![]() Once a student purchases and activates their courseware, it’s available to them for a limited period of time. Notably: Courseware must be purchased new, can’t be shared or resold, and is often essential to passing a class. These products are notably different from traditional textbooks in ways that extend beyond just the scope of services. McGraw Hill reported that nearly one-third of its total “billings” for the 2023 fiscal year - commonly defined as invoices sent to customers - came from the sector. ![]() At Cengage, in the 2023 fiscal year, higher education accounted for 40 percent of the company’s $1.5 billion in revenue. higher-education sector generated about a quarter of the company’s more than $4.7 billion in revenue in the 2022 fiscal year (the most recent earnings figures available at the time of publication). Remaining profitable in the higher-education market, after all, does remain integral to their bottom lines. Over that same period, publishers have rolled out courseware products that require subscriptions or access codes. “Students are seeing less and less opportunity to support themselves and get a meaningful return on investment,” said Sheneese Thompson, an assistant professor of English at Bowie State University, in Maryland. The rise of courseware, skeptics argue, flies in the face of efforts by both student-advocates and legislators to make college more affordable. “That’s where some of the debate occurs around, ‘Why am I paying more for this?’”Īnd the fact that students’ access to these products expires - sometimes after just a semester - rubs salt in the wound, and risks further disadvantaging students. “Courseware has become more central to the operation of the class” and is less a supplement in the way the textbook has historically been, said Richard Hershman, the vice president for government relations at the National Association of College Stores. ![]() At least one student advocate said colleges, rather, should cover or subsidize the cost, as they do with software like learning-management systems, if they’re allowing faculty free rein to adopt the products. Their argument is multifold: For one, they say, products like these - which often deliver key elements of a course that an instructor would typically be responsible for, like homework, assessments, and grading - should not be the student’s burden. Bots Are Grabbing Students’ Personal Data When They Complete Assignments.Why, Then, Are Students Footing the Bill for It? Courseware Can Be Integral to a Course.Millions of Students a Year Are Required to Buy Courseware.The risk to students when instructors adopt one-stop learning platforms. So she had to find other options, hunting for courses with low-cost or free materials, or those where professors opened up all assignments on Day 1.Įxperiences like these “made me feel embarrassed … like I wasn’t doing enough,” she said. Thomas was making only about $200 every other week from part-time work-study - much of which was immediately funneled to essentials like food, phone bills, and bus cards. ![]() When that didn’t work, she withdrew from one course and failed out of the other, unable to afford the more than $100 cost apiece. The 27-year-old, who graduated in May from Houston’s Lone Star College-University Park after more than seven years of study, was trying to beat the clock: a 14-day free trial of McGraw Hill Connect, a courseware product. Montoya Thomas recalls sleepless nights in college, crushing energy drinks from the local Smoothie King as she tried to complete coursework for history and biology weeks ahead of schedule. The second in a three-part series about courseware.
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