FWIW I think you're right to take this approach--most in-depth technical classes aren't good fits, for that matter, from a pricing perspective if nothing else. I charge a few hundred dollars a head to teach somebody in-person. The Fundamentals of Cloud Architecture course that I typically do is one I could, for the most part, extend to an online course...but, given that it includes the ability to contact me, etc., I wouldn't want to charge less than $100 for it.
It's a good course; better, IMO, at what it teaches than equivalent Udemy courses. And I'm a pretty good teacher, I can be pretty engaging while talking about this stuff and it's fun. But at the race-to-the-bottom prices of the MOOC economy, it's a nonstarter. The Udemy "every class is ten bucks" disease discourages really capable, competent people from sharing what they know.
(And Packt et al. finding somebody to read some slides is not a good counterexample. I said "really capable, competent" for a reason. I was approached by one of their competitors--a bigger company than they are--to write a book on Mesos on the back of two blog posts...)
It's a good course; better, IMO, at what it teaches than equivalent Udemy courses. And I'm a pretty good teacher, I can be pretty engaging while talking about this stuff and it's fun. But at the race-to-the-bottom prices of the MOOC economy, it's a nonstarter. The Udemy "every class is ten bucks" disease discourages really capable, competent people from sharing what they know.
(And Packt et al. finding somebody to read some slides is not a good counterexample. I said "really capable, competent" for a reason. I was approached by one of their competitors--a bigger company than they are--to write a book on Mesos on the back of two blog posts...)