A client wants me to submit a proposal to research and develop the content for 2 40 minute eLearning modules. She knows my hourly fee but I need to give her an estimate of how long that would take me. Does anyone here have a way for me to estimate this?
You must be brutal with yourself and ask/answer honestly:
1. do I know this content or will I be starting out fresh? If I know the topic area, then the time is X, if not, the time might be 2-3 times x.
2. if I do not know the content, will you be exposing yourself to any legal or insurance disputes? What if you create content that is incorrect but your client doesn't know it either?
3.If the content is new, do you know the correct sources to gather the content or are you just doing a series of Google searches and tying patches of content together? Will you hurt your reputation?
4. would it be better for you to state to this forum the general lesson topic and have someone to co-partner with you?
5. if none of the above works for you, I would assume that you are designing and developing for 30-35 content screens, 2-3 knowledge check screens and maybe a 10 question quiz. You would probably be designing for a Level 2 course. Do you have the development skills to pull this off yourself or will you need another developer to do the interactions (add this fee in). Will you need a higher level of graphic design to make the course look very professional. Again, add in the fees for a graphical designer.
6. now for a wild guess - if I had to write/research content, submit it for general approval from the client, then revise and research, then write etc., I would estimate about 40 hours for the content research and initial writing draft if the content was for a soft skill (more simple content that had a body of content readily available to research and read). If the topic was somewhat deeper, then maybe double that amount. If the topic was pharma, scientific, math or engineering (the detailed type of content), may it would be 3X the effort. Add everything up and that might put you in close approximation to your hours of effort.
2 Replies
Trina Rimmer's article comes up on my related content sidebar to your post, and I remember reading it before! I wonder if the links in her post could help you? https://community.articulate.com/articles/answers-to-4-frequently-asked-questions-from-freelancers
You must be brutal with yourself and ask/answer honestly:
1. do I know this content or will I be starting out fresh? If I know the topic area, then the time is X, if not, the time might be 2-3 times x.
2. if I do not know the content, will you be exposing yourself to any legal or insurance disputes? What if you create content that is incorrect but your client doesn't know it either?
3.If the content is new, do you know the correct sources to gather the content or are you just doing a series of Google searches and tying patches of content together? Will you hurt your reputation?
4. would it be better for you to state to this forum the general lesson topic and have someone to co-partner with you?
5. if none of the above works for you, I would assume that you are designing and developing for 30-35 content screens, 2-3 knowledge check screens and maybe a 10 question quiz. You would probably be designing for a Level 2 course. Do you have the development skills to pull this off yourself or will you need another developer to do the interactions (add this fee in). Will you need a higher level of graphic design to make the course look very professional. Again, add in the fees for a graphical designer.
6. now for a wild guess - if I had to write/research content, submit it for general approval from the client, then revise and research, then write etc., I would estimate about 40 hours for the content research and initial writing draft if the content was for a soft skill (more simple content that had a body of content readily available to research and read). If the topic was somewhat deeper, then maybe double that amount. If the topic was pharma, scientific, math or engineering (the detailed type of content), may it would be 3X the effort. Add everything up and that might put you in close approximation to your hours of effort.
7. look at "How long should that take" - https://elearning.net/custom-elearninghow-long-should-the-elearning-design-process-take-2/ -- this is just one of many resources for you to read. You will receive many, many different opinions from this forum for Good luck. your careful review.