Just jump in? What if the water is cold? What if the water is shallow? What if nobody else wants me to jump in? What if there are already people in the water that don't want me there? What if, what if, what if....
I am almost ready to monetize one course. How does one put a price on a course that has taken thousands of hours to develop, taxed my intellectual capacity like no other task, and left me wondering if it is good enough to charge for at all? I want to be compensated for my hard work, but I have to keep the values of the school in mind as well. The original vision was to create low cost, accessible education in the field, and I have to keep telling myself that. How do I be fair to the many who will sign up and pay for the course with their hard earned money, and who have trusted me to provide them with their money's worth in education for a subject that is admittedly difficult to both teach and learn, at the same time, paying me for two specialized skills that I'm highly proficient at. I bring 25 years of experience in piano technology, and an M.Ed. degree that I received with distinction and a 4.0 GPA. It's only fair that I be given something, correct?
Do I charge a large amount with the anticipation that I may not get enough learners, or do I offer students the courses at a lower amount that will attract a larger audience and provide me with a similar revenue that fewer students at a higher tuition would provide?
To do any of this, I need the support of the piano technology community of which I'm a part. They are the key to spreading the word about this program and encouraging anybody who may ask them about education in this field to look at this school closely.
I'm already prepared for the skeptics. To keep with the "jump in" analogy, these will be the ones who try to drown me after I've jumped in. There are many who believe online education is a joke, or that this subject cannot possibly be taught online. There will be those who offer established education in a different format that they believe is the best and won't be throwing me a life preserver anytime soon.
Admittedly, online learning is definitely different that a face to face environment, but if the last year and a half has taught us anything, sometimes it is necessary. It has its ups and downs, to be sure. What are the ups of my program? Lower tuition fees, study at your own pace, no need to relocate or quit your job, work with a mentor who may be considering retiring, the list goes on. Naysayers will say, even with little to no experience with this method of learning, that it can't possibly work. They're right, in the sense that it may not work for everyone, but it will work for some people. Those are the ones I'm trying to focus on, and they are the reason I offer the foundations course for free. No cost, no obligation introduction to both the field, and the method of learning. A student might say that neither the field or the method work for them. They've sacrificed nothing to find that out, which gives this program a huge advantage over any others that are offered, be they correspondence, other distant learning schools, or face-to-face programs. That is the one ingredient that I hope draws more people in to the program.
So if potential students are willing to test the waters, I have to make them a safe place to swim, without any fear of financial or physical repercussions.
To do that, I must jump in and show them, hey, the water in is pretty nice once you get used to it. What are you waiting for?
