Need for Rapid Development in the eLearning domain

Traditionally, the process of building an eLearning course is a sequential effort involving a team, comprising of a subject matter expert (SME), instructional designer (ID), a web developer, and a project manager. Together these four people design an instructional plan and follow a circular "waterfall" process for development. This traditional development model has various advantages. This approach, however, has its own set of challenges, which include:

• Speed: Training developed by using traditional methodology takes around 10-15 weeks of development and review time whereas business compulsions require the learning to be developed NOW
• Cost involved in the development of courseware
• Unavailability or difficulty in working with SMEs