IoTemy Labs hosts this page as a community service. The website build itself is University of Charleston coursework and is free.
Student Success Program

Fall 2026 · Kanawha & surrounding counties

Five local businesses. Five free websites.

Students in COSC-360 · Web Application Development at the University of Charleston will design and build a real website for five West Virginia small businesses and nonprofits during the Fall 2026 semester — free, as coursework.

Apply for a slot How it works

01 / What this is

Students build it. You get a real website.

Every fall, students in COSC-360 · Web Application Development at the University of Charleston learn to build websites by building real ones. This Fall 2026, five of those websites will belong to small businesses, nonprofits, and churches in Kanawha and surrounding counties — chosen from the applications on this page.

If you’re selected, you’ll be paired with a student who designs and builds your website as their graded coursework. It costs you nothing. What it takes instead is your time and attention: the work runs the full semester, with the finished site delivered in December 2026.

This program is coordinated by IoTemy Labs, a Charleston-area web company, together with the University of Charleston Department of Computer Science, Data Science, and Mathematics. IoTemy Labs hosts this application page and mentors the students; the websites themselves are built by students, for you, for free.

02 / What you get

Yours to keep, yours to take anywhere.

  • A website designed and built for your business — free. Performed by a UC student as coursework, mentored throughout the semester.
  • All source files and assets. The code, images, and content are handed to you at the end. They’re yours.
  • Written deployment instructions. Plain-language directions for putting the site online.
  • Direct contact with your student. You work with a real person, not a ticket queue.
  • Complete freedom afterward. Host anywhere, register a domain with any registrar, and hire anyone you like to maintain it — including nobody at all.

03 / What we ask of you

The website is free. It isn’t effortless.

Your student’s grade depends on this project, so we’re selective about who gets a slot. Before you apply, make sure you can honestly commit to four things:

  • Respond within 2–3 business days. When your student emails or calls with a question, they’re on a deadline.
  • Meet roughly every two weeks. Short check-ins — in person, by phone, or by video — through the semester.
  • Designate one decision-maker. One person with final say on the website. Committees stall projects.
  • Gather your materials. Have — or be willing to pull together — your logo, photos, and text. Your student can help, but the raw material of your business has to come from you.

We’ll say this plainly, because it matters: unresponsive clients are the main reason these projects stall. If this semester is the wrong season for your business, wait for a future one.

04 / What this is not

Honest expectations, up front.

  • Not a professional agency engagement. Your student is talented and mentored, but they are a student. The pace and polish reflect that.
  • No guarantee of completion. Students occasionally drop a course; life happens on both sides. Whatever exists at semester’s end is delivered to you either way.
  • No ongoing support obligation. The engagement ends at delivery in December 2026. What happens next is entirely up to you.
  • No e-commerce platform migrations or paid-license builds. Projects requiring paid third-party software licenses, or moving an existing store between platforms, are out of scope.

05 / Hosting, domains & support

Three different things. Keep them separate — we do.

Everything above this section is free coursework. This section describes the one place IoTemy Labs offers paid services, and we want the boundary to be unmistakable.

Free — part of the program

Website design & build

Performed by UC students as coursework. You receive the source files, assets, and deployment instructions. You may host anywhere, register a domain with any registrar, and hire anyone to maintain it. Nothing about this depends on anything below.

Optional — discounted for participants

Hosting, management & domain registration

If you’d rather not run a website yourself, IoTemy Labs offers hosting, management, and domain registration to program participants at a discounted rate. “Management” means exactly this: software and plugin updates, regular backups, and uptime monitoring. Content changes and new features are quoted separately. Rates are quoted individually after the semester — there are no prices on this page by design.

Separate paid service — not part of the program

Ongoing design or development work

If you later want new features, a redesign, or ongoing development, IoTemy Labs offers that as a separate paid service at standard rates. It is not part of this program.

This is entirely optional and has no bearing on selection, on your student’s work, or on what you receive at the end of the semester.

06 / Timeline

One semester, start to finish.

  • Friday, August 14, 2026 Application deadline. Five businesses will be selected.
  • Wednesday, August 19, 2026 Semester begins at UC. Student teams form during the first days of class.
  • Week of August 24, 2026 Selections announced. Every applicant hears back, selected or not.
  • First week of September 2026 First meetup. You meet your student and hold a kickoff conversation.
  • Week of October 12, 2026 Midpoint check-in. You review work in progress and course-correct together.
  • By December 11, 2026 Final delivery, as the semester ends: your website, source files, and deployment instructions.

07 / Apply

Apply for one of five slots.

Five slots is a real limit — it’s how many student teams the course can support — so tell us enough that we can pick well.

Applications close Friday, August 14, 2026.

Applying takes about ten minutes. Rough answers are fine everywhere — this is how we match you with a student, not a test. Fields marked are required. Applications close Friday, August 14, 2026.

Section 1About your business

Owner, pastor, office manager — whatever fits.

A few words: “hair salon,” “HVAC,” “food truck,” “youth ministry.”

Type of organization
Section 2Your current web presence

No web presence at all is a perfectly good answer here.

Leave blank if none.

If you have a site today, who controls it?

For example, yourbusiness.com — leave blank if none.

GoDaddy, Namecheap, “no idea” — all fine.

Facebook page, Instagram, anywhere customers find you now.

Have you claimed your Google Business Profile?
Section 3What you want
Primary goal for the website

A rough list — “home, services, about us, contact.” Best guess is fine.

Up to three sites, and one sentence each on why.

Colors you hate, a competitor’s look, anything you don’t want.

Features you think you’ll want
Logo, photos, and text

“None of it” does not disqualify you. Plenty of strong applicants start with nothing, and your student can help you create what’s missing.

Section 4Data (optional bonus)

Some students also take data-analysis coursework. This section is entirely optional and separate from the website build.

Do you have business data a student might analyze?

Sales records, customer lists, job logs, attendance — anything operational. Entirely optional and separate from the website build.

Section 5Working together
Can you meet with your student roughly every two weeks?
Can you respond to your student within 2–3 business days?

One person with final say on the website. Projects with a single decision-maker finish; projects with a committee stall.

How do you prefer to be contacted?
Section 6Acknowledgments

Please read each one — these are the honest terms of the program, and they’re restated in the program terms.

Section 7Hosting, domain, and ongoing support (optional — does not affect your application)

This is entirely optional and has no bearing on selection, on your student’s work, or on what you receive at the end of the semester.

Do you have a domain name?
Do you have web hosting?
Would you like a hosting and management quote after the semester?
Interested in paid design or development work from IoTemy Labs, beyond the program?
Last thingAnything else?