Time Estimates for Online Course Creation

Scoping an online learning project can be a challenging task. Before you can accurately assess how long it might take to create an online learning experience, you will need to consider the following (Course Kitchen can help you through these as well! This is your “Needs Analysis”):

• • • Who are your learners? Will your content be very new to them, or will it build upon previously acquired skills and experiences? How do they typically learn – through hands-on practice and application, via presentation and demonstration, via documentation and handbooks? Have they engaged in online learning in the past? What were these experiences like for them?
    • What are the results you are hoping to achieve? Do you want learners to be able to remember important facts, figures, or guidelines? Follow a procedure? Navigate common challenges. Create something? These goals (aka “learning objectives” or “performance objectives”) will help determine the best design approach.
    • What level of interactivity seems best aligned with your objectives? Once your audience and goals are well understood, take a look at these Time Estimates. About how long does it seem like it will take to create one hour of learner “seat time”? Note that your learning experience may be much longer, or much shorter, depending on your content. Adjust the design and development estimates accordingly.
    • Who will develop the content for the experience and how? The ranges provided above are for design and development only, which happens after (or sometimes concurrently with) the content development effort. Note also that additional time may be needed for content, technical, and quality assurance reviews, and for implementation on a learning management system or other platform. Course Kitchen may assist with these efforts, but please note that they may be outside the scope of time accounted for design and development.