Blog posts

The largest conclusion we can draw comfortably from the data is that development time still varies considerably for each type of learning product—and no matter what, the variables of the training development for each organization greatly differ. We do not advise that you use the results as stand-alone pieces for calculating project estimates because context is necessary to understand respondents' situations.

<span style="font-size: 1rem;">How much should you pay for a learning solution? Why does one vendor quote $5,000 and another $20,000? At its core, the price of a learning solution is a very simple equation –&nbsp;</span><strong style="font-size: 1rem;">Rate x Effort = Price.</strong>

For those organizations that buy learning from third-party vendors these prices may seem quite low, and they are. The $65 rate is commensurate with what one of those companies would pay an employee but does not include all of the overheads, cost of sale, and profit that company would typically account for in the price. As a rule of thumb, a custom learning company will price at about 60% gross margin, which in short-hand means you multiple direct costs by 2.5.

Does anyone design for an hour of training? Not really. The chart below shows how the 264 respondents identified which types of training products they develop and the minimum, maximum, and average times it took to create each.

Given the current campus infrastructure, personal knowledge tools, and the availability of digital content such as course cartridges, online cyber problems, and test banks, a recommended planning number today for experienced faculty is 10 hours per hour of instruction.

I have extensive experience using Adobe Captivate and TechSmith Camtasia Studio. In my experience, it will take you approximately <strong>2 hours of labor</strong> to produce<strong> 1 minute of eLearning playtime</strong> if you use Adobe Captivate. If you use Camtasia, your labor will go down a bit (<strong>1.5 hours for every 1 minute of playtime</strong>). If Articulate Storyline is your tool of choice, developers who use that tool have told me that Storyline is on a par with Captivate. In that case, you should plan on <strong>2 hours of labor</strong> to produce every <strong>1 minute</strong> of Storyline eLearning.