Question for eQuixotic Readers
September 6, 2009
I’d like to go to the collective experience of my peers for this development question.
You have a two-hour mostly soft skills classroom course you need to convert to eLearning. The content has already been written for the classroom but needs to be reformatted for online delivery. The course will be a basic HTML/javascript page turner with stock graphics sprinkled throughout. No video will be included, but there may be some audio narration scattered throughout (the entire course will not be narrated, however). You will be using a development system similar to Lectora. There will be some basic form-based knowledge checks (multiple choice questions, matching, etc.) that will be developed within your authoring tool. The course will require no custom programming and no extensive interactions or simulations.
Given this basic overview of the project, how many hours of development time would you estimate it to require? I’m looking for ballpark numbers here. If your boss or client asked for a rough number, what would you say?
Your feedback on this question would be appreciated. Please voice your opinion in the comments section below. More on the reason for the question (and why I’m looking for a collective answer) in a later post.
Thanks!
Posted in eLearning Design
content rss
September 6th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Hi Chris:
Although I’m not a professional developer in e-learning (not yet), with the data provided, from my experience with materials used in my University, and using some other authoring software (CourseGenie years ago, LessonBuilder more recently), I think that a range of 12 – 15 hours would be very realistic. Or not… Tell me if I am very wrong
Hope this can help you.
Pedro.
September 6th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Chris,
Based on what you laid out, I’d suggest 10:1 – or roughly 20 hours of development. It’s a conservative estimate (meaning, a bit on the high side), and could probably be completed in 2 work days. However, as always with projects like this, a round of review might be required/necessary/handy and will probably add some time.
From a development perspective, 10:1 is the low end, but is offered with the understanding that the material is already developed, and there is no audio/video that can support this program.
That said, if face to face contact has to be reviewed, understood and distilled into an online course as you describe – it actually might take longer. Still, 20 hours feels like a safe bet.
September 6th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
This is a bit like a ‘how long is a piece of string?’ question
Couple of ‘depends on…’ issues here.
Depends on;
1 whether or not you have a series of e-Learning classrooms that you are developing and this is just one in that series. Work-flow can have a major influence on reduced work time
2 the cohort/audience and how this may need to be pitched
3 what other plug-ins and resources you may be able to leverage to take up some of the load
4 how much outside an existing template you may wish to step in order to make the final version
5 how much of a ‘finished’ product you want to release – beta versions can still be good, while you work on the fine tuning over a longer period, whilst gathering feedback from users. This type of approach is used for Rapid Application Development (RAD) where developers are using OO languages, Ajax/PHP.
Try and break the project into logical, prioritised components which may be easier to quantify and put some realistic time-lines against those.
Getting a realistic view of what the program needs to achieve (not just what it has been achieving) would be a good start.
September 10th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I would ballpark 30 hours to be safe. Where talking to the client is concerned, I would ask to review the content quickly to give a more complete estimate. I factor in more time partly based on Paul H’s #5, which is about fine tuning, but I would also add testing in there. Even page turners can require a fair amount of QC before release.
September 15th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
To me, the more salient question would be whether the instructional strategy (page-turner w/sprinkled audio) is the best instructional strategy for soft skills. Will your learners be able to perform? I’d suggest that you’d want to supplement delivery of facts and concepts with meaningful interaction through scenarios or other techniques that support practice and application of new knowledge in an environment that mirrors the performance environment as closely as possible. This will take longer to build, but is quite doable using authoring tools.