Low-cost online courses do not have to compromise quality. While we want to keep our expenses low, it is also important for us to meet our elearning goals. You may be wasting both your time and money if you fail to meet your goals just because you wanted to keep the cost low.
The good news is, you can create a low-cost elearning course without sacrificing the quality of the learning material. It uses the same concept as saving on entertainment expenses. You can always enjoy your weekends without having to spend a lot. You just have to be creative, ingenious and resourceful. Here are some tips that will help you do that with your online course.
- Keep the course focused. Do not try to cover too much subject because that will require you to get more content and access various materials that will make the learning process complete. This will also cost you more. Just stick to the important data that you need to impart. This will make it easier for the employees to retain the lesson. You do not want to overwhelm them with too much information.
- Reuse existing materials. If you have existing online courses, you may want to use this – or at least some of them. That way, you do not have to pay for new materials. It will save you both money and time as well. Any images, videos, and other multimedia elements can be repurposed – as long as they are generic in nature. You may want to make it a point to put all your learning materials in one location. That way, you can easily access it when you need it.
- Choose the right tools. Try not to skip spending for this – no matter how low your budget is. If you exert enough effort in searching, you can find the right tools that will meet the needs of your online courses without costing too much money. In fact, some of them are free – just make sure you try not to compromise the content of your course or the learning process just to keep your budget low. The features are still very important.
- Find the tools that will expedite the course creation process. There are a lot of templates that you can use to help you create online courses. These are pre-designed so you do not have to spend time building it from scratch – and it will be unique for each course. Most free templates will just require you to credit the developer or designer – which is a small price to pay for something you get for free. The same is true for multimedia resources like videos or audio materials. You do not have to create them – just tap into an existing material that suits the online courses. By creating the course at a faster rate, you are minimizing the most valuable asset that you have – your time.
- Opt for microlearning. Creating bite-sized online courses will make the creation faster and thus deployment earlier. It will also cost you less while you are creating it. After all, you can use the same systems and programs for all the micro lessons. Not only that, you can help learners avoid cognitive overload. Microlearning will actually help you address a lot of issues when it comes to creating elearning courses.
- Invest in researching your target learners. Knowing who the learners are will help minimize the errors in your course. You need to get to know who will access the course so you can deliver the lesson in such a way that will maximize their learning experience. The fewer errors, the lesser the cost.
Follow these tips to keep the development cost of online courses at a reasonable level.
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