When you change the rules and create a new way for L&D managers to buy the e-Learning courses they need, you’ve got to expect some tough questions. That’s why we’ve put together this snappy Q&A.

Powered by inquisitive L&D professionals who want to know why enrolment based priced will save them money, offer more choice, and deliver better quality e-Learning courses for the workplace, here’s our hotlist of most frequently asked questions as raised by people like you.

Question: Why did you create the enrolment based pricing model?

answer: To us, the idea of enrolment based pricing just makes sense.

When L&D managers need to calculate the ROI that their course content has achieved, they don’t divide the licence fee they paid for a course bundle by the number of people who could enrol in a course, they divide it by the number of people who actually did enrol in each course, which is the cost-per-enrolment, so we thought: “Why not sell courses on that basis in the first place?”

Question: How does the per-enrolment pricing model work?

answer: Course-Source customers choose which publishers they want courses from and purchase as many "units" (enrolments) as they think they will need. They can then download a zip of all the SCORM connectors (packages) and upload whichever courses they want into their own LMS.

One unit is used up whenever a learner first accesses (via the client's own LMS) any of that publisher’s courses.

The model is particularly valuable when it comes to training for software packages like Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Training for these topics needs to support so many different versions of the software that you end up with dozens of different courses which are really all pretty much the same: they’re all derivatives of Microsoft Office. When L&D managers use the traditional license model to procure these courses they typically end up buying an entire training suite for all Microsoft products: everyone in the company gets access to everything for one blanket price. With Course-Source, you get the same range of course material to chose from, but pricing is based on actual usage.

Question: Can I fully evaluate courses from different publishers before I buy?

answer: Yes, L&D managers can try out and fully evaluate any courses available on our catalogue at no cost prior to making any actual investment for their staff.

Question: Will the courses I buy run on my existing LMS?

answer: Yes. Our SCORM connectors make it possible to have an alternative pricing model because the courses are actually stored on our cloud servers, which also makes it easy for us to keep content up to date.

One of the main reasons that the traditional licensing model is based on potential number of users, is because course publishers have had no control over what happens to their courses after they are sold and uploaded onto a company’s learning management system. Course sellers are forced to take a sledgehammer approach because neither they don't have an easy way to monitor usage.

Question: How does this stop me making a bad investment in an e-Learning course that doesn’t get used?

answer: Typically, L&D managers track course usage on their LMS then start to panic when they notice that the course materials they have invested in are not being used. If they were able to fully evaluate courses from many different suppliers they’d save time and make better investment decisions about which courses to buy.

In addition, being able to buy in small quantities as and when required, limits the risk and prevents money being wasted on big libraries of courses that nobody uses.

Question: Is enrolment based pricing always cheaper?

answer: No. Most clients find it's cheaper, but if courses actually are being consumed at the level predicted by the seller, then the traditional site license model will probably work out cheaper.

When e-learning supports mandatory compliance requirements and everyone in the organisation is required to complete all the courses in a library, then the per-enrolment model may not offer the best pricing. However we can also offer a user-based model which is still better than the traditional model because we can track exactly how many users actually access the courses.