Questions to Ask Before Proposing eLearning Solution

Client may not have answer to all the questions we ask them. But, it is our responsibility as eLearning professionals to find out the real needs and propose appropriate solution. If need be, educate your client why you are recommending a particular solution.

1. Scope
1. What is the business problem you are trying to solve?
2. What are the critical success factors?
3. Who are the primary audience profile of the course?
4. What is the expectation of the audience from this course?
5. What are the milestones and dates to meet?
6. What is your budget? 
7. What are the biggest priorities among cost, time, and quality?
2. Content
1. What existing content can be leveraged?
2. Will the Subject Matter Expert support be provided by client?
3. Who is the target audience?
1. Are they computer savvy?
2. What is their age group?
3. Are they white-collared or blue-collared employees?
3. Localization
1. Will the courses be localized to any languages other than English?
2. Will the translated content be provided?
3. Will the recorded audio be provided?
4. Will there be content/graphic changes for each region?
4. Course Tech specs
1. How will the course be deployed - LMS, standalone, CD?
2. What are the targeted devices (desktop, tablets, smart phones) and OS-browser versions to access the courses?
3. Which are the target devices and platforms that the typical learners are expected to use for learning?
4. Which are the device-OS-browser combinations on which we should perform QC?
5. For mobile delivery, are there any apps or will the course run in browser?
6. What file formats, object and source files will be delivered?
7. What type of connection speed can we assume for the learners? Will they access course on internet or intranet?
8. Are there any existing courses that may need to be converted to newer formats such as HTML5? Will vendor get some samples for source code to analyze the existing courses?
9. Are there any file size limits that need to be followed for compliance or technical reasons?
5. Compliance, Tracking and Reporting
1. What are the tracking and reporting requirements?
2. Which eLearning standard such as Tin Can, SCORM needs to be supported? 
3. Are there tracking and reporting requirements other than standard Tin Can, SCORM features?
4. Is 508 compliance required?
6. LMS
1. Will the client provide LMS documentation?
2. Will the client provide credentials to test the course on their LMS?
3. Is it a standard Moodle installation or with optimizations done to it?
4. Will the on-line interaction happen within LMS environment or will it include external social media such as Facebook and Twitter?
5. Will vendor have access to LMS for course upload and launch testing?
7. Development related
1. Are there any technology or authoring tool that should be preferred to create the courses?
2. Are there any tools, technologies that need to be avoided for any compliance or security reasons?
3. What tools do you leverage for training and content management?
4. Will course development templates be provided by client for consistency across courses? 
5. Can we customize the templates provided by client?
8. Printing
1. Will courses or parts of courses be printable?
9. Maintenance
1. Will the client prefer to make the changes themselves after project delivery?