Kate Anisimova
Сourse creation · 7 MIN · 10.09.2024
How long does it take to create an online course?
So, you set your mind on creating an online course to share your expertise, earn money, or promote your services. Or, you want to use it as a marketing tool to ensure everyone knows about your product. Or, perhaps you need to teach your employers or partners things they’ll use in their work. Great news: education can do this and so much more! However, the big question is: how long does it take to create an online course?
Source: Brooke Cagle, unsplash.com
My name is Kate, and I’ve been creating education for nine years. During this period, I designed over 100 courses and established educational standards for five companies. Today, I’ll share my experience regarding course production and offer some tips on how to speed up this process.
Part one. Things to consider while estimating the production timeline
When I start working with the client, the first things we discuss before signing the contract are:
As much as these two things are connected, they’re not necessarily the same. To see why it is so, let’s play a game. I’ll ask you the questions I usually ask my clients, and you’ll try to come up with honest answers.
- the work scope
- and the production timeline
As much as these two things are connected, they’re not necessarily the same. To see why it is so, let’s play a game. I’ll ask you the questions I usually ask my clients, and you’ll try to come up with honest answers.
Question one: why have you decided to create a course?
Source: Rock Staar, unsplash.com
Most likely, your ultimate goal is to make money. However, to make them, there’s usually some other reason. For example:
Answering why you’ve decided to create a course should define the main message you’ll send using it. It will also help you decide on your style and pacing. Both things are the key to making your investment in the product worth the outcome.
- Train your employees so they work better and earn more money for your business.
- Get yourself known to get more clients.
- Share your expertise to build trust with your audience and earn more money.
- Get people to familiarise themselves with your business so you have more clients.
Answering why you’ve decided to create a course should define the main message you’ll send using it. It will also help you decide on your style and pacing. Both things are the key to making your investment in the product worth the outcome.
Question two: when do you want your course to be published, the latest?
Yes, 'the latest.' I know. Sorry.
Creating a course may sound not as complicated as creating, let's say, a search engine, but making any good product takes time. From my experience, realistic deadlines for course creation start with one month and may take up to a year, depending on the duration and complexity of the product.
Creating a course may sound not as complicated as creating, let's say, a search engine, but making any good product takes time. From my experience, realistic deadlines for course creation start with one month and may take up to a year, depending on the duration and complexity of the product.
If you can’t afford to focus all of your time on the course and not aim for complex production with cinematic videos and animation, it’s safe to take the following as a baseline estimation:
It works if you have some idea what your course is about. If you don’t, you’ll need to add an additional time. To learn how much, answer the following question.
It works if you have some idea what your course is about. If you don’t, you’ll need to add an additional time. To learn how much, answer the following question.
Question three: who will act as a subject matter expert, and do they have free time?
This question may seem irrelevant to estimating course development time, but follow me there.
Source: Bruno Cervera, unsplash.com
Here’s a typical scenario: a company wants to create a course to teach its sales representatives about its products. There is one person who knows everything about the company’s products. All they need to do is put all their knowledge in a document that will be used to create the course. However, they have a busy schedule. A very busy schedule. So, the person responsible for course creation must wait until the document is ready to start designing the education.
Here’s another scenario: a person wants to create a course to promote their services and to make money. They even hire a team to help with the course creation. However, they still need to share their expertise so the team can start creating the course. All they need to do is to find 3-5 hours to take all that knowledge from their head and put it on paper. But they have more urgent things to do, right? They have their main practice to work on. This is how 3-5 hours turn into a week, then into two, then into a month.
Will it happen to you? Most likely, it will. Is this a problem? No, it isn’t. We can’t prioritise everything. We always have some other, more urgent tasks to do. And it’s okay. But when you're trying to estimate how long it will take to create your course, it’s worth considering this factor.
Will it happen to you? Most likely, it will. Is this a problem? No, it isn’t. We can’t prioritise everything. We always have some other, more urgent tasks to do. And it’s okay. But when you're trying to estimate how long it will take to create your course, it’s worth considering this factor.
Let’s take an average of two weeks to prepare the course content for the production planning.
So, 2.5 months is a safe estimate for a basic one-hour course production time. To specify it further, let’s talk about content.
So, 2.5 months is a safe estimate for a basic one-hour course production time. To specify it further, let’s talk about content.
Part two. How content affects a course development time
Source: Jakub Zerdzicki, unsplash.com
I’ve already mentioned this, but an online course can take many forms. A more complex production will make it look cooler, but inevitably, it will take more time to develop. Let’s review a couple of common types of courses and examine how they affect the baseline 2.5-month estimation.
Before we proceed, let me add a remark: fancier production does not necessarily mean better educational quality. Good educational design does not equal good graphic design. It can improve a learning experience (like code simulators for programming courses), but there is no shame in creating simpler-looking courses.
Before we proceed, let me add a remark: fancier production does not necessarily mean better educational quality. Good educational design does not equal good graphic design. It can improve a learning experience (like code simulators for programming courses), but there is no shame in creating simpler-looking courses.
Level 1. A simple video course
Take a look at any course on Udemy or Skillshare. This is a Normal-Looking, Simple Video Course. Usually, they would consist of either home-shoot or easy studio-shoot videos, with static presentation slides or screencasts, plus assignments.
Source: Skillshare
Creating simple longreads will fall into this category as well. Time for developing a course like this will take an average baseline we’ve set prior.
Level 2. Not so a simple video course
Let’s say you want to add something more fun—for example, an animation video or motion graphics. These may be a nice addition if your audience is low on motivation, for example, when you’re creating a course for your employees, who do not necessarily see the benefits of it.
Source: Elena Mozhvilo, unsplash.com
Estimation for these types of work will depend on their complexity, but on average, you may add an additional week per each 2 minutes of video. Let’s say you’ll have four 3-minute animation videos in your online course. It means its developing time will take:
Level 3. Text-based non-linear course
Not all courses should have videos: sometimes, text is a better medium for translating knowledge. For example, if you’re working with complex topics like math or code, you may want to give your students a chance to go back and reread a specific paragraph quickly; for this purpose, working with text is much more convenient.
Source: Emile Perron, unsplash.com
A simple text-based course will fit in a baseline estimation of 2.5 weeks. But if you want to add additional mechanics, like a non-linear approach, you’ll need to add extra. If you’re wondering what a non-linear approach is, think about adapting your course for different audiences. Some may have a higher level of knowledge than others – so why not give them a chance to skip lessons they’re already familiar with?
A safe way to estimate a production time for a course like this is to add two weeks.
Level 4. Game-based or extremely interactive course
Okay, there’s no average estimation for courses like this, simply because any of them is unique in its complexity.
However, sometimes, you may need to make a course that goes way beyond those you usually see on the market. Here’s a couple of examples:
However, sometimes, you may need to make a course that goes way beyond those you usually see on the market. Here’s a couple of examples:
- A code simulator where student can type their code and see the results
- Software simulator (useful for teaching software that, for some reason, can’t be used in a test mode) – and other types of sandboxes
- A game with educational qualities (ex., tycoon-based games can be beneficial for management or financial topics)
- An interactive movie simulating real-life scenarios
- VR courses (these are sometimes being used for teaching pilots or others who will work in dangerous circumstances)
Part three. How do you speed up the process of creating a course?
To answer this question, I usually ask myself why I want to speed up the process. Do I need to do this for real reasons (e.g., to teach a support team using a product before release), or am I just giddy? There is no shame in being giddy, but it’s important to understand that speeding up the process often means lowering the overall quality.
And this is where your understanding of your course’s goal comes in handy. What part of the course can be sacrificed to finish it faster?
And this is where your understanding of your course’s goal comes in handy. What part of the course can be sacrificed to finish it faster?
- Can a two-hour duration transform into an hour and a half?
- Would complex animation videos help you reach your goal?
- Are you ready to hire a team to speed up production?
Ultimately, course production fits into the category of other production and could be described with the following scheme:
To conclude, no magic pill will help you create a course in one week. Speeding up things requires optimising the task. So, when setting your mind on creating an online course, ask yourself: what do I want to achieve, and how exactly do I want to achieve that?
And if you’re in doubt, let a team of professional course creators help you.
And if you’re in doubt, let a team of professional course creators help you.
- Kate AnisimovaLearning experience designerDesigned over 100 online courses, built four LX teams from scratch, and established educational standards for five companies. But who's counting?
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