Is there a method used to calculate the cost relating to designing elearning courses? What should you take into consideration when you are preparing an estimate?
Great question! If you are an independent (freelance) consultant, and not in-house corporate or in academia, it's very important to consider your cost of living. You are a business; you have both business costs and personal costs to maintain.
Take a look at the SlideShare.net prezi that I created to demo a very helpful tool:
Consulting Rates for e-Learning: How Much to Bill Per Hour
Yes, I have turned down some projects if the time involved + the compensation would have put me into the "red". Yes, other Articulate freelance consultants do bill less per hour than I do. However, I've also listened to colleagues who then found themselves re-working and re-working a client's project without additional compensation. So, it's important to begin with a Detail Design Document with your client's approval, and also to get their approval on a Change Management document.
Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions!
The resources above are great and similar to the ones I would post myself. Also, keep in mind that expenses may vary by section of the country, or other economic or geographical factors. I would say the first thing is to check out what you are really "worth" . Find out what companies are paying instructional designers/elearning developers in your area as a n hourly fee. Check both recruiting companies and organizations that have internal employees. Then, you may even have some luck get that out of some other developers :-). Figure out what your "personal" rate and worth is. I know for me, although at some point, in my area, companies were looking to pay a certain amount for elearning work, other than cracking the industry, after a while it wasn't worth it to work for lower than a certain amount. This can really be challenging work and so in addition all the goodies that Jenise mentioned above, I would suggest really doing some area research so that you can figure out what works for you.
Anyone wondering about e-Learning pricing here is a simple Infographic by an e-Learning company that explains some of the components to consider when developing an online course. I understand that it doesn't give a direct cost, but it shows the factors that will influence the cost.
Hope you find it helpful.
Take a look here (will open in new window) for the infographic.
While we often see clients asking for a set elearning price, there is seldom a single answer because of so many variables that affect the elearning cost. We ask our clients to fill out an elearning cost estimate form that allows us to provide our best price estimate based on the information they supply.
Hi John, Great question! Cost to design eLearning course totally relies upon which sort of courses you are taking. Here is a simple Information by an e-Learning company that explains 3 level of courses:
LEVEL 1: BASIC COURSE CREATION: The course is based on text and audio, no animations within the course…this is more focused on content that is provided (PDF, DOC, Slides, Questions, Videos.) Features:
Intro Page: This could be an image that represents the client’s company.
1 Slide with Background for an intro to content.
1 Slide with Background for Chapters or Units.
1 Slide with Background for Questions
25 Total Pages to Distribute Content.
5 To 10 Pages for Questions.
Basic Edits for Images.
HTML or SCORM Responsive.
LEVEL 2: INTERMEDIATE COURSE CREATION: The course is based on Text and Audio, Content can have basic animation and additional exit slides if detriment, synchronization of Audio is also included in the package. Features:
Intro with Animation and Synchronized Audio.
1 Slide with Background for Intro to Content.
1 Slide with Background for Chapters or Units.
1 Slide with Background for Questions.
1 Slide with Background for Minigames.
1 Slide with Background for Feedback “GREAT” or decided good job greeting text.
1 Slide with Background for Feedback “Keep Going”.
Personalize minigame (Following limitation or Captivate examples of color, text, and others.)
25 Total Pages to Distribute Content with Animation and additional elements like fade in fade out of text and images.
5 To 10 Pages for Questions with Automatic Feedback on what questions where correct and which were incorrect.
Basic Image Editing.
HTML or SCORM Responsive.
LEVEL 3: ADVANCED COURSE CREATION: The course is based on audio, text, and video with interactive interactions. The interactive content would be limited based on the following features. Features:
Home page with animation and video introduction from 5 to 15 seconds “Motion Graphics”
1 Slide with Background for Intro to content.
2 Video Motion for introduction to content from 10 to 15 seconds using “Motion Graphics”
1 Slide with Background for each chapter or unit
1 Slide with Background for questions for each chapter.
1 Slide with Background for Minigames.
Minigames native from Captivate
1 Slide with Background for Feedback “GREAT” or decided good job greeting text.
1 Slide with Background for Feedback “Keep Going” or decided to fail to greet text.
Personalize minigame
25 Total Pages to Distribute Content with Animation and additional elements like fade in fade out of text and image
On Determined Interactive content we can add “Hot- Points” within the scene5 Pages for questions for each chapter with “Automatic Feedback” providing when a question is correct or incorrect.
10 Replies
Hi John-
Welcome to E-Learning Heroes! There's a similar thread on this topic here:
Cost of developing 1 hour of elearning
Is the estimate from a business or contractor perspective?
To me contracting estimates are easier as you can use your hourly rate plus any additional media (photos, audio, video, etc) needed for the project.
The preso in this link discusses time, but also has dollar value associated. You might find some helpful info.
The first 8 slides deal w/ ILT, but after that it's elearning.
http://www.slideshare.net/bchapman_utah/how-long-does-it-take-to-create-learning
Hi John:
Great question! If you are an independent (freelance) consultant, and not in-house corporate or in academia, it's very important to consider your cost of living. You are a business; you have both business costs and personal costs to maintain.
Take a look at the SlideShare.net prezi that I created to demo a very helpful tool:
Consulting Rates for e-Learning: How Much to Bill Per Hour
http://www.slideshare.net/RidgeViewMedia.com/consulting-fees
And, here's my blog post about estimating training costs, based on article from ASTD:
How to Estimate Training Time and Costs
http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/05/how-to-estimate-trainingtime-and-costs/
Yes, I have turned down some projects if the time involved + the compensation would have put me into the "red". Yes, other Articulate freelance consultants do bill less per hour than I do. However, I've also listened to colleagues who then found themselves re-working and re-working a client's project without additional compensation. So, it's important to begin with a Detail Design Document with your client's approval, and also to get their approval on a Change Management document.
Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions!
On Twitter: @jenisecook
Thanks guys. The resource information was very helpful.
Hi John,
The resources above are great and similar to the ones I would post myself. Also, keep in mind that expenses may vary by section of the country, or other economic or geographical factors. I would say the first thing is to check out what you are really "worth"
. Find out what companies are paying instructional designers/elearning developers in your area as a n hourly fee. Check both recruiting companies and organizations that have internal employees. Then, you may even have some luck get that out of some other developers :-). Figure out what your "personal" rate and worth is. I know for me, although at some point, in my area, companies were looking to pay a certain amount for elearning work, other than cracking the industry, after a while it wasn't worth it to work for lower than a certain amount. This can really be challenging work and so in addition all the goodies that Jenise mentioned above, I would suggest really doing some area research so that you can figure out what works for you.
RK
Anyone wondering about e-Learning pricing here is a simple Infographic by an e-Learning company that explains some of the components to consider when developing an online course. I understand that it doesn't give a direct cost, but it shows the factors that will influence the cost.
Hope you find it helpful.
Take a look here (will open in new window) for the infographic.
Thanks so much for the link to the Scholarix infographic. Visuals always help when I'm trying to solve math problems! :O
Not a problem, we recently created an interesting calculator that will actually let you calculate the cost of developing e-learning. Take a look here.
e-Learning Cost Calculator
While we often see clients asking for a set elearning price, there is seldom a single answer because of so many variables that affect the elearning cost. We ask our clients to fill out an elearning cost estimate form that allows us to provide our best price estimate based on the information they supply.
Hi John,
Great question! Cost to design eLearning course totally relies upon which sort of courses you are taking. Here is a simple Information by an e-Learning company that explains 3 level of courses:
LEVEL 1: BASIC COURSE CREATION:
The course is based on text and audio, no animations within the course…this is more focused on content that is provided (PDF, DOC, Slides, Questions, Videos.)
Features:
LEVEL 2: INTERMEDIATE COURSE CREATION:
The course is based on Text and Audio, Content can have basic animation and additional exit slides if detriment, synchronization of Audio is also included in the package.
Features:
LEVEL 3: ADVANCED COURSE CREATION:
The course is based on audio, text, and video with interactive interactions. The interactive content would be limited based on the following features.
Features:
Hope you find it helpful.