initial costs when launching online course at a college

by Myriam Toy 10 min read

Creating an online course can run between $200 at the very minimum to $5500 or more a year depending on the method you choose to create and market it. These cost account for the hosting platform, screen capture software, email service provider, domain names, to advertising cost.

Full Answer

What are the costs involved in creating an online course?

There are a few different types of costs involved in creating online courses. The first set of costs are your one-time costs for software or equipment. You can re-use equipment or sometimes rent equipment to save money. We’ll get into the one-time costs later. Costs that are more difficult to measure are time-related costs.

Can I know the price of the online course in advance?

Note: Online course development is a multi-stage and complex process, and it is impossible to know the price in advance thoroughly. There are too many variables in the final price tag equation that affect pricing.

How much should I Sell my first online course for?

Out of 12,818 creators, the average price of a creator’s first online course sale is $157. The median selling price of a creator’s first online course is $89.

How much does an online bachelor's degree cost?

Many colleges offer online bachelor's programs for under $10,000 per year in tuition and fees. Two-year colleges cost even less, allowing students to save thousands by earning credits online.

How much does it cost to start an online course?

It can cost anywhere from $200 to $10,000 to create an online course. The main source of expenses is the labor involved, followed by the equipment and software.

How much does an eLearning course cost?

The cost of an eLearning program typically costs between $200 and $900 for every minute of completed eLearning, but depends on several factors, including: Which eLearning level you choose (Level 1, 2, or 3) Whether your eLearning has professional voiceover.

What costs are involved in starting an online business?

13 Hidden Online Startup Business ExpensesPermits and licensing.Equipment and maintenance.Domain hosting and email.Software and platforms.Utilities and access.Transactional costs.Inventory shrinkage.Professional fees.More items...•

How much should I charge for an online workshop?

One way to calculate your time and workshop cost is by dividing your hourly rate by how many people you want in your workshop. If you want 10 people for a one hour workshop and you charge $250/hour, then you can charge $25/person + travel expenses and materials (this will make the price jump up to $30-$40/person).

How much should I charge for course creation?

In 2021, 1 hour of learning content can take around 100 – 160 hours to create. In 2021, 1 hour of learning content can cost about $8,542 – $36,320 ($22,431 on average)....Wrapping Up.Year1 hour of eLearning content costs, $20208,150 – 36,205 (22,178 on average)20197,830 – 37,365 (22,598 on average)2 more rows•Jun 20, 2020

How long does it take to develop 1 hour of eLearning?

How long does it take to develop 1 hour of eLearning? A average 1-hour interactive elearning course will take 197 hours to develop. But development of a 1-hour elearning course can range between 49 hours for the low end of the range of a “basic” course to 716 hours for the high end of the range of an “advanced” course.

What are examples of start up costs?

Examples of startup costs include licensing and permits, insurance, office supplies, payroll, marketing costs, research expenses, and utilities.

What are startup costs?

Start-up costs are amounts the business paid or incurred for creating an active trade or business, or investigating the creation or acquisition of an active trade or business.

How much does a startup cost?

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, most microbusinesses cost around $3,000 to start, while most home-based franchises cost $2,000 to $5,000. While every type of business has its own financing needs, experts have some tips to help you figure out how much cash you'll require.

How much should I charge for facilitating a workshop?

Their daily rate which would typically include design, delivery and document might be between $1500-$2000 per day. This would be for a relatively straightforward event with 20 or fewer participants. A more experienced North American facilitator typically charges $150-$350 per hour.

How much should you charge for webinars?

Webinar pricing for a robust webinar platform ranges anywhere from $150 USD per month to $500+ USD per month depending on your package and unique needs.

What are the steps to creating an online course?

How to create an online courseChoose the right subject matter.Test your idea.Research the topic extensively.Write a course outline.Create the course content.Bring your course online.Sell your online course.Market your content.More items...•

What is online course development?

Online course development is a complex process, and the price of course creation can vary depending on learning platform, course content, eLearning industry, and other factors. If you want to get a detailed cost analysis research for your eLearning project, pleasefeel free to schedule a demo. Tweet#N# .

How long has Sergiy been in eLearning?

Sergiy has 18 years of experience in eLearning and management. Creating educational programs, career paths, online and offline courses he is making the educational world better as a co-founder of RG.

Is eLearning still relevant?

The eLearning market changes, new eLearning trends, and technologies rise and the course should remain relevant. As we all know, even the most popular distance learning courses might need to be adjusted over time, if new breakthroughs occur in the subject matter, new data should be added or some statistics should be updated.

How much does a two year college cost?

Two-year colleges generally cost less than four-year colleges. For example, the most affordable four-year colleges charge nearly $9,000 per year in tuition and fees while the average cost of a two-year public college hovers around $3,000 per year, reports the NCES.

What is the first step in paying for college?

For most students, completing the FAFSA is the first step in paying for online college. The FAFSA qualifies students for federal financial aid programs, including grants, loans, and work-study opportunities.

Why do public schools offer tuition discounts?

Public schools offer tuition discounts for state residents because state funding provides part of their operating expenses. As a result, students who choose an in-state public school can save thousands in tuition costs each year. Many public colleges offer tuition discounts for online students.

How many college students take out loans?

Around 70% of college students take out loans to pay for school. Loans provide money to cover tuition and fees. Borrowers who take out federal or private student loans agree to repay the loan, plus interest. Students can qualify for federal student loans by completing the FAFSA.

What is the difference between a nonprofit and a for profit college?

Many for-profit schools invest in marketing and recruitment to raise revenues. In contrast, nonprofit colleges invest any profits in meeting their educational goals.

How long does it take to complete the FAFSA?

The FAFSA qualifies students for federal financial aid programs, including grants, loans, and work-study opportunities. Completing the FAFSA takes under an hour.

How much did students pay in 2017?

In 2017, students paid an average of $8,800 in in-state tuition and fees at four-year universities, according to the NCES. Out-of-state students paid nearly three times as much in tuition and fees, or an average of $24,850 per year.

How much does it cost to register a domain name?

Domain Name. Costs on registering a domain name for your business range from $10 per year up to $100, a thousand or a million depending on the type of domain name you choose. An old domain name is fine like good old wine, but it’s usually expensive, and there is always the option of registering a new one.

What is a course that encourages learners to interact fully and give feedback?

It makes use of serious games, avatars, simulated job performance exercises, customized audio and video, stories, scenarios. It includes high-end interactive elements that are complex, more expensive and need more time to develop.

What is learning management system?

The learning management system (LMS) that you are choosing has a huge role to play in your course development, so make sure you pick one that meets your most essential needs in terms of features.

Is it easier to create puzzles than videos?

But since these are often easier to create compared to a video, there can be a slight reduction in the development time and costs.

Is online learning profitable?

The short answer is “YES it can be quite profitable!”. The long answer requires a more in-depth analysis. Creating and selling online courses is a highly profitable business with the potential to open up a passive stream of income.

Is it easy to overlook business costs?

Business costs are easy to overlook but that doesn’t mean they should. Quite the opposite; you should be on the lookout for less-obvious or hidden costs – for example, those found in your website hosting and customer/student support services.

How to create a course?

Creating content for your course will be the first step in your course creation process. To estimate the cost at this step, let’s look at the different types of content you may need to create: 1 Written content for course videos, PDFs, presentation decks, website, etc. 2 Presentation slides for videos 3 Branding assets and graphics for your course material

What is the first step in course creation?

Creating content for your course will be the first step in your course creation process. To estimate the cost at this step, let’s look at the different types of content you may need to create:

Why is online learning better than traditional learning?

Even better, the benefits offered by online courses include increased student engagement, the opportunity for peer review and collaboration, and the promise of individualized attention , even in large classrooms. There are many reasons to embrace e-learning, ...

How much will the e-learning market be in 2025?

eLearning is going to play an ever-larger role in the future of higher education. In fact, by 2025, the e-learning market will reach $325 billion. That’s more than four times the traditional higher-education market. Even better, the benefits offered by online courses include increased student engagement, ...

What is learning management system?

Before pricing out any other aspect of course creation, you’ll need to select a learning management system (LMS). This software manages the delivery of course materials and monitors student completion. Because it is the main framework that students and teachers will interact with, it’s important to thoughtfully select a system that meets your needs. Each system has different features and functions that will dictate the kind of content you can offer and the supplemental tools you may need to purchase.#N#While it might be tempting to build your own LMS in-house to perfectly suit your specifications, doing so would be very expensive and time-intensive. Considering the lower price points of many LMS systems, it’s much more cost-effective to shop around for a ready-made solution.#N#There are several different types of learning management systems geared to higher education.

Do I need to host an LMS?

In addition to the tech support required to configure and install an open-source option, you will need to host the LMS on your own website, which comes with storage and maintenance fees.

Do you need to create a course material for an online course?

Just as you would need to create a curriculum and hire an instructor to teach an in-person course, you will need to create course materials and a lesson plan for an online one. You’ll either need to create the content yourself, have your staff do it, or hire someone else to do so.

Is cloud learning more popular?

For all of these reasons, cloud-based options are becoming more and more popular. Cloud-based learning management systems usually operate on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, where users pay a monthly or yearly subscription.

Is LMS free?

An open-source LMS is Easy to obtain and typically free, or free at a base level, with paid add-ons. Some of the most established options are Moodle and Sakai. A benefit to open-source learning management systems is that users have access to the source code, so they may adapt the software any way they like.

eLearning costs estimates: it all depends on the model

The online course design and development costs depend heavily on the instructional design model chosen. In this article we depict one of the most widespread and efficient instructional design and development approaches — the ADDIE model:

Conclusions

The eLearning market changes, new trends, and technologies rise and the course should remain relevant. As we all know, even the most popular distance learning courses might need to be adjusted over time, if new breakthroughs occur in the subject matter, new data should be added or some statistics should be updated.

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How it all adds up

A bad pun notwithstanding, these are the most important insights into our data analysis, outside of the data itself:

About the author

Lauren Cochran is the Director of Content for Podia, an all-in-one platform where online courses, digital downloads, and communities scale with their creators. Ironically, she gets tongue-tied talking about herself, and can usually be found with a to-do list in hand.

How Many Working Hours Equals One Hour Of Instruction?

Most experts base estimates for how long it will take to devise an eLearning program on the number of employee hours it would take to create one hour of instruction.

How Long Will It Take To Create Your eLearning Program?

Kapp’s and Chapman’s research was done nearly a decade ago. eLearning tools such as Learning Management Systems and course authoring platforms have grown in sophistication and ease of use, which should speed up the process.

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Decisions Related to Online Course Development

One-Time Costs vs Time Related Costs

  • There are a few different types of costs involved in creating online courses. The first set of costs are your one-time costs for software or equipment. You can re-use equipment or sometimes rent equipment to save money. We’ll get into the one-time costs later. Costs that are more difficult to measure are time-related costs. Obviously, if you’re pay...
See more on coursemethod.com

How Long to Create An Hour of video?

  • Let’s start by going through an estimate of how long it takes to create that one hour of video. But before we can get to our video time estimate, we need to consider what kind of video we’re going to create. Will it be a live-action, screen recording, or animation-style video?
See more on coursemethod.com

Visual Video Decisions

  • There are decisions you need to make depending on what type of video you’re creating; live-action, screen recording, or animations. I’ve got a few pathways here depending on the type of video you’re creating. What you’re doing here is deciding on the visuals for your videos.
See more on coursemethod.com

Voice Over vs Live Action Audio

  • Depending on what type of video you’re doing, once your visuals are ready you need to record your audio …
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Estimate Considerations

  • As you can see, live-action takes less time to do. The time can vary based on the amount of practice you do and how many breaks you need between takes. Of course, if you’re recording yourself giving a slideshow presentation, you need to create that presentation and record it live. So that will take even longer! The thing is, these estimates are just for one hour. But if your cours…
See more on coursemethod.com

Supplemental Material

  • As explained above, I suggest creating an add-on to go along with the video. This takes extra time, but it will greatly enhance the value of your course. You can include a quiz (even 12 questions covering 1 hour of video will work). Quizzes or assessments make the most sense when you’re covering a difficult educational concept. For each module in my course, I created a short quiz. If …
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Time Estimates For 1 Hour of Video and Supplemental Material

  • Here’s the total time estimate for both the video training and the supplemental material production: Use this to help you figure out the time it will take you and estimate the costs involved.
See more on coursemethod.com

Costs For One-Time Physical Equipment

  • Now here’s where everyone will start incurring costs unless you already have all this equipment. First of all, you need a computer, but it doesn’t need to be anything super fancy. Hopefully, you already have access to a computer (a desktop or laptop will work). There’s so much variety in computer costs that it’s hard to estimate. Most people already have a computer (or access to on…
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One-Time Costs For Software

  • In addition to the physical equipment, you’ll need software. Once again, it’s different whether you’re doing presentation-style videos or live action videos which I’ll cover below.
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What Does The Cost to Create An Online Course Depend on?

Creating Course Content

Recording Course Videos

Setting Up Your Course

Summary – Cost to Create An Online Course

  • In this guide, we have discussed the cost of creating a course under different heads – creating course content, recording course videos, and setting up your course. When you add all of them, you’ll get the total costs involved. The total cost of creating your course will be $140 + $100-$149/monthif you create screencast or presentation-style videos...
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