Factors Required to Develop Learning

This week we are asked to estimate costs, duration and effort associated with our particular projects and think about the same estimations for future hypothetical projects. I find this project particularly daunting and intimidating. The challenge of this week’s application is that I have no previous knowledge to draw upon. If I were employed as an instructional designer, I would have to do a lot of research in order to have an accurate picture of the resources that are required to produce a quality instructional design project. To research for this project and gather some background knowledge to build upon, I reviewed three online resources.

                The first online resource was titled Estimating Time and Resources in Instructional Design. The resource points out how important it is to budget your project and consider the effort and cost that will be going into the project. Just as project managers needs to remember to set goals and objectives, having a budget is another form of a goal focusing on keeping the project within range of resource use. Specific costs are listed such as $28.00/hour for instructional designers and $10-$15 per professional slideshow. The author of the site also listed estimates of duration or hours of effort that would be expelled to create certain projects. For example, the project that I am using for my course project is ELearning modules which would take anywhere from 220 hours-750 hours depending on the level of interaction that was required by the stakeholders. If the team worked 8 hours days, that’s 24-93 days of work! The site even has an Excel cost calculator which could prove to be helpful in the future.

                The second resource that I evaluated was a slideshow presentation entitled How Long Does it Take to Create Learning. This resource breaks down cost and effort into categories depending on the type of learning that is desired. Teacher led instruction would require the least effort whereas level three elearning which would consist of online games and simulations would cost the most and require the most effort. I was shocked to read that 1 hour of a level 3 elearning simulation would cost just over $50,000 to complete and 13% of the effort devoted to the project would be instructional design.  The chart refers to the level 3 learning and the effort and cost associated.

Lastly, the site Time to Develop One Hour of Training points out the difference between types of training that is being developed as well. Kapp and Defelice point out that all too many times the cost of projects is never estimated but only responded to with an “it depends.” It is important however for clients and stakeholders as well as the team members working on the project to see what they are up against and have something to shoot for. This website also points out the difference in cost from 2003-2009. As I would have expected, cost for most everything has increased with years. Similar to the other sites, this provided information that upheld that simulations or high levels of interactivity are more expensive and time consuming. I appreciated this site however because it points out some things that perhaps a project manager could do in order to minimize the factors that go into the project such as clear communication, conducting an orientation for stakeholders, etc.  

Chapman Alliance. 2010. How Long Does It Take to Create Learning? Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/bchapman_utah/how-long-does-it-take-to-create-learning

Clark, Don. 2010. Estimating Costs and Time in Instructional Design. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html

Kapp, K., Defelice, R. 2013. Time to Develop One Hour of Training. ASTD. Retrieved from http://www.astd.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Learning-Circuits-Archives/2009/08/Time-to-Develop-One-Hour-of-Training