Hi All -

My company is currently in the process of putting together a proposal to convert several of our ILT courses to CBT. Is there a general guideline for how long it takes to convert one hour of ILT to CBT? I understand it varies based on developer experience and whatnot, but we are looking for rough ballpark figures at this point.

If anyone knows of general guidelines to use for the average number of hours it takes to this, please share! Also, how does integrating more complex CBT scenarios like
- games
- situations/simulations
- complex branching
- simple matching, true/false, etc.
affect this time?

Thanks in advance.
Jess

Hi Jess,

I think you’ll find widely-ranging estimates depending on a number of variables. You may find this article on Course Development Costs to be a helpful starting point. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the numbers as the article was published in 2004, but it does highlight key considerations and includes some rules of thumb.

Good luck!
-Ed

Hi JK... in the estimated time you seek, are we including the time it takes to do a thorough analysis of important points including (but not limited to)...

1) whether or not the ILT should be converted
2) whether or not the ILT that is being converted was a good class in the first place and needs no re-design as far as scope and purpose are concerned

etc...

In addition to all of the analysis that needs to take place first-- such as should it be converted, what activities do we need in the CBT to teach and reinforce the content, etc, another thing that really impacts the development time is the tools you have and use.

Creating games, simulations, branching scenarios, and quizzes takes a LOT of time to develop in a program like Flash. However, now with so many rapid e-learning tools out there, it's not nearly so time consuming.

We use PowerPoint, Articulate, and Captivate and are able to do projects much more quickly than Flash programming. We don't need anything super custom-- which would require Flash animation.

Adding (the right) interactivity to a CBT is key to making it truly a learning event and not a talking PowerPoint presentation.

I highly recommend Ruth Clark's book eLearning and the Science of Instruction.

Hello Jess,

I am currently working as a freelance contractor on a very large project that involves migrating existing Instructor-led training into web-based training. These are level III courses, meaning they are non-linear (not a ppt presentation), interactive and activities.

To complete a one-hour web-based course, compensation is based on 150 hours of work. So it's about 2.5 hours of work per minute of finished product.

This is just for this particular project, which may or may not be similar to your own needs, but I thought I'd offer this as just one 'real' budget for your consideration.

While everything the others say is true (that is that much thought needs to go into whether WBT is even a good choice for the content/student), the reality is that other factors often trump these considerations, right or wrong.

Happy to talk more if you'd like. Good luck to you!