There are many ways to become an eLearning Pro and there is no one right way. Every professional has a different “mental model” of how eLearning should be designed, developed, and delivered. If you want to become an eLearning Pro, my biggest “tip” is this – decide if you want to design or develop eLearning. Make this decision after you have experienced both. If you focus on one discipline, you will become a much better designer or a much better developer.
For me, personally, I chose to be a designer. Although I have developed eLearning programs in the past, my passion is in learning design. Early in my career, I was a mechanical designer for a Fortune 50 company, where I needed to solve engineering problems for gas turbine engines on a daily basis. Later in my career, this design experience transferred to my experience as a technical trainer, instructional designer, and eLearning developer.
After leaving the corporate world in 2008, I started a consulting business and chose to focus on learning design. This decision helped us better serve and partner with eLearning development businesses. So if you choose to focus on one discipline, you will advance your skills to the point of being recognized as a “pro” in that discipline.
If you choose to be a designer, here is another helpful tip – do some solid research on adult and experiential learning. This research will help you apply best principles of learning in any program you design. For example, analogies are an important part of the learning process, as you will discover from research. By applying analogies in eLearning, you will increase the likelihood of helping learners grasp the material being taught and transfer this back to their workplace.
Good luck with your quest to be an eLearning Pro!