develop a comprehensive strategy for the conceptualization and elicitation of subject matter knowledge. This paper addresses this 'gap' in the field of instructional design and outlines a number of key principles to consider in interacting with subject matter experts. Due to the crucial and unique role of the subject matter expert, the instructional designer must streamline the flow of information to prevent a communication 'bottleneck'. Without effective principles for interacting with the subject matter expert, valuable time will be lost understanding and organising the content, hence the need for an efficient and effective method to assist in the instructional designer-subject matter expert interaction (Keppell, 1997, 1999)