eLearning Request For Proposal: Get The eLearning Solution Of Your Dreams
It’s a scenario that happens all too often. You smiled, spoke clearly and shared your eLearning dreams with whom you thought could be the eLearning vendor for you, but now you’re not so sure. You fancied eLearning Vendor A, even RFP’d them, only to find that eLearning Vendor A had an entirely different vision for the future than eLearning Vendor B. eLearning Vendor B came back with $7,500, and eLearning Vendor A, $75,000. You thought you had something special with eLearning Vendor A, but now you see that all those emails and late afternoon phone conversations were in vain. You knew it couldn’t last forever. It’s betrayal in the harshest form.
Alright, alright, so that was a little dramatic, borderline soap opera cheesy with the faint music in the background. However, what was just described is something that happens far too often. Companies select an eLearning vendor with the hope of getting a solution that matches their budget, needs and expectations only to be underwhelmed and hit with a barrage of change requests and confusion that leads to some very disheartening engagements.
eLearning solutions aren’t a one-size fits all approach in terms of final product and neither are the options and costs associated with choosing one that’s right for your company. There are many options and services to choose so clearly defining what you’re buying is critical for both you and your eLearning vendor.
Ask yourself the following before you go looking for your next proposal and be ready to describe your needs in more detail to avoid some heartache.
eLearning Request For Proposal: Questions To Ask Your Next eLearning Vendor
Content Acquisition
1. Do You Have Content?
If you have content going in, this project phase will move along exponentially quicker. If you have little to no content, be prepared to up the cost and time to gather necessary content. Be realistic, bullet points in a PowerPoint don’t make for a very engaging eLearning course. Have you collected your stories, cases and examples or do you expect you partner to facilitate “pulling” these from your SMEs?
2. Are Your Expectations Aligned With REALITY?
Don’t trap yourself in overly romantic eLearning expectations. Make sure your expectations are rooted with a clearly defined vision and set of goals. The clearer your vision, the easier it is to communicate your specific needs to eLearning vendors.
3. Do You Know Your Audience?
The more you know about your target audience, the better your eLearning team can assist you in creating content that will effectively communicate to them. Conducting research upfront is critical.
4. Design
Will it be purely presentational, linear or non-linear or learn-by-doing? The module design will impact your budget. More complex designs like scenarios, games and case studies will require more review and SME time.
5. Art Direction
Are you happy with just adding your logo and changing colors to existing templates, or are you looking for a truly unique look and feel? Using an existing look & feel is a more budget friendly option versus building new ones from scratch.
6. Content Presentation
How do you want to showcase your content? Simple graphics or complex animation? Stock photos or hand-drawn illustration?
Custom animation is a great way to tell stories or describe complex scenarios. Simple graphics with bold text can be equally effective and compelling as well. Remember that more is not necessarily more and vice versa.
7. Technical Complexity
Do you require basic or complex functionality? Can you live with the constraints of an authoring tool or do you expect custom functionality like score boards, games and criteria-based behavior?
If the eLearning course requires additional extensions it may increase your project costs.
Now that we’ve established the key areas involved in developing an eLearning solution, let’s discuss the varying project level types.
Level Of Engagement
1. Content Acquisition
Level 1 |
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Level 2 |
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Level 3 |
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2. Design
Level 1 |
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Level 2 |
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Level 3 |
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3. Content Presentation
Level 1 |
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Level 2 |
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Level 3 |
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4. Technical Requirements
Level 1 |
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Level 2 |
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Level 3 |
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5. Art Direction
Level 1 |
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Level 2 |
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Level 3 |
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6. Testing & QA
Level 1 |
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Level 2 |
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Level 3 |
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Think of the chart above as a guideline-showcasing all of your options. Each project level can be customized and mixed and matched to meet your needs. Perhaps, you’re Level 1 in terms of content acquisition, but you like Level 2’s design style. Or you require Level 3 content acquisition, but only need Level 1 design elements. Knowing where you want to customize and simplify will be helpful when dialoguing with eLearning vendors. This will reduce assumptions and enable eLearning vendors to give you more accurate proposals. And you can walk away happy!