While considering whether eLearning is suitable for your
organization, you would want to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) before investing in it. ROI for eLearning can be calculated at two levels:

1. Tangible cost savings from eLearning

2. Intangible benefits from eLearning
Calculating the tangible cost savings is easy, but requires some data collection. Some of the data that you need to have ready is as follows:

• Deployment Size
• Total number of learners in a year
• Average size of students for one classroom session

• Initial Development Cost
• Length of a course (in hours)
• Cost of developing the course material for an hour of instruction

• Ongoing Maintenance Cost
• Number of updates to a course in a year
• Percentage of the course to be updated

• Cost Per Classroom Session (Materials)
• Cost of creating print material for distribution for one learner
• Cost of creating print material for the instructor for one classroom session

• Cost Per Classroom Session (Instructor)
• Cost of instructor’s fees for one classroom session
• Cost of travel and boarding for instructor for one classroom session

• Cost Per Classroom Session (Learner)
• Salary of learners for one hour
• Cost of travel and boarding for learners for one classroom session
• Productivity losses due to time away from work

Once you have this data, please click the ROI Calculator button to compute the ROI for your course/training program.

The intangible benefits that you gain from eLearning are just as important, if not more, than the tangible cost benefits. Expressing these benefits in monetary terms is often difficult and most organizations grapple with ways to measure this. Some of these benefits include:

• Shorter time to reach proficiency
• Better retention of what is taught
• Faster application of skills on the job