This is an open question to RStudio (RS). I teach a university course with approx. 100 students and currently use RStudio Cloud (RC) with an Instructor Plan (fixed price + extra cost for over usage).
Due to the amount of students it becomes costly in the months I teach the course and the students are forced to work on the desktop version instead. However, in the months I don't teach the usage of project hours is far below the limit. I guess that RS would like to support the academic community as much as possible. Hence I would suggest that you can buy yearly subscriptions with a yearly amount of project hours. That would avoid extra cost in high usage months and make it possible to continue teaching using RC. Moreover, a yearly receipt would at many universities be much easier to manage accountant-wise.
Thanks for the feedback. Offering yearly plans is something we have been considering, and so we will take your suggestion under advisement. One thing I thought I would mention is that we do offer a pre-paid instructor plan that is a fixed price per student for unlimited project hours (the cost $5/mo/student). You can purchase this fixed price plan for any time period you like, including an entire year. If you know the the number of students you will have, this could be an option for you as it would avoid high usage charges in some months.
Thanks for the advice, but using a pre-paid plan would give a to high cost. So unfortunately I have to go back to not using RC next semester. If you really mean that you would like to support the academic community as much as possible, please consider a yearly subscription with a yearly amount of project hours.