How do you make e-learning engaging and not just engaging?

When they say it's important to know the history, ask how someone's job performance will look different because they know that history. How will someone who knows the history be more effective at the skills needed than someone who doesn't know it?

Most of the time, when I ask that question, SMEs can't answer it. The history of something is rarely that important. So, the history part can probably be cut. If politically you can't cut it entirely, make it short so people don't have to sit through irrelevant explanations for long.

But overall, Judy's right--the only way to make this relevant and engaging is to split it by role. When what they need to do is so different, you can't really have the application practice without separating it.