Just when students begin to think they have finally got the hang of college and the ridiculous textbook prices, a new problem emerges: paying to turn in your homework electronically.
As if charging an arm and leg for textbooks, whether physical or electronic, wasn’t a big enough financial burden to students, they had to go and throw in the fact that students have to PAY for the access codes to academic sites, like My Spanish Lab.
The prices for these codes can sometimes cost as high $200, and many students have reported having to sacrifice things to be able to pay for these codes.
One such case, a girl was forced to pick between paying her rent or pay to turn in her homework; so she chose to pay her rent and wait until her next paycheck to pay to turn in her homework, knowing full well that her chemistry grade would suffer in doing so.
However, not all professors are requiring their students to buy access to use such programs that control both homework and classwork. Some professors are giving students free access to these sites, stating that they feel their students are already paying enough between the textbooks and other supplies that are required to take their classes.
Should professors be blamed for this, or is it the administration’s fault, for hiking up the prices of everything? For classes such as math and science, this can certainly be an even bigger nuisance, since you only input your answers online, meaning it’s either all or nothing when it comes to the points system. Your professor cannot give you any credit for showing your work, or at least attempting to solve the problem if you received an incorrect answer or got stuck and didn’t solve it all the way.
For classes that require you to write a paper, type it, and upload it to Turn It In, it’s basically the same thing as if you were physically turning in your paper. What’s the point? So that their program can check your student’s originality? It seems like a big hassle and just like extra work added on top of it all.
If professors are going to require students to pay for the access codes, then they shouldn’t also make them some kind of compromise. Professors should not make the students buy any type textbook or other books that are for required reading, or at the very least chose ones are that inexpensive. For many students, the extra fees feel like a rouse, just another scheme by the big money machine that is the university business.