Forum Discussion
Cost of developing 1 hour of elearning
I occasionally have clients ask me if there are any industry standards regarding elearning development, particularly around cost.
"Sean," they say, "How much should we be paying for an hour of elearning?"
"It depends," I say.
And honestly, they are never terribly happy with that answer. So I'm trying to come up with something a little more detailed. Obviously, there are any number of factors that come into play, but I was wondering if there were any quick and dirty estimates that you all use.
Thanks!
sean
91 Replies
I love the tool, but the prices are pretty unrealistic based on what i would charge, by my worse case scenario you are a factor of ten times more expensive.
@Adam - what a great tool, really nice interface and ease of use, although I'm uncertain how realistic clients might be in assessing some of those factors. I'd also be interested to know how the ID components are priced out; in my experience, this is one area where "cheap" bids differ most from "expensive" bids - when I was in a corporate position selecting vendors, the cheapest options usually did no/little actual instructional design.
While the calculation outcome wasn't in line with my own pricing, it certainly wasn't off by a factor of ten. And of course in the end it doesn't matter if it's accurate for estimating my pricing, it just matters if it's accurate in pricing for Scholarix!
I found that the prices weren't terribly off in some places, but were wildly off in others. As long as it works for you though. =)
I guess the biggest question I would ask (and that I ask clients) is - are you asking me to build what you already have without any instructional design or input (order taker approach) or are we working together to get this project to completion (partnered approach).
I prefer the latter - and often clients who feel that their content is ready to be cut and pasted into a tool are the furthest off.
I dig the tool.
Pricing really depends on the market. For government, in the middle of the range, it seems pretty close. Deviates a bit at the top and the bottom for gov't work. But this could be right on the money for Scholarix's market.
It's higher than I'd charge on all accounts but 1) undercharging for work is one of my greatest weaknesses and 2) I'm not a firm of folks with a ton of overhead. A different set of calculations apply to a firm that can handle a large scope / scale on a shorter timeline than a solo outfit can take on.
I just wanted to know what level 1 to level 3 type of elearning involve.Maybe a guideline that entails and describe level 1,level 2 and level 3
thanks
John, if you're referring to the different levels in the Scholarix tool, just hover on any of them and you should see a description.
Thank you Adam for this resource. I will take a look at it.
-Helena
Great stuff people, great stuff! Thanks!
Hi,
Just wanted to post the calculator tool, because I think I linked to a blog post so perhaps it was hard to find.
In any case if anyone is looking for an e-Learning calculator to determine costs.
Please take a look here:
Adam Mastalerz said:
Hi,
Just wanted to post the calculator tool, because I think I linked to a blog post so perhaps it was hard to find.
In any case if anyone is looking for an e-Learning calculator to determine costs.
Please take a look here:
Just used this tool to cost out a potential project, and I'm not sure how accurate it is, only because I couldn't imagine charging 12,000+ for 1 hour of eLearning based on the parameters I specified (all pretty low-level). Either that, or I'm pricing my services well below industry standard :P I tend to lean toward the Chapman Alliance estimates as they align more accurately with my service offerings.
