Now that Anastasia can see her course laid out, she wants to find a platform to use in order to teach her subjects. Anastasia reaches out to Barry, a web designer who has created online learning platforms in the past. Anastasia explains to Barry that she wants to be able to include interactive features in each lesson as well as a weekly online experiment for the students.

He can build a website that includes Anastasia’s content. It would have modules that students can explore and videos embedded through the text. There would also be a drop box for students to upload their work directly to Anastasia, as well as a web conferencing system so that Anastasia could teach her students during class time. Barry says that his initial setup fee for this website is $500, plus $20 per hour of Barry’s time. Barry thinks the website would probably take him about 100 hours to create. Once the site is set up, Anastasia could pay Barry a yearly fee of $100 to host her site. Anastasia could use an existing platform, such as Teachable, which already has everything laid out. Barry could just add Anastasia’s content to the existing platform. The platform is all inclusive, so Anastasia could manage her course and her students from an easy website. Barry says that he could create Anastasia’s course on the online platform for a flat fee of $1000. The platform costs $30 monthly.

a. Calculate Anastasia’s costs for her first two years of teaching her course using both options. Then make a list of pros and cons so that Anastasia can weigh the differences. Traveling is expensive, so Anastasia wants to get the most for her money. Still, she wants her online course to run smoothly because she may not always have time to troubleshoot. Would it be better to have Barry on hand to fix errors? Or should she use an established platform that is made for her to tweak things herself? Help her decide!