Learn How to Price Your Self-Paced Training Courses

Learn How to Price Your Self-Paced Training Courses

Are you planning to launch a self-paced training course but struggling with how to price the courses? Don’t worry, you are not alone.

Many training departments assume their self-paced training courses should be priced less than virtual instructor-led training (VILT) classes. However, under-pricing your self-paced training courses can be an expensive mistake for a number of reasons:

  1. It can cannibalize your VILT revenue as students opt for cheaper self-paced training.
  2. Potential customers may perceive low-priced courses as having no value.
  3. Without sufficient revenue, self-paced training can be at risk and under constant management scrutiny.

The justification for low pricing often involves several common myths about self-paced training. We plan to bust some of those myths.


Myth #1: Students miss out on instructor-provided content, such as demos and slide narration.

Busted: This does not have to be true. Simply record an instructor teaching the course. Capture the audio, demo, whiteboard drawings, etc. and include them in your self-paced training course. ReadyTech’s online training software supports documents, audio, video, and images — allowing you to provide the full breadth of instructor content within self-paced training courses. As a bonus, students have access to the recorded material for much longer and can replay it as needed.


Myth #2: Since there is no instructor, self-paced students can’t get help during the lab exercises.

Busted: Your training department can provide support to self-paced students through ReadyTech’s self-paced training portal. For example, if students encounter issues with the self-paced training course, students can send a message to your training department via the self-paced training portal to begin troubleshooting their issue. And of course, ReadyTech’s 24/7/365 support representatives are ready to help if students experience connectivity issues.


Myth #3: Students have a hard time staying motivated for self-paced training.

Busted: ReadyTech allows training departments to create highly interactive courses that include videos, sound, quizzes, polls and surveys to help keep students engaged during the self-paced training course.


Myth # 4: Students enjoy the flexibility of self-paced training but aren’t willing to pay extra for it.

Busted: ReadyTech has plenty of customers charging top dollar for their self-paced training. Being able to work through a class on your own time and start and stop the lab as much as you want is a huge benefit that students are very willing to pay for.


Myth # 5: The volume for self-paced training will be too low to justify the investment.

Busted: A successful self-paced training program can generate 30% or more of your training revenue. It takes some upfront investment, but self-paced training can be more profitable than VILT due to its lower recurring costs.

The lesson is clear. If you create great self-paced training content that is on par with your VILT classes, you shouldn’t be timid about pricing. Self-paced training courses can be priced similarly, or perhaps even higher, to VILT classes given the added flexibility and convenience that self-paced courses gives to students.

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