MATHalino Launches New Online Courses

Creating an online course is monumental, especially for a small website like MATHalino. Despite being managed by only one person from the ground up, the development of this functionality has been progressing gradually. I have been conceiving this feature for as long as I can remember, even before online courses became common in the Philippines.

What prevented me from implementing it earlier came down to three factors.

• Lack of technical expertise
  I do not hire anyone to perform tasks for this site. I do not have the budget for that, and developing this kind of functionality comes with a premium cost. Instead, I take my usual route — “do it myself” — by first learning the ins and outs of the technology.

  It may not be noticeable to users, but all features on this site are solidly implemented, even those that are highly technical in nature.
  
  

• Not enough time to do it
  I work full-time as a review instructor for Civil Engineering, and I also have a family to take care of (yes, I have a life apart from coding, hahaha). I work on MATHalino only during my spare time. Although it consistently brings in modest ad revenue, I consider it merely a secondary source of income.

  With the pandemic, however, I suddenly had more time than usual. I chose to make that time productive by engaging more deeply with the technical aspects of web technologies.
  
  

• Not enough drive
  No matter how dedicated you are to your craft, there are areas that do not receive the same level of passion. I am more of a review instructor than a web developer. I enjoy teaching far more than spending hours building functionalities that few people in my immediate circle would even notice, hahaha.

  My drive has always been focused on helping my students pass the board exam rather than on making MATHalino more technically impressive, lol.

Although I may not be on par with those who have formal training, I have my own ways of learning that often place me ahead of those who dive deep only when compensated. From system administration to website development and content authoring, doing all these at once can be extremely taxing if you do not have enough heart to pursue them.
 
Deployed in a Scalable Cloud Environment
MATHalino runs on a Linux distribution of my choice, with no fancy interface or expensive control panel. All administrative tasks are done through the command line — and honestly, it feels awesome.

One of the challenges (albeit a good one) of running a successful website — yes, I consider MATHalino a successful website — is handling the volume of incoming traffic and user activity. When the time comes to upgrade servers, higher monthly costs naturally follow. System emails alone were enough to frustrate my previous shared hosting provider.

I eventually outgrew VPS hosting, leaving a dedicated server as the only viable option.

Anyone who has managed a long-running website knows how costly a dedicated server can be, especially if it is fully managed by the host. If you have the budget, this approach can free you from the burden of system administration. However, my goals have never aligned with that model.

I have always had the desire to learn and handle system administration myself. Aside from saving money, it feels like enrolling in a university — minus the official certificate. The savings are significant because there are no tuition fees to pay.
 
With all these pieces in place, I deployed MATHalino on a cluster of machines, allowing it to scale horizontally once the current setup can no longer handle the load.
 

Now for the MATHalino Courses

After all these rants, I realize I have drifted away from the real battle — creating content. But this is also the advantage of independent content creators: we follow no rules except our own.

Some may wonder why I go through all the trouble of setting up servers when I could simply hire professionals and use a portion of ad revenue to pay them. Why not focus solely on creating content to generate more income?

The answer is simple — this is my rule. I do what I enjoy most at a particular time. When it is time to create content, I do that. When it is time for server administration or web development, I do that as well. Deciding when to do which is entirely up to me.

Free courses will be deployed gradually. If you wish to test the waters, you may enroll in one of our free offerings. As of the writing of this post, we have one course available at no cost. Simply click Courses in the main menu to explore it.

VIP Learner Role Is Fully Activated
All users enrolled in a course are assigned the VIP Learner role. A badge is attached to their profile to distinguish them from other users. This role bypasses the point system enforced on regular users.

This was done intentionally to allow diligent learners to gain prompt access to locked content.

Course Inclusion

• All access privileges of a Trusted user
• Downloadable PDF handouts
• Online and offline examinations
• Videos available exclusively inside the course and not found elsewhere
• VIP Lounge in the forum section for students and mentors to engage
• Solutions to problems posted within the course
• And much more...