COLO gives course creators, tutors, and online educators a single workspace for scheduling 1:1 and group sessions, billing cohorts and individual learners, tracking homework and progress, and communicating with students across time zones — without juggling Calendly, Stripe, a learning-management tool, and a spreadsheet for who paid for what.
TL;DR
Course creators, tutors and online educators use COLO to schedule 1:1 and group sessions, bill cohorts and individual learners, track homework and talk to students across time zones. The calendar covers 1:1 sessions, group classes and cohort calls, invoicing handles cohorts, packages and recurring monthly fees, and tasks carry homework, assignments and progress.
Who this is for
You are an online educator — a language tutor, an academic coach, a skills instructor, or a cohort-based course creator — teaching learners across multiple countries and time zones. A typical week is twenty to thirty 1:1 sessions, a group cohort call or two, a small mountain of homework to mark, and the constant background admin of bookings, reschedules, and chasing the next month's fee from a couple of students.
The friction tends to be the same shape:
- Session admin eats the day. Bookings, reschedules, call links, reminders, no-shows — all on different tools, and each new student is a fresh onboarding email.
- Cohort and 1:1 billing have different rhythms. A cohort is one invoice up front for twelve weeks; a 1:1 student is monthly or per-package; group classes are recurring; and the spreadsheet that tracks who has paid is never quite right.
- Homework and feedback get lost in email. A student submits homework Tuesday night; you mark it Friday; by then they have submitted the next piece, and nothing is in one place.
Three features online educators use every week
Calendar that handles 1:1 sessions, group classes, and cohort calls
Run your booking calendar with availability windows per session type — discovery call, 1:1 session, group class, cohort call. The calendar feature offers a host of benefits, enhancing scheduling, productivity, and coordination for both users and clients. By integrating a robust calendar, users can improve organizational efficiency and facilitate better time management and coordination. Learners book from their portal within your windows, in their own time zone; the call link goes out automatically; reminders fire the day before.
Invoicing that handles cohorts, packages, and recurring monthly fees
Sell a twelve-week cohort as one invoice, a ten-session package as one invoice, and ongoing 1:1 work as a recurring monthly fee — all in the learner's currency. Integrating invoice functionality into our application streamlines the billing process, enhances accuracy, improves cash flow management, and provides a better overall experience for both businesses and clients. Learners pay by card from the portal; the finance dashboard shows revenue per cohort, per package, and per recurring student.
Tasks for homework, assignments, and progress
Each learner has a record with their homework, assignments, and progress notes. Create tasks and manage them with documents and files. Receive comments regarding task performance. Our task control system provides users with the tools to effectively manage and track their tasks within the application. When a student submits homework, it logs against their record; feedback goes back through the same record; the next session starts with the full context — no email scrolling.
For more, see calendar and task management.
A typical week in COLO for an online educator
- Enquiry — a prospective learner books a free trial session from your portal; the lead becomes a client record automatically with their language, level, or goal captured.
- Onboarding — after the trial, you send a package or cohort proposal, a simple agreement, and the first invoice; the learner signs, pays from the portal in their currency, and the sessions appear on the calendar.
- Delivery — sessions book from the calendar in the learner's time zone; homework submits to the learner's record; feedback and progress notes log against the same record.
- Payment — cohort invoices fire up front; package invoices fire on enrolment; recurring 1:1 fees fire monthly; the finance dashboard shows revenue per cohort and per learner.
How online educators use COLO today
Monday morning, the calendar shows the teaching week — twenty 1:1 sessions across learners in six time zones, a cohort kick-off call Wednesday evening, three group classes, and a discovery slot Saturday morning for a new prospect. Each learner sees their bookings in their own local time; reminders fire automatically the day before each session. The cohort enrolment that closed Friday has already filled twelve seats; the up-front cohort invoices have cleared; the cohort project has opened with all twelve members.
Through the week, sessions log against the right project — 1:1s against the individual learner, cohort calls against the cohort project, group classes against the group project. Homework submitted Tuesday night logs against the learner's record; feedback goes back through the same record by Friday; the next session starts with the full context. When a learner mid-package asks how many sessions they have left, the answer is in their portal under their existing login.
By month-end, the recurring monthly fees for ongoing 1:1 learners fire automatically in their respective currencies; the cohort revenue rolls into the finance dashboard alongside the package and per-session revenue. The end-of-quarter export to the practice's accountant takes one click — and the question "which cohort run was actually profitable when I factor in the live-call hours?" has a real answer.
What it costs vs your current stack
Most online educators carry a four-tool stack — a scheduler, a separate payment processor, a learning-management or homework tool, and a spreadsheet for cohort and per-learner billing. The monthly bill comes to roughly $60–110 before the first cohort of the term enrols. COLO replaces the four with one workspace.
| Tool | Plan | Cost/month |
|---|---|---|
| Current 4-tool stack | Calendly + Stripe + Teachable + Sheets | ~$90 |
| COLO Solo | Free | $0 |
| COLO Pro | Per user/mo | $18 |
| COLO Grow | Per user/mo | $24 |
You swap a $90/month stack for one tool that already does this work. Pro adds an assistant or co-teacher seat; Grow adds the white-label client portal on your school's custom domain.
FAQ
Q: Can learners book sessions in their own time zone without me converting every time?
Yes. Your availability is set in your time zone; learners see and book in theirs; the calendar and the reminder both display the right local time for each side.
Q: Can I run a twelve-week cohort and 1:1 students at the same time?
Yes. The cohort is a single project with shared materials and the cohort calls; 1:1 students are individual projects with their own homework and sessions. Both run in the same workspace.
Q: How do I handle no-shows and reschedules without my whole week slipping?
Learners reschedule from the portal within your reschedule window; outside the window, the request comes to you for approval. Cancellation policies attach to the booking type.
Q: Can I sell a package and let the learner book each session against a remaining balance?
Yes. Set up the package as a project with the session count; the learner books each session from the portal calendar; the remaining balance updates automatically.
Q: How does COLO compare with running Calendly plus Stripe plus a separate progress tracker?
For most online educators, the all-in-one is cheaper and lets the learner book, pay, submit homework, and see progress from one portal. See the Calendly comparison and our post on how to manage clients, tasks, and payments in one system.
Q: Can I run a free trial session and convert it into a paid package?
Yes. The trial slot is a free booking type; the post-trial proposal converts the lead into a paid package or recurring 1:1 fee in one flow. The learner signs and pays from the portal.
Q: Can I invoice learners in their local currency to reduce card-decline rates?
Yes. Each learner record holds the invoicing currency; the cohort, package, or recurring fee issues in that currency; the finance dashboard converts to your reporting currency on the day each payment cleared.
Q: How do I handle cohort drop-outs and refunds?
Refund the relevant invoice from the workspace; the cohort project keeps the audit trail; the learner's portal access tapers per your refund policy.
Q: Can I sell course access without a 1:1 component?
Yes. Sell the cohort or self-paced course as a single invoice; cohort access stays open in the learner's portal for as long as the project is open; no individual 1:1s required if your model is course-only.
Q: How do I run group classes where learners book a recurring slot but not a whole package?
Set the group class as a recurring booking type; learners enrol per term or per month; the recurring invoice fires alongside the schedule.
Pricing
Solo plan is free forever for one educator. See our pricing for Pro and Grow plans if you grow into a small teaching practice or a course studio.