Shakeel Shaikh

Sr. Consultant/Trainer, eLearning/Instructional Design Manager
Universal Knowledge Solution
Dubai Knowledge Village, United Arab Emirates

Company Industry: eLearning /Learning & Development
Job Role/Department: Sr. Consultant eLearning/Instructional Design/Training & Development

This is an elearning company. It provides the most innovative education solutions available by using well demonstrated learning models and state of the art content delivery systems to both our academic (i.e. universities all over the Middle East) and corporate clients (i.e. banks, petroleum organizations, IT companies etc.). We deliver a comprehensive range of learning products and services that serve to develop employee skills and maximize performance.

My role has been versatile in this company that includes:

• Heading a team of Instructional Designers and Content Developers (both In-house and remote ones i.e. Lebanon, Jordan etc.);
• Training the Subject Matter Experts (i.e. professors of our client universities etc.) as well their technical team or newly hired people; training can stretch from elarning, LCMS, LMS to the basics of pedagogical or andragogical skills;
• Supervise and get implemented the complete process of elearning & instructional design for different projects for the clients including both the academic as well as the corporate ones;

When working on an elearning project for a client, for example, with a university, my role, in addition to above, includes the following:

• Meetings with clients on Project Objectives/requirements/proposals;
• Analyzing the content, meeting with SMEs, and Target− audience to finalize the ID process selection and designing templates for the selected process;
• Preparing Blueprints(helping SMEs);
• Preparing Layouts (with graphic designers and programmers);
• Enriching the provided content;
• Final Text Content approval / editing;
• Storyboarding (practically showing how to do it to my team and check their work for improvements);
• Meeting with SMEs for storyboard approvals;
• ID management Planning and Documentation;
• QA the final courses and maintenance;
• Traveling to different countries to train the client team on elearning development processes.

RECENT PROJECTS:
1. King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Al Dhahran, KSA
My Main Role:
• Associating with the Project Manager to set the project goals, analysis , design, development, implementation and evaluation parameters and time frame, keeping in sight the budget and available resources
• Training the Subject Matter Experts (Professors with Phds.) on eLearning, learning- styles, theories & models. ADDIE, e-specific content, Course Blueprints *.& Blackboard (LMS) usage.
• Leading/supervising the group of Instructional Designers & developers on ID process & e-material development
• Acting as a liaison between SMEs & development eam
• Research on internet to provide e-specimen to both the team and the faculty
• Document management & tracking on LearnExact
• Meeting with the SMEs on project progress and material enhancements as well as QA
• Traveling abroad to train our external team on the project specific goals & quality improvements
2. Al-Ahliya University, Amman Jordan
My Main Role:
• Analyze the persona of the SMEs (Subject Matter Experts, 300 in number)
• Based on the persona create the online assessment test to select the top-notch of the professors for the five year eleaning project
• Check their tests and select the top-30 for training
• Conduct a 15 days long workshop to train those selected SMEs on eLearning, Learning Objects, learning- styles, theories & models. ADDIE based ID process, e-specific content, Course Blueprints *. And Sakai & Moodle(CLMS) usage.
• Acting as a liaison between SMEs & the developing team
• Research on internet to provide e-specimen to both the team and the faculty
3. GASCO, Abu Dhabi
o Maximo applications e-training material development
o ADCO Oracle applications e-training material development
4. ADCO, Abu Dhabi
• Defensive Driving e-Course

I was selected by a US based company (through IQ Test) as an ID-trainee and then I went through a hardcore training by the experts from the United States for six months. Based on my performance I was directly promoted to LID position. I headed a team of "Instructional Designers / Content Developers. We used to develop and design educational and training materials for the USA and Canada based audiences which happened to be the students as well as the professionals on the different levels of their career paths.

My main role had been:
• Heading a team of Instructional designers and content developers and train them
• Training the clients online as well as directly on elearning and etraining
• Creating course strategies, guidelines and specification documents
• Designing, writing and reviewing ILTs, CBTs and WBTs
• Analyzing and implementing feedback at various stages of product development
• Project co-ordination and team management - estimation, planning etc.
• Interacting with cross-functional project teams

Besides the above, I had had extensive meetings (video conferences) with my supervisors and the production team in Austin. I mainly dealt with: Engineering, Security Personnel, Defensive driving, OSHA regulations & compliance, Hospitality, Cosmetology related training and course materials. Clients were both academic and corporate

I also served as a trainer; I trained my members and other verticals' members as well, on Instructional Design, elearning, skills-improvements. I had been abroad to attend workshops on ID process and then transferred the knowledge and the expertise to my team members