Clark (2010), author of Estimating Costs and Time in Instructional Design, provides a high level overview on project budgeting and critical elements to consider when budgeting for a project. Clark provides examples of training cost estimates, development hours, and varying timeframes related to budgeting for a training project. Clark’s approach provides the novice and veteran instructional designer a sample checklist or sounding board in preparation of a project. Although each component is found to be beneficial, one component stood out the most: seat time. When taking into consideration project budgets, especially for training or educational projects, a project manager or instructional designer may overlook the necessity to factor in the “seat time” in relation to the budget. However “seat time” is something to strongly consider in relation to meeting project deliverables. Determining the “seat time” could ultimately determine the type of delivery method and the costs related to the chosen delivery method or style. For instance, while working on a current project to transform the current new hire training module from instructor-led-training (ILT) to a blended (or hybrid) training model consideration of the duration of ILT modules must be taken into account. Based upon limited resources and the need to train four satellite departments, the need for online and interactive learner driven methods is extremely high and necessary. Calculating “seat time” as a factor not only provides insight to the stakeholders and project team that may not have been seen had not been taken into consideration during budget planning resulting in making an less educated decision on how to best proceed with meeting the project deliverables in the most effective and efficient manner, but also considers the perspective of the learner and the time required to learn a subject matter versus from the instructor or facilitator perspective which also drives another aspect of success.
Radcliffe (2009) offers budgetary insight from an instructional designer perspective useful for the novice to the most veteran Instructional Designer in the presentation Course Development on a Budget – Reasonable Options to Save Time and Money. In this presentation Radcliffe offers alternative solutions in relation to project development and time management needs. Although Radcliffe does not address the methods on how to go effectively approach budgeting for a project, the alternative solutions offer another avenue to potentially alleviate frivolous product costs or inflated budgets. Course Development on a Budget – Reasonable Options to Save Time and Money (Radcliffe, 2009) provides a comparison of solutions and the benefits of less expensive selections. What was found most useful, from a personal perspective, were the high level breakdowns of user-friendly software that could aid an instructional designer to meet many of the desired results in relation to a project. For instance, SnagIt and Jing are great tools to meet various instructional design needs from graphic capture for document creation (e.g. training manuals) or multimedia presentations (e.g. online learning tools). In previous experiences, each has served as beneficial, supplementary, and cost effective tool/software to meet project deliverables with emergent turnaround times. For additional information, review the following presentation.
Course Development On A Budget
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Resources
Clark, D. (2010, June 23). Estimating Cost and Time in Instructional Design. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html
Radcliffe, T. (2009). Course Development on a Budget – Reasonable Options to Save Time and Money [PowerPoint slides]. http://www.slideshare.net/tradcliffe/course-development-on-a-budget
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