To Offshore, or Not to Offshore?
We don’t offshore our eLearning development, but in the past, we have worked at places that have. Based on personal experience, we hope to outline the ideal conditions for offshoring if it’s something you’re considering.
We have seen offshoring work in the following situation:
You want to produce a high volume of eLearning courses, and:
You have veteran instructional designers that have a clear vision.
You have a detailed template.
The courses all follow the same pattern of similar interactions.
When a course differs from the norm, you and your designers have time to clearly detail each facet throughout multiple rounds of review.
You have a thorough quality assurance process to ensure quality and consistency.
We have seen offshoring fail massively (and expensively!) for the following reasons:
You want to produce high-end, custom modules.
You want motion graphics with a modern feel.
You have high expectations around graphic design.
You want a thought partner to help you innovate.
You don’t know what’s possible or optimal for your system.
Although many design firms do offshore their development, we choose not to, even when we create templated modules. We’ve sat in that chair in the past and determined it’s not for us. You may be in a different position, and we encourage you to explore your options and further research the topic to make the best decision for your eLearning project. The key to successfully offshoring your development is to ensure that you have highly-qualified instructional designers who have the time to clearly direct the production of each asset.