Is this online course worth the price?
Factor in the reality that most people don't finish online courses. See the true cost per hour and whether the investment pays off.
How the math works
Most online courses have roughly a 30% completion rate. Effective cost = course price ÷ completion rate — a $200 course finished at 30% has an effective cost of about $667 per unit of material actually absorbed, more than 3× the sticker price. The lifetime benefit gets the same haircut: a course advertising a $2,000/year salary bump, only 30% completed, realistically delivers a prorated fraction of that benefit, not the full advertised outcome.
Applying the completion-rate adjustment to both sides of the ledger — cost and benefit — gives a more honest comparison than the naive full-price-vs-full-benefit version most course marketing implies.
Where this doesn't apply
- Someone with a strong personal completion track record, or a course with built-in accountability (a cohort, a deadline), may reasonably use a higher completion rate.
- Reference material meant to be consulted selectively, not completed linearly, doesn't fit the completion-rate framing as well.
- Courses valued for interest or hobby learning, without a direct salary outcome, don't fit the benefit side of this model.