In the past six months, tens of thousands of online course creators have asked me this question. So I figured I’d share my findings in the form of an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). This post will answer some of the most common questions. I’ll cover everything from how much should you charge for your general academic skills to what constitutes an expensive course and more.
How Much Should You Charge For Your General Academic Skills?
This is, in my opinion, the most important question to answer when it comes to pricing an online course. Before you start creating an online course, you’ll need to decide how much you think you should charge for your general academic skills – your teaching and research skills, which are basically the same as what you would charge a traditional course. You’ll also need to decide how much you should charge for the specific skills you want to teach – writing a research proposal, for example, or conducting a literature review.
Doing research and preparing a lecture take a lot of time, so if you want to maximize your profit from this activity, charge a reasonable amount for your time and expertise. You’ll want to find a pricing structure that makes you fairly compensated but does not diminish your profit too much. To give you some ideas, here are some prices that you might consider:
- A one-hour consultation via Skype, for example, might cost you $150 or $200
- A one-hour lecture, with an average of 20 minutes of prep work and 10 minutes of discussion, is worth about $300
- A two-hour in-person lab sessions (with props and materials) costs about $600
- A three-hour lecture plus one-hour seminar, with an average of 40 minutes of prep work and 20 minutes of discussion, costs about $900
- A four-hour lecture, with an average of 50 minutes of prep work and 30 minutes of discussion, costs about $1200
- A five-hour lecture, with an average of 60 minutes of prep work and 40 minutes of discussion, costs about $1500
- A five-hour lecture, followed by a one-hour consultation via Skype, costs about $2500
- A six-hour lecture, followed by a one-hour consultation via Skype, costs about $3000
One of the best places to find the price of a particular skill (or service) is oDesk, a global freelancing platform. You can type in your discipline and click on ‘Lecture Slides’ to find the average price of creating a presentation like the ones you might use in a university setting. Similarly, you can click on ‘Research Proposal’ under the ‘Lecture Slides’ tab to see the average price of writing a research proposal for publication.
What Constitutes An Expensive COURSE?
If you want to price your course fairly, you need to consider how much an ‘average’ student will pay. Think about the most expensive courses you’ve taken (or you’re planning to take), and work out what percentage of students could reasonably be expected to pay for your services. You could then work back from there to estimate how much you should charge.
Here are some rough figures to get you started:
- A six-hour economics course at a private university costs about $1800. That’s a pretty good indication of the level of expertise needed to navigate that material. If you assume that all students need six hours of coursework a week for four weeks to achieve the same level of knowledge, then that’s about $75 per week, or $3750 for the entire year. So the average student might reasonably be expected to pay about $50 per week for your services (i.e. $3750 / 4 weeks = $112.50 + tax).
- A five-hour computer science course costs about $700. If you assume that all students need five hours of coursework a week for four weeks to achieve the same level of expertise, then that’s about $52.50 per week, or $2737.50 for the entire year. So the average student might reasonably be expected to pay about $48 per week for your services (i.e. $2737.50 / 4 weeks = $677.125 + tax).
- A four-hour marketing course at a private university costs about $700. If you assume that all students need four hours of coursework a week for four weeks to achieve the same level of expertise, then that’s about $52.50 per week, or $2737.50 for the entire year. So the average student might reasonably be expected to pay about $48 per week for your services (i.e. $2737.50 / 4 weeks = $677.125 + tax).
- A six-hour business course at a private university costs about $900. If you assume that all students need six hours of coursework a week for four weeks to achieve the same level of expertise, then that’s about $75 per week, or $3750 for the entire year. So the average student might reasonably be expected to pay about $62.50 per week for your services (i.e. $3750 / 4 weeks = $925 + tax).
- An eight-hour law course at a prestigious university costs about $6000. If you assume that all students need eight hours of coursework a week for four weeks to achieve the same level of expertise, then that’s about $150 per week, or $7500 for the entire year. So the average student might reasonably be expected to pay about $125 per week for your services (i.e. $7500 / 4 weeks = $1875 + tax).
If you add up all the figures above, you get a total of $19,437.50, which is what I would estimate prospective students might reasonably be expected to pay for your services (assuming you bill biweekly and the courses are four weeks long). If you want to maximize your profit, offer your services for less but make sure you’re providing quality content that will be useful to students. Remember, you’re selling an educational experience, not just a product. In my opinion, a quality, well-designed online course can be quite profitable. If you want to make sure you’re profiting as much as possible from your work, create a marketing plan and target demographics for your course. You could also use platforms like Google Adwords to find prospective students who are searching for the topics you cover.
What Constitutes A RELIABLE MARKET FOR STUDENTS?
You’ll also need to consider how much prospective students are willing to pay for a course that they feel will provide them with reliable results. In other words, you’ll need to consider student trust – are they going to buy what you’re selling, and will they get their money’s worth?
To find the price of reliable results, you’ll need to look at the history of students’ interactions with your past or present professors or education professionals. If you can find a reliable figure for a particular subject area or skill, use this as a baseline and then determine whether or not your students will benefit from your particular brand of expertise.
This is a lot to think about, and it can be quite difficult to figure out what you should charge for your services. Ultimately, you’ll need to find a pricing structure that makes you fairly compensated but does not diminish your profit too much. To help you figure out how much you should charge for your services, I’ve compiled a listing of the most popular online course prices (as of June 2017) and their corresponding hourly rates. Take a quick look at these figures, and you’ll have a better idea of what you should charge for your services.