A Cost Model for E-learning projects in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Abstract. This research aims to address the problems of estimating e-Learning development costs particularly within the United Kingdom. Hundreds of managers with no prior experience of managing e-Learning development often find themselves needing to produce cost estimations for eLearning development and rely on structured expert judgement to produce accurate cost estimates. The lack of prior experience in e-Learning development means that these managers will not be able to apply structured expert judgement to their cost estimations and the risk of inaccurate estimations will be high, with all the subsequent problems this will bring with it. A solution needs to be found whereby these managers can produce accurate estimates without past experience. This research seeks to create a cost model, built on data from e-Learning projects in the United Kingdom which managers can use to produce cost estimates for e-Learning development.

Methodology for Constructing and Using a Mathematical Model for Assessing Labor Costs for the Development of Distance Learning Courses

“…University of the West Indies [7] uses this model in its framework for the development of sustainable e-learning. [8] suggested the following mathematical model for the cost estimation for an e-learning project: Y = 32.13 − 0.7 × Number of Screens + 0.26 × Still Images + 0.13 × Audio Clips − 0.03 × Interactions + 0.86 ×Animations − 7.81 × Video Clips. The value of Y defines the number of human-days required to develop the e-learning project.…”

“…For the data taken from Table 2 we have: E1 = 1.01 + 0.24 × 0.006 = 1.011 (8) In this case (for the course MIT), the adjusted value of the projected labor cost would be: M = NC × ∑ n i=1 K i = 3 × 0.78 = 2.34 Labor costs = 2.34 × 3 1.011 = 7.1 (man × weeks)…”