Outsourcing eLearning Development? 3 Aspects To Focus On
In recent years, the trend of outsourcing eLearning development to India is growing. Companies across the world are partnering with Indian technology-enabled learning solutions providers to meet their online training needs. This growth is primarily driven by considerations of cost. Various factors such as excellent ICT infrastructure, a large pool of high skilled, online course development professionals, and an outsourcing-friendly legal framework are also playing an important role in making India the hottest eLearning outsourcing destination.
Are you too planning to outsource your eLearning courses? How can you make your outsourced online learning development project a success? Outlined in this article are 3 important aspects you need to consider.
1. Set Clear, Quantifiable Online Course Development Objectives
The cornerstone of a successful eLearning outsourcing initiative is well-set, measurable development objectives. These objectives help you comprehend the business value of the online course. A good understanding of your eLearning development objectives enables you to set benchmarks to measure the success of your online learning development project.
For instance, one of the objectives of outsourcing your eLearning development project is to reduce training expenditure by 30%. You can evaluate the success of the outsourced project by measuring the reduction in the expenditure incurred in training your learners online.
2. Estimating The Likely Costs Involved
Arriving at a ball park figure of the cost of eLearning development is very important, especially to get the buy-in of your boss, which is critical for the success of your online outsourcing initiative. However, estimating the cost of online course development can be tricky. You need to consider the following aspects when you calculate the cost of eLearning development.
- Goals of the eLearning course.
If the objective of the online course is to provide information to your employees, the cost can be less, compared to the situation where the goal is to enhance performance, using scenarios, simulations, or game-based learning. - Duration of the course.
The duration will help you define the efforts required to develop a course. For instance, if the duration is one hour, you will need to develop nearly 45 screens along with the final assessment. As it is a lengthy course, you need to make it more engaging to retain learner attention. You need to come up with at least 8 highly interactive screens. But, if you have 5 modules of 10 minutes each with a final quiz, the effort is less than a 60-minute course. You can design a learning strategy that is scalable throughout the 5 modules, and hence the cost will be reduced. - Level of interactivity.
The level of interactivity is a key factor in determining the cost of your outsourced eLearning development project. Interactivities play key role in engaging learners, and as a rule of thumb, the cost of developing an online course is a function of the level of user engagement.
Check out this insightful post to know more about the factors influencing the cost of eLearning development and their implications on various training programs.
3. Making Sure You Draft An Effective Service Level Agreement
A Service Level Agreement, or else known as SLA, is a very important document that determines the course of your outsourced eLearning project, and therefore, it is necessary to draft a good SLA to ensure the success of the project. You need to clearly specify what you expect from the eLearning vendor. All important aspects such as the project’s scope, desired outcomes, information about key stakeholders and the review process, milestones, and timelines must be written in black and white.
Remember that assumptions can lead to serious consequences. For instance, a client may assume that he has explained all his requirements clearly to the vendor, while the vendor may have understood nothing, or something entirely different. Similarly, a Project Manager may think that that he has explained all the risks involved in the project to the development team, while the opposite may be true.
Outsourcing your eLearning development project to an experienced vendor will help you get a high-quality online learning product, at low cost. Focus on the aspects listed above to make your outsourcing initiative a big success.
