Is it cheaper? Offshore Elearning Development

Given that it's now common for organizations to outsource development work to India and China, is it true to say that it is still cheaper than developing the material in house in or are there other value adds one would need to consider?

Offshore elearning development can be cheaper, but it's important to consider the type of training, availability and stability of written content, clarity of the ISD process, communication channels and goals of the initiative.

In general, the direct costs for off-shoring elearning development are cheaper. However, without clear stable content, a well documented process for providing and reviewing content and solid channels for providing and reviewing work in process, slippages, re-work and delays can eat deeply into cost savings.

Additionally, it has been my experience that some training projects are much easier to offshore than others. When the training covers simple, explicit topics it's relatively easy to offshore. As the learning becomes more complex, it becomes increasingly difficult to offshore.

As with any elearning development or complex project, partnership and teaming experience can be great levers for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the effort. If you have an offshore partner you work with often, they will be more familiar with your content, processes, systems, and methods of communication and potential bottlenecks. The more you work with together, the quicker and better will be the process. If you are looking at costing projects, be sure to think through what this means in terms of the value chain. When you do sign a contract with an offshore partner, make sure the terms are written in such a way that you can either capture or share such savings. In the long run, that will pay you huge dividends.

The cost of creating a simple tutorial can vary greatly. It depends on tools used, whether the cost is based on straight development, or whether time for other components in the process are integrated into the per hour factor used to cost the effort. If you are paying for your partner to make storyboards, complete a detailed design, conduct multiple reviews, add graphics, conduct multiple SME reviews to get content, test the deliverable, load it to an LMS, manage the pilot and complete other critical steps in the process, the per hour rate can look staggering. However, having a skilled partner handle such activities can save time and money. Likewise, it’s important to understand the skill level of the developers who will be working on the project. If they know the various elearning tools required for the project and are familiar with Instructional design, and can work to ask questions and gather unknown information, you will pay more per hour, but end up with a much better, cheaper deliverable.