Could you chime in and tell me about how long it takes you to produce a course (either Storyline or Rise)? I'm getting a lot of pushback from our administration over what they see as excessive time in course authoring. I'm responsible for both content (copy and any new media) and course design. My Storyline courses are fairly simple (no gameification, etc), but I do some engaging stuff with layers.
I realize this is kind of a crazy ask, but even just a rule of thumb, eg, X number of creation hours per course credit hour.
I think there is a caveat here, I am a developer so all billed time is spent on that course, if you are in a company/education role you will be pulled into meetings and other areas that means you do not spend 100%b of your time developing.
Thanks, Phil! Yes, I work for an association so I am responsible for the course beginning to end. We're trying to find the right balance between course authoring and development and other duties, including outsourcing work. I did a little googling and it looks like folks tend to budget around 100 hours per hour of a course. My courses have been 6 hour courses so far, hence the frustration from administration on my time on project. Add to that -- my predecessors didn't really understand the content OR instructional design, so they were able to crank out courses faster because they were producing sub-par work. My looming workload includes redoing some of their shoddy work :/
The classic Chapman research says level 2 elearning (typical interactivity) is on average 184:1 (but you should read the descriptions and full ranges).
ATD's numbers have fluctuated over the years as they changed their methodology, but the most recent version shows 150:1 for 1 hour of moderately interactive elearning.
If you're really developing 6 hours of elearning, it should take you months to create. I hope the sources give you some backup with your administration to bring their expectations more in line with industry standards.
I try to project 2-3 months for the completion of a project but I'm also doing a lot of other things besides building multiple courses, managing an LMS, and other projects. People don't understand how much goes into making an engaging and interactive course. Also, the content is coming from a SME so that saves me time (for the most part).
Sometimes it helps for them to see my previous courses. Also, I let them know I can upload a course in two weeks if they want just a basic reading text PowerPoint slides.
An old and tried way of looking at this is that e-learning development with 45-60 minutes for student is about 250 development hours with intermediate type of interactions. High end 3D and simulations is at least 400/hrs / 45-60 min student time. Behavioral and performance oriented.
Rise can be used for rapid e-learning and then i would say 70 -90 hrs / 45-60 minute student time. But the real time /calendar time consumer is often the subject matter expertise and top level approval carousel. Information oriented.
Then again making a 15 minute video to bring that into a "5 minute e-learning" has been tried as well :)
But in development total time i think these hours are more realistic then optimistic.
An old and tried way of looking at this is that e-learning development with 45-60 minutes for student is about 250 development hours with intermediate type of interactions. High end 3D and simulations is at least 400/hrs / 45-60 min student time. Behavioral and performance oriented.
Rise can be used for rapid e-learning and then i would say 70 -90 hrs / 45-60 minute student time. But the real time /calendar time consumer is often the subject matter expertise and top level approval carousel. Information oriented.
Then again making a 15 minute video to bring that into a "5 minute e-learning" has been tried as well :)
But in development total time i think these hours are more realistic then optimistic.
I've been doing design and development for longer than I'd care to admit and agree with these general guidelines:
Basic online information oriented course 75 --> 150:1 (development hours VS student contact time)
Intermediate interactions 250:1
High end media and simulations 450:1
Note: These estimates include all aspects related to the development of an online course and not just the time spent developing in Rise. It also includes the time all of project team members such as SMEs, media creators, Instructional Designers, developers, etc.
Just came across this eLearning by Jackie Vannice on how long it takes. Maybe presenting this to the stakeholders will give them an idea of how much work is involved.
9 Replies
For Storyline
Roughly including reviews 1 minute of learning is 1 hour of my time.
For high end content 1 minute equates to 2-3 hours
Simple courses are less.
For Rise
This is quicker 1 minute of learning about 30 minutes of my time unless I build bespoke web pages or storyline block and then the max is 1:1 again.
I think there is a caveat here, I am a developer so all billed time is spent on that course, if you are in a company/education role you will be pulled into meetings and other areas that means you do not spend 100%b of your time developing.
Thanks, Phil! Yes, I work for an association so I am responsible for the course beginning to end. We're trying to find the right balance between course authoring and development and other duties, including outsourcing work. I did a little googling and it looks like folks tend to budget around 100 hours per hour of a course. My courses have been 6 hour courses so far, hence the frustration from administration on my time on project. Add to that -- my predecessors didn't really understand the content OR instructional design, so they were able to crank out courses faster because they were producing sub-par work. My looming workload includes redoing some of their shoddy work :/
This source from IconLogic has a breakdown of each step, including things that happen before development (at which point you could use Phil's ratios).
https://blog.iconlogic.com/weblog/2019/02/elearning-development-how-much-time-does-it-take-to-create-elearning.html
The classic Chapman research says level 2 elearning (typical interactivity) is on average 184:1 (but you should read the descriptions and full ranges).
http://www.chapmanalliance.com/howlong/
ATD's numbers have fluctuated over the years as they changed their methodology, but the most recent version shows 150:1 for 1 hour of moderately interactive elearning.
https://www.td.org/insights/how-long-to-develop-one-hour-of-training-a-case-study
If you're really developing 6 hours of elearning, it should take you months to create. I hope the sources give you some backup with your administration to bring their expectations more in line with industry standards.
Hi, Whitney: Often stakeholders don't understand what type of work goes into elearning. Sharing the breakdown of work may help them understand:
Whitney,
I try to project 2-3 months for the completion of a project but I'm also doing a lot of other things besides building multiple courses, managing an LMS, and other projects. People don't understand how much goes into making an engaging and interactive course. Also, the content is coming from a SME so that saves me time (for the most part).
Sometimes it helps for them to see my previous courses. Also, I let them know I can upload a course in two weeks if they want just a basic reading text PowerPoint slides.
Mike
An old and tried way of looking at this is that e-learning development with 45-60 minutes for student is about 250 development hours with intermediate type of interactions. High end 3D and simulations is at least 400/hrs / 45-60 min student time. Behavioral and performance oriented.
Rise can be used for rapid e-learning and then i would say 70 -90 hrs / 45-60 minute student time. But the real time /calendar time consumer is often the subject matter expertise and top level approval carousel. Information oriented.
Then again making a 15 minute video to bring that into a "5 minute e-learning" has been tried as well :)
But in development total time i think these hours are more realistic then optimistic.
When in doubt you have strong cases from old Bersin, pro. https://joshbersin.com/
I've been doing design and development for longer than I'd care to admit and agree with these general guidelines:
Note: These estimates include all aspects related to the development of an online course and not just the time spent developing in Rise. It also includes the time all of project team members such as SMEs, media creators, Instructional Designers, developers, etc.
Just came across this eLearning by Jackie Vannice on how long it takes. Maybe presenting this to the stakeholders will give them an idea of how much work is involved.
https://www.jackievannice.com/challenge_109_how_long/story_html5.html
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.