Most corporate training still starts life as a PowerPoint deck. The question we hear most from L&D managers, HR directors, and program leads — including several at federal and state agencies — isn’t whether to convert that deck into a real eLearning course, it’s what it costs and how long it takes.
Here’s a straight answer, based on current 2026 market rates and 30 years of doing this work at DGS Designs.
The short version
For a typical 30-slide PowerPoint deck, budget:
- $1,800 to $2,600 (about 40 hours at our $45–$65/hr rate) for a lightly interactive, narrated SCORM course — stock imagery, basic knowledge checks, straightforward redesign
- $3,600 to $7,800 (roughly 80 to 120 hours at our $45–$65/hr rate) for a heavily interactive course with custom illustrations, branching scenarios, or simulations
- Professional text-to-speech narration is $0.08 per word at our standard rate, no compromise on quality
For context, general U.S. instructional-design market rates run $30 to $50 per hour for junior designers up to $100 to $150-plus per hour for senior specialists, per public industry pricing surveys. Our own rate is $45 to $65 per hour depending on complexity, plus $0.08 per word for professional narration — reflecting 30 years of specialized eLearning experience.
What actually drives the price
- How clean the source deck is. A well-structured deck with clear learning objectives converts fast. A deck that’s really a script for a live presenter, with dense bullet walls, no stated objectives, and speaker notes doing all the work, needs an instructional redesign pass before it can become a standalone course. That redesign step is the single biggest cost swing we see.
- Narration. Our professional text-to-speech narration is $0.08 per word — broadcast-quality, no compromise versus traditional voiceover.
- Interactivity level. A basic click-through with a final quiz is cheapest. Branching scenarios, drag-and-drop, simulations, or custom animation each add development hours on top of the base conversion.
- Authoring tool. Articulate Storyline gives you the most interactivity per dollar for scenario-based training; Articulate Rise is faster and cheaper for straightforward, mobile-friendly content; Captivate and Lectora fit specific legacy or software-simulation needs.
- Compliance requirements. Section 508 and WCAG accessibility (common for federal and state contracts), SCORM/xAPI packaging for a specific LMS, and localization each add scoped, predictable cost — but only if planned for from the start.
The fastest way to get an accurate number
Send us the deck. In practice, the only two questions that actually determine price are: how much redesign the content needs, and how interactive you want the final course to be. Everything else is a variable we can quote once we’ve seen the source material.
DGS Designs has converted training content into Articulate Storyline, Captivate, and Lectora courses for organizations including the U.S. Army, Expedia, Frito-Lay, and Microsoft. Get a quote on your PowerPoint conversion.
