I am very fortunate in my job to meet many potential clients and their stories are always interesting and yet so often share many of the same issues.
Many people I talk to are looking at online learning for the very first time, but some like a client I met last week, had already implemented e-learning from another supplier. Their product is very good and they have recently invested significantly in product development. But it was the pricing model used that interested me greatly.
The client organisation was spending a reasonable fee for each course used, around about £10.00, sold on the basis that ‘you only pay for what you use’. All seems very fair, and to be honest it is a model we seriously considered last year when we launched the license-fee model for our Care-Academy.
However, the main issue I have with this model, is when a user completes a course and the next day, week or month decides to go back and check something, the course is still available in their menu so for them there is nothing wrong in this. However, under the terms of the ‘per-course’ license, the organisation is charged again for the course!
The problem with this is that it create problems for budgeting and does not encourage good learning practice. We all know that a learner should return to their notes a day, week, month or even 6 months after the initial training intervention, to ensure long term recall. Personally, it does not sit with me that they, or their employers are penalised financially for their efforts.
That is why Care Academy license is based on a per-head annual fee model, similar to SCILS. This way your learners can access as much training as you determine necessary, as many times as they want for one (small) annual fee.
I am not saying that a ‘per course’ model is particularly wrong, just be wary of the limitations.