I have personally been involved in custom CBT development (custom E-Learning Development) since 1974, much of it involving the conversion of existing classroom instruction (instructor-led training or ILT) to CBT. 

The best example of consistently reducing the duration of classroom training was a project we did in 1998-1999 converting a library of cassette tape recordings of classes that were all six hours in length.  The classes were all on subjects related to IBM’s AS/400 Computer. Subjects included TCP/IP, Network Security, Making AS/400 Applications Available via the Web and Accessing AS/400 Data from the PC. There was a total of ten courses. Each class was taught in a hotel by a traveling trainer who was an expert on the subject. This SME would travel from city to city as classes were scheduled to be delivered.

When each of these six hour classes was converted to online format it was four hours long -- three of those four hours were from the content of the tapes and the fourth hour was due to the time needed for interactions with simulations of the software (which the classroom didn't provide as it was straight "lecture").  The simulations were added to the online courses since attendees of the lectures complained of not really knowing how to "do" the tasks they had been "told about" and "shown" (via screenshots in a PowerPoint) during the lecture.

To create each course we first transcribed everything that was on the six hours of tapes. We then edited the content (removing the comments about the late start, the coffee breaks, the opening jokes, the irrelevant questions from participants, the after lunch recap of the morning's session, etc.). At this point, we had reduced the content by perhaps 20 percent. 

We then began "tightening up" the verbose, circular explanations to "net them down" to just what needed to be said to convey the point the speaker was trying to make.  Often re-sequencing the content would eliminate unnecessary repetition.

At this point we had a large Word document into which we would imbed color-coded questions for the SME about things that were confusing to us or that were in the class outline that were never addressed on the tape.  We would then send that file to the SME to review our work and to answer our questions.  Often they would provide additional information that they didn't include in the class because they ran out of time that day due to so many questions, etc.  They were very good about clarifying items that caused us confusion and would often comment about how difficult it must have been for the persons in the class.

The Bottom Line:

Each of the ten six hour classes was reduced to three hours of online training plus an additional hour of “hands-on” opportunity that was not part of the classroom course.

I have prepared hundreds of proposals for the development of custom CBT/E-Learning projects. I also developed our Project Estimator which helps us quote custom CBT/E-Learning projects. The third item in the Project Estimator asks for course duration and states "if currently ILT, use 1/2 of estimated classroom time".  

Another page on our site  CBT Cost Justification highlights some of the reasons the duration of online training is shorter and illustrates how to use those time savings to justify the use of CBT/E-Learning.  We have even created custom "savings/ROI calculations" programs for clients that capture actual online training durations and compare them with "previous" classroom duration times.  Using typical student and instructor wage data as well as travel, facility, lodging and food costs, some very impressive cost savings can be shown.

Travis Piper
President, Creative Approaches, Inc.