Estimating Cost and Allocating Resources

Allocating for resources is a challenging task that project managers need to face in order to complete a project. Since all projects compete for limited human and physical resources, it is up to project managers to know how to utilize effectively those resources to make sure the project can succeed (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008).

 My course project focuses in transforming a face-to-face workshop to an online module. I am also interested in creating online courses through my career as instructional designer, so I decided to search for cost estimation tools that can be useful in creating online courses.

Next you will find the two resources that I found interesting and helpful for any project.

Using a Web-based System to Estimate the Cost of Online Course Production

The link for this Web site is: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall123/gordon123.html

Many faculty members want to create their own online course. However, usually these professionals are experts in their own specific subject matter, and have lack of knowledge about how to develop a course online. In response to that issue, the Center for Learning Technologies at Old Dominion University (ODU) to establish and develop and effective  cost estimation model to eventually develop the Asynchronous Cost Model (ACM) for online course development (Gordon, He, & Abdous 2009).

This Web site explains how to the ACM spreadsheet provides a framework to help estimate the cost of developing an online course. The categories addressed include instructional design, interface, text, graphics, photographs, animation, audio, video, assessment, learning management, and deliverables. I like the information provided by this Web site explaining how the use of spreadsheets using Microsoft Word, and Excel to create the forms. 

The second source that I found helpful is from Big Dog & Little Dog's Performance Juxtaposition.

Estimating Costs and Time in Instructional Design

The link for this Web site is: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html#hours

This site provides some expenses for estimating training costs. Understanding that the prices the site is sharing are just an estimate, it is very helpful for people like me that are novice in this area. I did not have any idea the total price to produce a professional video that falls between the $ 1,000.00 to $ 3,000.00 per-finished-minute.

This site also share the estimating on development hours. The design time is shared in hour of training. After reading the article you can have a clear idea of development times to create one-hour of e-learning and more information of instructor preparation time. The information that I found and will be useful to complete my course project is the amount of hours needed for developing time.

Reference

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.