Colleges are offering an increasing amount of online degree program options, and many of these institutions are also integrating these program options into their traditional, on campus classes. However, a lot of this transitioning isn’t going so smoothly, and online course codes, such as the ones available through McGraw-Hill’s connect or Pearson’s MyLab programs, are at the center of students’ complaints.

1. There’s No Way Around the High Cost.

With textbooks, both traditional and online, there are ways students can offset the high cost. Since students are told what book to buy but not necessarily where to buy it from, students are able to browse several stores and websites to look for the lowest price. However, with course codes you usually have to buy them from a specific distributor. You can’t really search for a bargain when you only have one option.

2. Student’s Can’t Sell Them Back or Rent Them.

When they no longer need textbooks, students can sell them and use that money towards buying next semesters textbooks or paying tuition. Students can also rent the textbooks for a reduced price, as long as they return them by a given date. In a worst-case scenario, on campus libraries often have required textbooks available for use. With course codes, the code is usually connected to a specific account and expires after a certain amount of time; so used codes can’t be sold to other students when the semester is over and there really is no way around buying them. If you don’t have an access code you won’t be able to do your homework and your grade will suffer.

3. They Count Questions Wrong for Trivial Reasons.

Anyone who has Pearson’s MyLab or McGraw-Hill Connect will tell you that there’s been several occasions where they’ve gotten entire questions marked incorrect, but they had the right answer. The program is notorious for wanting a very specific format for their answers, but not always showing how they want it done. Students are often marked wrong for capitalizing letters, not rounding the way the program wanted in a math problem, or for even adding a space after the problem.

4. They Can Encourage Cheating.

It’s debatable if students even learn anything from these programs. Some professors will test you on material before you go over it in class as a way of making sure you’re keeping up with your reading and ready to participate when you do discuss it in class. However, this means students are often asked to answer questions on material they don’t fully understand yet and are graded on it. This occasionally leads to people looking up the answer online or doing these assignments with classmates instead of actually reading the material.

5. There’s Expert Available to Answer your Questions.

These programs often don’t adequately explain the answers to questions many students have. Often times when students get questions wrong, it is due to a misunderstanding of the material, and no one is available to ask questions. If a student doesn’t understand what a question is asking, well they’re out of luck. They’re just left on their own to figure it out for themselves before the deadline. There’s no real replacement for a teacher who’s an expert on the material available to readily answer their questions when needed.