Thanks to all of you who participated in this recent study.
In one of my earlier blogs, I listed development times for different delivery methods including ILT, online-learning, rapid development, and simulation development. Click here to see the previous posting.
I realized that I was quoting ILT statistics that were collected more than 5 years ago. Someone called me on it, which resulted in some research business for me. But, I thought we should all be beneficiaries of the information.
Basically, the questions were:
1. Is 34:1 still a valid measurement of development times, or have things changed?
2. How is the time sub-allocated during ILT development.
Here are the results:
I know the image is rather small, so here’s a quick recap of the information, plus you can download a PowerPoint summary for the whole study for your review. Click here to download. You are welcome to use this information in your presentations and scholarly work, as long as you appropriately cite the source (listed inside the PowerPoint).
Average Development Time ILT = 36:1 (36 hours of development for each 1 hour of final ILT training)
-
Breakout:
Front-End Analysis (Data Collection, Working with SMEs) = 13% (4.8 hours)
Instructional Design (Objectives, Outlining, Content Development) = 13% (4.6 hours)
Lesson Plan Development = 11% (3.8 hours)
Creation of handout material = 8% (3 hours)
Student Guide Development = 20% (7.2 hours)
PowerPoint Development = 21% (7.6 hours)
Test and Exam Creation = 8% (2.8 hours)
Other Tasks = 6% (2.3 hours)
NOTE: The PowerPoint includes information on what is covered under “Other”
I look forward to more disucssion about the topic. Thanks to our anonymous sponsor who prompted a deeper dive.
If you have a question you would like researched, please contact me directly.
–Bryan Chapman
bryan@chapmanalliance.com
bryan@brandon-hall.com
Workplace Learning Today
Subscribe by Email
Follow Bryan on Twitter
Connect on Facebook
Connect on LinkedIn
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Quite useful information. One comment and a couple of questions:
The ppt download does not work. Complains that the file does not exist (I am trying it in Firefox browser)
1. Was there an assessment of impact of reusable learning material on this effort (and hence the ratio)
2. Assessment is not included in this effort. Is that by design?
It may be interesting to have this on a public wiki where people can update information and add comments etc.
The download link doesn’t seem to work. Is it just me?
Thanks for the great info!
Mike
Sorry about the bad link. It worked in the beginning, but just stopped working for some reason. I think the problem is fixed now.
But, just in case, you are welcome to download the slides at the following address.
http://home.comcast.net/~bchapman_utah/ilt.ppt
Thanks for pointing out the problem.
Dorai;
There was no distinction in the survey between repuposing existing content vs. new content development.
As for “Assessment,” some included this in the “other” category, but you are correct that this would be a good category to add to the survey itself.
I like the Wiki idea. I just need to find some time to set it up.
Thanks for your comments.
Bryan,
You can sign up for pbwiki (which is free if you have a public wiki). It takes only a few minutes.
If you want to set up your own server, you should probably get MediaWiki (since it seems to be the most widely used and scalable).
There are wiki hosting providers (I have not used them since I set up my own) like
http://www.siteground.com/mediawiki-hosting.htm
A few more things to look at:
A Wikia community – http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia
A Swicki community – http://www.eurekster.com/
You are providing a very valuable service with you r blog. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.
Dorai
Hi Bryan,
This was very valuable as a benchmark… thank you. Do you have any thoughts on the difference in hours/ration between development and maintenance (i.e. edits)?
Keep up the great work!!!
Many thanks,
Bernadette
We didn’t collect information about maintenance. This would be a good follow-on study. Any suggestions from readers on the best way to measure maintenance (fixed time period, major vs. minor update releases, etc.). I try to make sure comparisons are apples-to-apples and I could see how we would need to lock this one down to get the right information. Any ideas would be most helpful.
Interesting data. Thank you for updating these results. A couple of observations from my experience.
First, I noticed in the detailed break-out of hours, there were no hours reported for Instructor materials creation other than PPT slides. Scripts, T3 development, and T3 delivery add significantly to the people hour development costs of ILT in environments where the development and delivery are done by separate teams.
Second, I am surprised by the number of potentially costly development items lumped in with “Other Tasks”. Lab exercises, for example, are central to much of the training that I develop. Good lab exercises require considerable development and testing time and also feature high on the maintenance costs. A good one hour lab exercise takes longer to develop than one hour of straight ILT w/ a few slides to support an expert trainer.
Media production is also in the “Other Tasks” bucket. Add a simple 2 minute video to the mix and you are well beyond the 6% and 2.3 hours for “Other Tasks” reported by your respondents.
Good point Mike. Remember that the survey “averages” all the information, meaning that some estimates were much higher and other lower. So, in general, only a few of our survey respondents may specifically produce video for their classroom.
Also, remember that the 36:1 ratio is for one single hour of ILT. In most cases, companies are producing lengthy courses, i.e. 1 week (or 40 hours – 40 X 36 = 1440 hours of development). They may produce some video for the week long course and the cost is spread across the entire development cycle.
I appreciate your comments. It would be interesting to do a separate study on how many classes include creation of lab exercies or media production to get an idea of the impact on development.
Hello Bryan:
In the February/March 2008 edition of Elearning!, you state the average development ratio for instructor-led training is 36:1, or 36 hours of development time are for one (1) hour of final ILT training.
There is a serious misconception in your estimate.
Namely,
1. The 36:1 ratio is to get the 1 hour of ILT to the DRAFT stage; this is not the final, signoff version of the 1 hour of ILT
2. The Project Plan for this 1 hour of ILT would have to build in project lead/manager review; revisions; stakeholder review; revisions and verifications; pilot delivery and post-pilot revisions; and finalization.
3. So, I would make the 1 hour of ILT 80:1
Your article is very misleading as to the hour estimate.
I believe you need to supplement your article with realistic assumptions and actions that will occur in the real world.
Thank you for reading my feedback to you.
Shashi Gowda
Senior Instructional Designer
American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA)
Shashi;
You have a great point. We really didn’t ask survey respondents to include the whole piloting/revision process. That can be a whole project unto itself….very time consuming. I would say that the 36:1 ratio is more representative of development than the entire development and initial evaluation process (which may be longer). Thanks for your feedback.
Hi!
How much time should a 1.5 hrs flash presentation that has voice over and animation take to make about 50 percent changes.
Hi All,
I am searching for some industry standard practice for estimating the effort to develop a flash based training material with audio, video, demo, simulation, text, interactive pages, quizes, etc that will be hosted on to an LMS.
My organization is asking for this baselining and I am struggling with it.
Thanks,
Nanda
Flash-based development falls under the standard development ratios of 220:1.
See http://brandon-hall.com/bryanchapman/?p=7 for a reference
Simulation development is also covered on this page (750:1 ratio), but only for the simulation parts of your course.
I hope this helps.
Hi Bryan,
Have you developed a similar pitch or conducted similar research for WBT development? Hopefully not opening pandora’s box…
Hello Bryan,
Do we have a break-up for elearning like we have for ILT – estimating the time required for Storyboarding, Media Creation, Production, etc.
Many clients have been asking for a % breakup in order to outsource parts of work.
Looking for your response.
Regards
Pooja Nahata
I don’t have a similar itemization for e-learning. Would be worth doing in the near future….if I could ever find the time. It’s been very busy around here lately. Thanks for your inquiry.
Happy New Year, Bryan
Would you think this ratio could be applied in the language training context?
Cheers
The ratios are averages across all types of content. We saw huge variations from the high to the low. I’m sure that there would be different averages for different types of content and for different levels of complexity. Unfortunately the study looked only generically at the averages and didn’t have enough data to cross tab the data at that level of detail. Sorry.
Do these estimates also take into account the review cycles that you have during each phase of development?
In the 2002 survey that you had published, you had given estimate for WBT Conversion ,Standard E-learning (HTML, Flash, GIF’s etc.), and Complex e-Learning (above plus audio, video, interactive simulations) - has there been any change to these estimates?
Thank you for the estimates. I do have a question however in terms of taking a course that is already developed with objectives, lesson plans, and the bones to convert it to an e-learning environment. I understand that the length of time to migrate it to an e-learning environment depends on the media (i.e images, audio, simulations) that would be included in the course. I liek how you have broken down how much time per area of ILT but it is based on f2f. Do you happen to have or know where I can find similar breakdowns but for e-learning environments?
Also, in doing estimations of time it will take to migrate the course, I am having difficulty figuring out how to calculate the quizes. Should I be using the amount of time we would allow the learner or the amount of time it took to create the quiz in the first place when figuring out how much time it will take to migrate?
I appreciate any and all feedback! Thank you.