About the eLearning Seat Time Calculator

Seat time is the scheduled length of a course. Effective seat time removes the recurring breaks between sessions: with 5 sessions and 15 minutes of break each, a 5-hour (300-minute) course contains 75 minutes of breaks, leaving 3 hours 45 minutes of actual learning time.

Planning Realistic Courses

Adult learners sustain focus for roughly 45–90 minutes per session, which is why courses are chunked. When estimating development effort, also remember that one hour of polished eLearning typically takes 30–100 hours of design and production time — seat time alone understates the work involved.