I turned to CoCalc for a few major reasons:

1. some familiarity with the platform already

2. instructor/course features

3. responsive support if needed

4. transparent pricing

5. trusted data privacy and handling (avoiding some other platforms for questionable practices)

Setting up the course was straightforward with the website guides, and the message I sent for some advice was promptly replied. Setting up the course was intuitive, from adding students to distributing the handouts. I did not use any grading features for this, as it was a workshop just for learning.

The purchase of computation resources was transparent, intuitive, and easy to navigate. Furthermore, I was pleased with the price and because of the affordability, I was able to keep the project upgraded throughout the entire 3 weeks so that participants could practice in between sessions instead of only during the workshop. This was well received by everyone involved and helped promote self learning.

Amazing! Now a chemistry nerd like me can do some pretty fancy things without having to also become a computer scientist. And share those things with those even less computer-programmy than myself. So that chemistry advances without “getting lost in the weeds”.

Time travel !!! wow !! I love that. (I could have used that many many times. Haha).

I was pretty sad when mybinder stopped working. [...] I know that CoCalc will be a new and improved replacement for mybinder. And does not seem like a steep learning curve at all.

The documentation (and support!) is fabulous !!