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Estimating the Effort in the Development of Distance Learning Paths

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 456))

Abstract

In this paper we present a model for better understanding the ratio between costs, production of didactic material and activity of monitoring and facilitating e-learning tasks. The quantification of the effort required to produce e-learning material has been always subject to the proposal of some “magic numbers” not always supported by a method or analytical data. In this paper we propose a method for calculating the effort required to design and develop e-learning paths. Our model is based on a systematic gathering of data regarding the effort of the different actors involved (teachers, tutors, instructional designers etc.) from a series of e-learning projects carried out at the Laboratory of Maieutics over the last five years. In the first two years we collected ex-post data on design and development times, being careful to include a variety of different teaching methodologies. In the following years we identified critical variables which allowed us to abstract and generalize a possible costing model. The model proposed could be used as a reference point for professionals working on the development of content in their estimation of costs linked to the design and development of learning materials, providing a calculation basis which takes a number of methodological approaches and educational objectives into account.

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Correspondence to Andrea Molinari .

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Casagranda, M., Colazzo, L., Molinari, A. (2014). Estimating the Effort in the Development of Distance Learning Paths. In: Obaidat, M., Filipe, J. (eds) E-Business and Telecommunications. ICETE 2013. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 456. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44788-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44788-8_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-44787-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-44788-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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