Estimating Captivate development costs

[trainer_ID]

Does anyone have a formula for estimating the cost of developing in Captivate?

I am developing training for proprietary sales software and am considering using Captivate.

Thanks.

[webbo1968]

Hi,

I have done quite a few projects using captivate and on average, although each project is slightly different, I allow 100 hrs of development for 30 minutes of e-learning. This has been almost accurate and is a good starting base. I know that the industry standard guideline here in the UK is 200 hrs e-learning development time for one full hours e-learning, so that fits in with that industry guideline.

Captivate is so called 'rapid' development, but believe me on large projects, there is still a lot of behind the scenes checking to do in order a project runs correctly, things like timeline checks, recording interactions, branching paths correct, quiz answers etc etc.. The rapid only really applies to capturing the content, it then needs to be checked and double checked, although that depends on how professional you want your work to look, some people are happy with 'quick and dirty' get it out there and fix it as it gets reported..but that is just more work in the long run especially if a project is 'live' and in use by several thousand, as in my organisation!

Regards

Webbo

[Guest]

Your information was helpful - thanks. Sorry for the delayed thank you, but it's been our Thanksgiving holiday and I took a break.

[webbo1968]

Also see my input on a similar post: Here

Webbo

[Newsgroup_User]

> I have done quite a few projects using captivate and on average, although
> each
> project is slightly different, I allow 100 hrs of development for 30
> minutes of
> e-learning. This has been almost accurate and is a good starting base. I
> know
> that the industry standard guideline here in the UK is 200 hrs e-learning
> development time for one full hours e-learning, so that fits in with that
> industry guideline.

For a long time thhe standard has been 100 - 300 hours for an hour of
content, depending on the complexity and content. E.g. full video, 3D
animation, complex interactivity would require 300 hours per hour. But
that's including research, scriptwriting, editing, developing testing.

For Captivate, which for me never includes video, audio, 3D animation etc.,
develoment time is in the region of 10 - 100 hours per hour of content.

Steve


--
--
http://twitter.com/Stevehoward999

Adobe Community Expert: eLearning, Mobile and Devices
European eLearning Summit - EeLS
Adobe-sponsored eLearning conference.
http://www.elearningsummit.eu

[webbo1968]

> For Captivate, which for me never includes video, audio, 3D animation etc.,
> develoment time is in the region of 10 - 100 hours per hour of content.

See this is where we differ. I work for Local Government and have to hit numerous development criteria, especially around things like diversity and accessibility, as a result ALL of my projects have to have audio, keyboard shortcuts, 508 scripting on every slide for screen reader software etc etc... hence my development hours are higher than 10-100 per hour.

Each it really does depend on the circumstances and how much effort you are required to put in to each project.


Webbo

[Newsgroup_User]

> Each it really does depend on the circumstances and how much effort you
> are
> required to put in to each project.

Exactly. Quoting numbers is meaningless without adding an indication of the
level of interactivity etc.

Steve


--
--
http://twitter.com/Stevehoward999

Adobe Community Expert: eLearning, Mobile and Devices
European eLearning Summit - EeLS
Adobe-sponsored eLearning conference.
http://www.elearningsummit.eu

[hands2work]

I need to put an average value per minute on the Captivate work my group does at our company. Some are eLearning, some are more communication projects; medium interactivity, medium complexity. Anyone care to give a ballpark figure or price range, industry standard vendor cost???