Should you create free elearning samples?

Some employers ask potential hires to create free elearning samples before being hired. Should you never do free work? I think people deserve to be paid for their time and efforts. However, in certain circumstances, the creation of free elearning samples makes sense.

I initially published this article in 2019. Everything I hear from several sources tells me that the job market is more difficult now than six years ago. Given these challenges, I want to update my advice. The reality is that even if you should not have to work for free, you may need to get a job on the current market. This is especially true for people who are earlier in their careers.

Problems with free samples

Doing free work sends the signal that you do not deserve to pay. If they don't appreciate your work when they try to hire you, they don't appreciate it if you take the work either.

Unscrupulous organizations are known for outsourcing the work to a lot of different people to save money. This occurs more in fields such as graphics and publishing than Elearning, but it also occurs in our industry. I am particularly concerned that people are invited to create things like their free samples, because they are more likely to use without really hiring the creator.

I also have an important problem with organizations that ask people to create free samples even before they interview them. If you want to ask for free samples ethically, do it after your first screening interviews for the first candidates. Orgs who ask for more than 50 candidates to create samples have their own time as well as that of others.

Some organizations have requested immense amounts of work as free samples. For example, This Reddit message describes a request for free samples This forced the candidates to create and Elearning Module with the following components:

• Infographic
• Storyboard in Word or PPT
• Published scormy
• HTML release published
• Translation document

It's a ridiculous Quantity of work to wait for free!

Make paid projects instead

If a free elearning sample will take more than 10 hours so that you can build, use this answer (do not hesitate to modify it for your own language and price):

Hi! It looks like an excellent short project. My rate for a project of this reach is $ 500. If it is in your budget, let me know and I will send an agreement.

You don't tell them “no”, you tell them “yes, and”. In other words, “yes, and here is how much it will cost.” I carried out paid projects like this as a sample.

It is expensive and risky for companies to hire people, as full -time employees, entrepreneurs or consultants. It is also risky for you to accept to work with someone new. A short -term project does not engage you or for long -term organization. You can both determine if it is a working relationship that you want to continue.

Some legitimate companies will pay this work. If they push you to pay you, it's a red flag. You can try to negotiate a smaller project. If they will not pay and they will not negotiate the scope, it may be preferable to move away – with some exceptions noted below.

Less than 2 hours

What about Elearning samples that can be completed in less than 2 hours? I think it is a reasonable amount of work to do for free. I usually make an initial one hour call with new potential customers after initial screening. A sample of this scope seems comparable to me as a work that I would provide on a one hour call more follow -up.

A project for one or 2 hours gives employers a chance to have a coherent project to compare the candidates, but that also respects your time.

Personally, I generally limit it to 1 hour of free work as a consultant; After that, people can pay me. But I know that I am in a stronger position to negotiate. If I was at a previous stage in my career, I would be more flexible about this limit (and I was more fluid with this border in the past).

Portfolio example

What if you are new in the field or if you do not have past work samples that you can use in your wallet? In this case, I would plan to do a free project if it ends up giving you a new portfolio sample. Even if you have been working for some time, but you need more or updated samples in your wallet, it may be logical to use these free projects to increase your global wallet.

If the requested project uses the owner content of a company, you probably cannot use it in your wallet. If they ask for something generic, you can probably reuse it.

A few years ago, I created a free sample that took 2-3 hours (instead of my usual paid project or an hour limit). I had the possibility of using this sample in a future blog article and part of a new portfolio sample possibly. Because I knew that I would take advantage of personally, that I was hired for this project, it was worth it.

To what extent do you need work?

It is a real consideration, especially on the current labor market. To what extent do you need work? At some point, if you are looking for months, you do what you need to do to pay the bills.

When I was hired for my first identification work, I created a free storyboard sample which probably took me 8 to 10 hours to create. I would absolutely not do a lot of work for free now, but at that time, I’ve been looking for a full-time role for a year. I had applied to hundreds of positions and interviewed several times without being hired. Make this free sample helped me demonstrate that I could do the job even if I had never been an educational designer before. And frankly, I was doing $ 7.50 / hour of rating of writing samples for an evaluation company at the time. If you are in this type of position, make the free sample and get the job.

What do you think?

Have you ever made free elearning samples for employers or potential customers? Do you define conditions for your free work?

If you are an employer, how do you manage this process? How much do you ask potential hires to do?

Originally published on 08/16/19. Update of 07/17/25.

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