Forum Discussion
What is the average time of an elearning course to be finish by a learner?
I have been asked the duration of the elearning module that was done on Rise, how one does know how long will it take the learner to take the module? like an average time? (15 min, 30 min, 1hr etc) ...
It's possible to get a fairly accurate estimate of "seat time" (how long it takes to complete a course) IF a course is fully narrated. In those cases, just determine how long it takes to play the audio/video files.
It's much tricker with other courses. Basically, seat time depends on how fast the learner reads. And even if you knew a person's average reading speed, it could still vary based on how familiar they already are with the content, how motivated they are to learn, etc.
But, yeah, people still want an estimated seat time. Here's how I come up with a range:
- I get a rough count of the number of words in the course. I do that by exporting the text into Microsoft Word (File > Translation > Export to Word), deleting the programming-related parts, and then seeing what Word shows as the word count.
- I divide the number of words by 120 (a low conversational speaking rate) to get a high estimate for the seat time.
- I divide the number of words by 200 (an average reading rate with 60% comprehension) to get a low estimate for the seat time.
ESTIMATE is the key word here. There will likely be some users who get through the course quicker, and some who take longer. But this provides a reasonable range -- with a lot less effort than setting up a focus group and timing how long users take to go through the course.
I think the calculations are a good start. I would define your word count division by content complexity in regards to the learners assumed knowledge base before the course.
For example: If the learner is at a entry level of competence for a lab, and they are learning about complex bio-chemistry specific to this lab they are working at, I might drop the division to as low as 100 words a minute.
I wouldn't even define that as a low or high estimate, but just an estimate for all users averaged together.
Compare this to teaching a doctorate level learner how to do basic first aid, and your course time estimate could be as high as 250 words a minute. A fast but not outrageous reading rate, bordering on skimming. Reading for fun is often at this speed.
I always recommend that training professionals should NEVER use focus groups for seat time estimating. I think we should all adopt the idea that a seat time estimate is an objective calculation based on content complexity and length. A focus group would need to be a thousand people to average out to anything useful, and then it's still mostly a subjective approach, given that the thousand people would need to be at the learners estimated pre-course knowledge level.
