How to Save $50K on the eLearning Production of Your Online Course

It is very easy to spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on eLearning production. In fact, many estimates predict you’ll spend $500 to $35,000 or more for each hour of your course. But you don’t have to spend even close to that much. With a few simple tips, you can easily save $50K or more on your eLearning production. 

Step #1: Decrease Your Scope

The very first thing to do to save $50K on producing your online course is to reduce your scope. You want to do this in a few ways. 

Know You Don’t Need a Hollywood Production

Accept the fact that you don’t need a Hollywood production to make a good eLearning course or series of videos. As long as you have a quality microphone and camera, you are good. There may be some increase in quality as you increase the cost, but only to a certain point. It is also good to note that your smartphone is more than enough to get started. 

Only Address Your Learners’ Greatest Challenge

The other big element to reducing the scope of your course is to narrow down the content you include. Don’t be tempted to include everything related to the topic in a single course. Instead, focus on one issue. That issue should be the biggest challenge your learners face. Save the other ideas for future courses. 

Build a Mini-Course

Once you have the number one challenge of your learners, turn that into a mini-course. This kind of course is one hour long or less. That duration is the perfect length to cover a topic, maximize your learners’ attention span, and keep your budget low. 

Step #2: Leverage Free Tools

A quick online search will show you hundreds of paid tools for eLearning courses, but you will also have plenty of free options. Taking advantage of free tools is a very simple way to cut costs. We recommend a few specific tools. 

Loom

Loom offers a free account that lets you create up to 25 videos, each of which can be up to five minutes long. If you’re building a mini-course, you only need to use 12 of those five-minute videos. This enables you to use Loom and still be able to maximize it to create another free course in the future. If you like how Loom works for you, then you can upgrade to a paid plan in the future. 

Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets

Don’t overlook the capacity of a simple spreadsheet to serve as an alternative to a learning management system. You can use the columns and rows to organize your course and provide links to your content with ease. 

Video Ask

Like Loom, Video Ask offers a free account option that includes more than enough features to create a mini-course. You can also upgrade in the future. Use Video Ask to record videos asking learners questions and have them respond throughout the video. 

Step #3: Embrace the 85% Rule

Finally, embrace the 85% rule. This means that you will spend the same amount of time creating the last 15% of a course as the first 85%. So, you may find it still efficient to skip the last 15%, as it likely won’t impact the quality of learning. 

Conclusion

By reducing your scope, leveraging free tools, and embracing the 85% rule, you can save $50K or more on your eLearning production.