Groups
Random group generator
Groups or pairs from a class list, in one click.
Free tool
Course maintenance cost calculator
Estimate the hours and money your team spends each year keeping courses current: fixing materials group by group, redoing fixes that never reached the main course, and planned revisions. Your numbers, with the workings shown.
Free, no sign-up. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Your numbers
Filled in with an example. Replace each number with your own estimate.
Keeping your courses current, per year
€21,120 384 h a year
- Per-group fixing, first timeAdapting and fixing materials for a group144 h€7,920
- Repeated fixesThe same fix, made again for another group144 h€7,920
- Planned revisionsProper work on the main course96 h€5,280
€3,520per course a year (64 h)
9.6full-time weeks (40 h each)
You’d save 72 h and €3,960 a year, about 1.8 full-time weeks. Take off the time it takes to carry each fix back into the main course.
The workings
| Line | Formula | Result |
|---|---|---|
| All per-group fixing | 6 courses × 8 groups × 1 instructor × 6 h | 288 h |
| Repeated fixes | 288 h × 50% | 144 h |
| Per-group fixing, first time | 288 h − 144 h | 144 h |
| Planned revisions | 6 courses × 16 h | 96 h |
| Total hours | 288 h + 96 h | 384 h |
| Yearly cost | 384 h × €55 | €21,120 |
| Per course | €21,120 ÷ 6 courses | €3,520 (64 h) |
Every figure comes from your own estimates. There are no industry averages in here.
How to use the calculator
- Count your courses, how many groups each one runs a year, and how many instructors teach a group.
- Estimate the per-group fixing: the hours each instructor spends on materials for one group. The slides they adapt, the exercise that broke, the screenshot that’s out of date. If you don’t know, measure it for the next few groups (see below).
- Add the planned revisions: the hours spent on a proper revision of each course in a year, even if the honest answer is zero.
- Estimate the repeats: the share of per-group fixing that someone already did for an earlier group, because the fix never made it back into the main course.
- Enter an hourly cost and a currency. You get the yearly hours and cost, the split, the cost per course and the workings line by line. Move the slider to see what cutting repeated fixes would save.
Where course maintenance time really goes
Most training teams know how long it took to build a course. Few know what it costs to keep it running, because the work is spread thinly across many people and many groups. It hides in three places.
- Slides copied per group. Each group gets its own copy of the deck or workbook, adapted for the client, the dates or the room. Every copy then needs its own fixes.
- Fixes that live in one instructor’s copy. An instructor spots a broken link or a confusing example, fixes it in their copy and moves on. The next instructor, or the same one six months later, finds the same problem and fixes it again.
- Feedback that’s never acted on. Learners say the same lesson goes too fast, group after group. Each instructor patches it in the room with an extra example, but the lesson itself never changes. A short course feedback survey that asks which lesson to improve first turns those complaints into a list you can work through.
How to measure it
You don’t need a time-tracking system. For the next two or three groups of each course:
- Ask instructors to note every change they make to the materials before or during a group, with a rough time.
- Mark each note “new” or “fixed before”. The share marked “fixed before” is your share of repeated fixes.
- Take revision hours from calendars: the days set aside for planned updates of each course.
- For the hourly cost, use the full cost of an hour: salary plus employer costs, or a contract trainer’s day rate divided by the hours in their day.
A few groups is a small sample, so treat the result as a range. Try a low and a high value for the inputs you’re least sure of and compare.
A worked example
A training provider runs 6 courses, each 8 times a year, with one instructor per group. Before each group, the instructor spends about 6 hours adapting slides, fixing exercises that broke when a library updated and replacing outdated examples. Once a year each course gets a proper two-day revision (16 hours). The team estimates that half of the per-group fixes repeat a fix made for an earlier group. An hour costs them €55.
| Where the time goes | Hours a year | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Per-group fixing, first time | 144 | €7,920 |
| Repeated fixes | 144 | €7,920 |
| Planned revisions | 96 | €5,280 |
| Total | 384 | €21,120 |
Per-group fixing is 6 × 8 × 1 × 6 = 288 hours, and half of it, 144 hours, is the same work done again. That’s €3,520 per course a year, or 9.6 full-time weeks across the team. Cutting repeated fixes by half would save 72 hours (€3,960), nearly two working weeks. With two instructors per group, each keeping their own copy, the per-group fixing doubles to 576 hours and the total rises to 672 hours (€36,960), while planned revisions stay at 96.
Notice the balance: the planned revisions, the only work that improves the course for every future group, are the smallest part.
How to reduce it
- One main course. Teach every group from the same source. Adapt for a client with a short note or an extra section, not a copy of the whole deck.
- Notes on the passage. When something goes wrong while teaching, note it where it happened, on the slide, paragraph or exercise, so it reaches whoever revises the course instead of staying in one person’s copy.
- Regular revisions. Put a date in the calendar after every few groups to fold those notes into the main course. A fix made there is made once. If separate copies already exist, a Markdown diff checker shows what changed between an instructor’s copy and the main course, paragraph by paragraph.
Using the number in your L&D budget
A training budget usually lists trainer days, venues and licences. This calculator adds the line that’s easy to miss, because it’s spread across instructors’ preparation time: what your materials cost to keep current. It’s the cost side of a training ROI calculation, not the whole of it. Put it next to what the courses earn or save, and treat repeated fixes as the line you can reduce without cutting a single group.
Questions people ask
How do you calculate the cost of maintaining a training course?
Multiply the groups a year by the instructors per group and the hours each spends fixing materials, add the hours of planned revision, and multiply by your hourly cost. The calculator also shows how much of the fixing repeats work already done for an earlier group.
How much time does it take to keep a training course up to date?
It depends on the subject, how fast its tools change and how many copies of the materials exist, so there is no honest single figure. Log the changes instructors make for two or three groups, then put your own numbers into the calculator.
Is this a training ROI calculator?
It covers the cost side of ROI: what your materials cost to keep current each year. Set that against what the training earns or saves to get a return. Repeated fixes are the part of the cost you can reduce without running fewer groups.
How much of an L&D budget should go on course maintenance?
There is no standard share that fits every team, so start from your own hours. A yearly total from this calculator is easy to defend in a budget, because every number behind it is visible and is yours.
What hourly cost should I use?
The full cost of an hour of the person doing the work: salary plus employer costs, or the rate you pay a contract trainer. If you are unsure, try a low and a high figure and compare the results.
Is my data stored anywhere?
No. The calculator runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent to a server or saved.
Do this for every lesson, every group
Chalkenso is where courses are designed and improved: instructors note what happened on the exact passage, learners say where they got stuck, and AI drafts the next version for you to approve.