Pricing an online course is more than just a marketing exercise. Standard industry logic suggests relying on the format in which the course is provided. If it is a boot camp or a simple certification course, then it should be priced for a one-time purchase. Conversely, if your course runs a continuous community, then a subscription should be an option.
However, for a high-volume training business, pricing based on personal preference or the format of your course can be a risky approach. If your course has a learner lifecycle of just 3 weeks, then pricing it at a monthly subscription won’t be the right decision, as the learner will finish it in a month anyway. Similarly, if you charge learners one-time payment for a course where you are providing spaced repetition material and longer support, that leaves a lifetime value on disposal.
Pricing shouldn’t be a psychological experiment; it must be an engineering certainty. In this article, we will walk you through how xAPI behavioral data dictates your financial model.
Mapping Learner Velocity to Your Financial Model
Instead of deciding the price based on the structure of the course, we should look at how the learners are consuming it. With the help of xAPI data, learners’ velocity and consumption patterns can be analyzed, and it can mathematically prove which pricing model fits the course.
High Velocity and Rapid Drop-off: If the xAPI statement shows that learners are consuming 80% of the course content in a few days and later they rarely return, a one-time payment is mathematically superior. You capture the full value upfront before the inevitable drop-off.
Paced Velocity + high Return Rate: If your LRS data show learners are periodically returning to different modules after weeks or months, and you have reference materials that can be useful for learners. For such eLearning content that has prolonged learner retention and utility, a subscription model is justified.
Why xAPI?
Traditional tracking systems, such as SCORM or other native systems of an LMS, are limited to providing overall information about completions. But xAPI fixes that:
Advanced Tracking
To optimize pricing, you will need interaction-level data and look beyond basic competition information. When you track attempts, pauses, seeks, and more verbs you get to know the learner’s behavior more deeply, which helps you decide the value and worth of your course content.
Protecting High-Ticket Revenue in One-Time Pricing Models
One of the One-Time Pricing model practices is done by many course creators, which is refunding upon course completion. This is done to drive sales in courses where learners are less likely to complete the course, but the course has enough value that it drives them to purchase it.
In such pricing models, you need to really track everything to ensure that learners are really watching every part of the video and everything in the entire course.
xAPI solves this issue. xAPI allows you to track everything, such as pause, play, skip, seeking, etc. With the help of tools like GrassBlade xAPI Companion and GrassBlade LRS, you can ensure that the learner is really watching all the videos, and track assessments to know if the learner is really learning. And then course completion refund can be awarded.
Valuing the Entire Ecosystem
To price your training course accurately requires looking beyond traditional course pages. In modern elearning learner interactions aren’t limited to your standard LMS; they are not limited to just clicking through the module. Modern-day eLearning is supported with mobile apps, custom React-based simulations, and even AR or VR simulations.
When you use xAPI infrastructures, it connects with this entire learning ecosystem. It communicates with each learning entity and provides you with all the data and reports to mathematically prove learner behaviour, if they are returning the apps or the custom simulations, how they are returning, and how long they are sticking with the learning materials. With all this information, it justifies the price tags.
Conclusion
Your eLearning business’s financial health depends on correct pricing and its model. You just can’t follow industry templates, course format, or gut feelings. Shifting your pricing model strategy to a data-first approach will charge learners based on how they extract value from your content. xAPI, with the help of GrassBlade xAPI Companion and GrassBlade LRS, can be handy to help you create data first infrastructure.