I am often asked: “How much does it cost to design and produce a 30-minute online course?” To that, I always answer the same thing: “How much does a 30-second ad on TV cost?” You will therefore understand that it depends on a multitude of factors… I therefore suggest three questions to ask yourself to determine your e-learning budget.
First question, how do you plan to allocate the necessary resources? There are many ways to collaborate with e-learning experts, and depending on your internal resources, availability, and timeline, you may choose to outsource the design or part of it to us. Some clients provide us with their own script, for review or not, while other clients often hire our instructional designers to produce a script from raw content.
Now, what is the desired level of interactivity? Depending on whether the course objectives are formative or informative, you must determine the desired level of interactivity. Interactivity can be: •non-existent, with strictly linear animated content, •limited, with a menu and multiple choice questions, for example, •moderate, we are talking about essay questions, connection, integration of elements of varied content, • or immersive, with custom feedback, simulations, avatars, etc.
Of course, our experts are there to guide you in this decision and ensure that the chosen format serves the content well, but it is important that this decision be made ahead of the project since it has a significant impact on the budget. With this information in hand, you are now able to answer the following question: what is the production’s complexity level?
The production includes scriptwriting, graphic design, integration and programming. A variety of elements impact the complexity level. They include:
the content level (from simple to expert),
graphic elements (use of existing equipment versus development of custom graphic elements),
navigation needs (linear, contextual documents, connections to several scenarios),
shooting of videos or taking photos,
assessing learning and using a passing grade.
This information is used to determine the number and expertise of resources to be assigned to the project, the number of person-hours for each specialty and the needs in terms of other resources (actors, storytelling and/or filming studio, artistic director, etc.) It goes without saying that the answers to these questions should come from a discussion with internal experts and your favourite e-learning partner! It is important to involve all stakeholders from the start to share a common vision of the final product—an essential element for the smooth running of the project—within the allocated budget.
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