How Much Does E-learning Cost?

“How much does it cost to create an e-learning course?”. 

Of course the answer is the often the dreaded “that depends”. That response sounds like such a cop-out but it really depends. Let me explain.

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The cost of creating an e-learning course really does depend on many different factors. How long will the course be? Will it be interactive with the participant or more like a movie or “voice over PowerPoint” presentation? Will it need to mix movie/video with interactive content? How will it be delivered? Is the content created or does it need to be researched and assembled? Will multiple formats (DVD, Internet, movie, flash) be required because of different audiences or distribution methods? Will there be multiple languages that need to be supported? That is just some of the questions that impact how the e-learning course will be created and therefore its cost. 

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So you can see there are a lot of different factors that are pulled into the cost formula for e-learning projects. Therefore, each e-learning project is always treated as unique. 

It doesn’t mean the lessons learned from previous project are ignored but each course needs to start at zero and be worked up.

But that doesn’t really answer the question, “How much does it cost to create an e-learning course?”. Using all the questions above as caveats, let’s explore some rules of thumb based on past experience. 

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For our purposes in this article we will focus on the cost to create 1 hour of finished e-learning. Creating 1 hour e-learning courses can cost as little as $3,000 and as much as $40,000. 

Typically when people hear this their eyes glaze over as they try to come to grips with why and how there could be such a huge range. The range is real but typically we find most of the custom course development that we do for clients falls in the $7-15,000 range.

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It is possible to create content very inexpensively and it can also cost a lot to create content. 

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The effectiveness of the courses may be very different but the important message is that e-learning is affordable. Almost every company can create learning opportunities online. 

The real questions that need to be asked and answered are the usual questions associated with any projects, “What are your objectives for the course?”, “What are the business objectives that this project or course align with?” and “What is the best method to achieve those objectives?”. Once those questions are answered, the answers to the other questions begin to reveal themselves and an estimate can be created.

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I would like to add one final perspective on the issue of e-learning costs before concluding this article. When we speak of costs, we haven’t been speaking about costs per participant or student. 

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E-learning really makes delivering messages to large numbers of people very cost effective. For example, if you develop an effective and interactive course for $15,000 and you put 1,000 people through that course you cost per individual is only $15. 

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If you figured out the cost of putting those same 1,000 people through an instructor led course you usually find the cost per person higher with room rental, instructors costs, preparation time ,etc. E-learning is also very cost effective when you have the same training that must be delivered repeatedly, such as compliance training that must be conducted annually. 

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Furthermore, our clients find it cost effective for things associated with new hire orientation. Depending on the turnover in the organization, there may not be large numbers each month going through orientation courses but E-learning allows them to occur at any time rather than having someone working for a period of time before they receive their orientation in a classroom setting.

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This is just scratching the surface of the benefits of E-learning. Renee from our office has previously covered some of the reasons why e-learning should be considered. 

If your organization is exploring the idea of e-learning but you aren’t sure if it makes financial sense, I hope this has helped. There are also great articles on the Internet on ROI and Cost-Benefit Analysis for e-learning. However, I recently read this article on using Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/435/evaluating-e-learning-investments-with-cost-effectiveness-analysis) 

for analyzing things like training where many of the benefits are intangible (but real) and therefore difficult to convert to an exact dollar to put though the analysis formula. I hope it helps.

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In the end, itself on delivering the best solution to our clients. 

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We don’t advocate e-learning over instructor led training, we work with you to choose the best solution for your particular needs, whether that is e-learning, instructor led training or a blend of both. If you have a training need and would like to discuss what the best method would be, give us a call.

By: Robert Stickle
Certified Project Manager and COO of BizXcel Inc