WeBWorK Hosting Fees

In case you missed it, check out the annual WeBWorK report from last December.

Starting Fall 2022, we are raising the fee for WeBWorK hosting for most (but not all) institutions. The goal is to bring a little more support to WeBWorK and Runestone developers who still do the majority of code development as volunteer workers. All of the additional revenue will go to those nonprofit organizations (once the additional taxes are accounted for). For example, I’m not going to paid more starting in the Fall. In fact, we’ve streamlined some things and will be reducing the per course alottment that I am paid.

Who is not affected?

Secondary schools will continue to pay $100 per course. We appreciate that it is generally more difficult for secondary school faculty to get expenses approved.

Also, if your institution has many courses each term/semester, the hosting fees are effectively not going up.

OK, what is the new fee structure?

  • Secondary (and primary) institutions: $100 per course

  • Higher ed: $120 per course. But every 6th course is free. For example, 13 courses would come to $1320.

The 6th course discount for higher ed applies at the time of invoicing. So for example there is no discount for ordering 4 courses in the Fall and then 4 more in the Spring. But you are welcome to preorder courses for a future term/semester, as long as it’s not more than 8 months in advance. Since this hosting service is only promised annually, we can’t accept orders too far into the future.

How long will it be until it could go up again?

We will stick with this through the 22/23 and 23/24 academic years and reassess at that time. Who knows, if there are more subscriptions or public funding, we could even reduce the cost.

-Alex