Consider Pricing
Many aspects factor into the cost of a training program. To get the conversation started, read the paragraphs below.
eLearning
eLearning Pricing Considerations
One of the most common questions we're asked is, “What does it cost to create a custom eLearning project?” Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer.
Many aspects factor into the cost of a training program.
Front-End Analysis
Sometimes a Front–End Analysis is an appropriate way to get a handle on your project. This Analysis will help you define what needs to be done and establish a working road map for the project.
In addition, this Analysis can form the basis for getting bids and planning the time and resources that will be required to complete the job.
Other times a Front–End Analysis is impossible or impractical, or perhaps you recognize that no matter how well you try to define things up front, the project is bound to evolve as it gets into production. In those instances it is a matter of working with whatever information is available to formulate a price.
If you would like assistance defining your project, we would be happy to help.
The Questions
Whether or not you conduct a Front–End Analysis, some basic questions must be answered. We have put together a Questionnaire that you can use to help define the scope of your project and what needs to be done.
- Who will be preparing the content, i.e., who will be doing the Instructional Design and creating storyboards that the course developers can use?
- What resources will be available for an Instructional Designer to base a course on?
- What is the projected length of the course?
- What level of interactivity are you interested in providing to students?
- How important is the branding/image being presented?
- What degree of graphic sophistication is appropriate; what imagery is available and what images need to be purchased or created?
- Is humor or entertainment appropriate?
- Who is the audience?
- What are the technical requirements?
- What is the timeframe in which the project must be deployed?
- Will supplementary materials need to be developed?
- Will the course be tracked and, if so, do you have an LMS or CMS in place to handle that?
Your responses will define the scope of the project and provide project specifications that can be shared with vendors. If you use our questionnaire, it will store your answers so that you can retrieve them or modify them later.
If you don’t have enough information to accurately answer key questions about your project, you may want to consider establishing a ceiling price for the project. A reputable vendor will do the best job they can within whatever ceiling you set.
Estimating Based on “Finished Hour”
A basic tactic often used by “the
industry” is basing a price
on how long it takes to create one
finished hour of custom courseware — the “hour” being
one hour of a student at a computer
and taking the final course. This
is a crude measurement because before
the course is developed, it is hard
to predict how much time the average
student will take to complete it.
We can, however, often set an objective
of how long we would like the course
to be and work backwards from there.
Or we can make an educated guess,
based on existing courses.
If an existing course is being delivered in a classroom setting or by some other means, that information can also be used to estimate the total number of hours the completed course will be. For example, we may be able to make an educated guess that a 50-page textbook used in a four-hour instructor-led course may equal one hour of computer time.
We know, based on previous experience, that the first hour of training can cost between $10,000 and $80,000. Subsequent hours can be 10–25% less, depending on content. Of course, that is a huge range and of not much help unless we can narrow it down further.
One Hour does not equal One Hour
Even when we know how long a course will take, there are still many other considerations: most importantly, who will be doing the instructional design (creating storyboards, ensuring the approach is instructionally sound, proposing interesting and engaging ways to present the content, etc.). The second big consideration is what kinds of media elements will be used and who will be creating or providing them: will we need to create extensive graphics, will there be narration or video, will we need to create simulations and, finally, how much and how complex will the interactivity be. Once these are defined, we can begin to zero in on where we are within the range noted above. Needless to say, the more we do, the higher our part of the cost will be. If you create the storyboards, provide the media elements, and tell us exactly what you want done, the price will likely be toward the lower end. If we do the instructional design, create complex simulations, include narration and video, and create a sophisticated graphic environment, the price will be near the higher end. (Usually courses do not go above $50,000 to $60,000 per hour, on the high end.)
Levels
A way of communicating how you anticipate the course looking and functioning is to define the level of interactivity and multimedia by the following breakdown:
Level 1: Primary activity is turning page; contains supporting graphics on many pages; all graphics provided and may contain some animation or video, also provided to d’Vinci; no narration.
Level 2: Provides a limited amount of interactivity throughout (expanding text fields, multiple choice questions) and multimedia including limited sound/narration produced by d’Vinci, and/or video/animation provided to d’Vinci; may include a limited number of more sophisticated interactions.
Level 3: Provides student with extensive interactivity and multimedia; may include sophisticated interactions throughout; may include many sophisticated custom graphics; may include extensive narration.
Level 4: Provides high-end presentation, including extensive custom graphics, interactivity, multimedia, and simulation/“walk through” capabilities throughout; may include sophisticated programming; may include creation of a virtual “environment.”
In addition, we can try to define the Instructional Design requirements by a similar means:
Low: Storyboards written and provided to d'Vinci, or another vendor, ready to be programmed. This may or may not include d'Vinci providing feedback and suggestions for making the course more engaging.
Medium: Course exists in some form already, possibly as stand-up training or as a PowerPoint presentation with instructor's notes. d'Vinci's task would be to re-write that content in a format that is ready for eLearning by creating storyboards that define text, multimedia and interactivty for each aspect of the training.
High: No course exists and content must be developed from scratch. d'Vinci's Instructional Designer must develop course material from manuals, interviews with SMEs.
Knowing the Budget
To come up with a price for a course, we try to gather as much information as possible to come up with an estimate for the amount of time required and submit a fixed price quote.
Alternatively, we can work within a specified budget. When we know the budget, we can work backwards and include or exclude elements, based on priorities, with the task of delivering the best possible course for the allocated budget.
One thing to remember, no matter what budget is ultimately agreed on, is that projects usually evolve, even while in production. This should be considered as part of the estimating process.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can answer any questions or clarify the information presented here.