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I am taking a course in a may-not-be-top-but-still-decent university located in North America. The course lecturer forces us to pay for an online learning kit from Pearson by adopting all the graded quizzes provided in that learning kit.

That is, if one refuses to pay for the learning kit, he or she will have no access to all the quizzes, which in total constitute 20% of the final grade of that course. Moreover, all the text completion questions are basically exactly the same sentences copied from the eBook. Therefore, if you simply pay for the learning kit (~$50), then you will have a hard time doing the quiz as compared of those who buy the combo including the eBook (~$90).

In summary, if

  • you pay ~$90, during every quiz, simply do CTRL+F, you can always find the exact sentence in the eBook, and hence you can get nearly full marks.
  • you pay ~$50, you can access the quizzes, but you may have to search somewhere else and spend more time on the quizzes.
  • If you pay nothing, the 20% marks are gone.

I, as a victim who unwillingly paid $90, find it irritating and unethical, as I feel this is some sort of a coalition between the lecturer and the publisher. I understand that some lecturers do have recommended textbooks as well, but they are not mandatory! That is, if I can learn that course well by other books, I am free to do that. If I didn't buy the book and hence screwed the course up, that is my own responsibility. I cannot blame any one for that. But this lecturer's deed actually bans the students who do not pay for the learning kit from the quizzes.

Is this ethical? Wait, is it even legal? How may I fight for our rights as students on this issue?

unforgettableidSupportsMonica
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Sibbs Gambling
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    Yes, it is unethical for students to pay $40 to get answers to the online quizzes. So don't do that. – JeffE Mar 15 '14 at 20:13
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    @JeffE That part is still tolerable, as I can just save my $40 and finish the quizzes with other learning materials. The intolerable part for me is the elementary $50. If I do not pay that, I do not even have the access to the quizzes! – Sibbs Gambling Mar 15 '14 at 20:15
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    $50 is really not that much to pay for a textbook. The fact that part of your required textbook is online is completely irrelevant. – JeffE Mar 15 '14 at 20:18
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    @JeffE Misunderstanding here! :) $50 is the access to the quizzes, $40 is for the eBook. I said $40, which is the eBook, is Ok. The $50 part, the access to the quizzes, is unreasonable. – Sibbs Gambling Mar 15 '14 at 20:25
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    How is this different from an assignment that says "do the questions at the end of Chapter 7 in the course text. Hand in questions 3, 5, and 9." That also requires you to buy the text, does it not? – Kate Gregory Mar 15 '14 at 20:29
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    @KateGregory No, it is different. In your case, I can go to the library to fetch the book or even borrow it from someone else. I can still finish the questions and submit my quiz. In my case, if I do not pay for the access, my university account has no access to the quiz at all, leading to a big fat zero for the quiz. Even if I manage to "borrow" someone's account and get the questions, I cannot submit my answers for myself through my account! – Sibbs Gambling Mar 15 '14 at 20:33
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    Farticle Pilter's last comment makes a valid point, it seems to me. – Pete L. Clark Mar 15 '14 at 20:58
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    There are two issues here: is it considered ethical and should it be? My impression is that it is not widely considered problematic, but Farticle Pilter makes a reasonable case that perhaps it should be. – Anonymous Mathematician Mar 15 '14 at 21:19
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    My feeling is similar to @AnonymousMathematician's: I would call the practice inadvisable, but I am not aware of some well agreed-upon (say, by most American academics) ethical principle that it violates. – Pete L. Clark Mar 15 '14 at 21:24
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    As to legal: that seems a bit much. It certainly does not violate any state or federal laws. I am confident that it is not against the rules of my university. You haven't told us what your university is, so I can't speak for it, but it seems much more likely that there could be some faculty feeling against this practice rather than an actual rule against it. – Pete L. Clark Mar 15 '14 at 21:26
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    Sorry, let me correct for my misunderstanding: $90 is really not that much to pay for a textbook. The fact that part of your required textbook is interactive is completely irrelevant. – JeffE Mar 15 '14 at 22:34
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    @FarticlePilter: Do you mean Pearson rather than Peterson? –  Mar 16 '14 at 02:22
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    I feel that professors and PhD students who use those learning kits do so because it makes their work easier, while knowing that quality of the exercises, powerpoint lecture notes, test bank questions, whatever the package provides are significantly lower than what a teacher could've provided had they put effort into it. This is unethical. – Akavall Mar 16 '14 at 15:36
  • @BenCrowell Yes. Sorry! Edited! facepalm – Sibbs Gambling Mar 16 '14 at 18:36
  • @Akavall -- maybe, maybe not, but rather off topic to the question. – Martin F Mar 16 '14 at 21:13
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    @Akavall I know of a good University where the school doesn't have money for graders, so it is the school which adopted this general "online assignments" approach. In those cases, the profs and PhD students are hardly to blame, and I would not expect the Professor to grade all assignments in an 100+ students introductory class... Also note that the alternative is to increase the tuition to cover the cost of graders, which would be much better for students, BUT, most students find paying an extra 90 bucks for a "toolkit" acceptable but would revolt for a 50 bucks increase in tuition... – Nick S Mar 16 '14 at 21:21
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    Personally, I find it unethical that there is anything like a "text completion" quiz in today's day and age. I'd demand my money back from the course. Then again, I much prefer courses that actually try and impart actual understanding instead of rote memorization. – NotMe Mar 16 '14 at 21:48
  • @martinf, my comment is indirectly related to the OP's question; that's why I made my post a comment, not an answer. – Akavall Mar 16 '14 at 23:52
  • @NickS, Fair Point. Sure, there are some cases where using some package is the best choice. But in my school, I as a late PhD student was expected to spend 20 hours on teaching, and I had an early PhD as a TA for just one 200 people class. I did prepare the lectures, exercises, tests myself. It is doable within 20 hours. However, some people I knew used a package that provided them with everything; they spent little time on teaching, though they agreed that quality of their teaching was low,, (but they need every minute to focus on their research !?). I think this is pretty common. – Akavall Mar 17 '14 at 00:00
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    @JeffE the fact that the textbook is interactive is not irrelevant at all. Physical textbooks can be shared and resold. Paying one semester's depreciation on a $90 textbook (which can be minimised by being careful with the book) is a very different proposition to paying $90 to 'rent' an online resource for one semester. There is also a big difference in how one perceives the publishers pricing strategy - an online resource has essentially no marginal cost, so there is a lot more incentive for the publisher to act anti-competitively. – jwg Mar 17 '14 at 09:02
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    @jwg don't to mention you can photocopy/scan a textbook. While it might violate copyrights, it's still an option to significantly reduce the costs of studying. Just for future 'indignants': my friend was sitting alone in dormitory during the long weekend, because the train ticket was too expensive for her, so before writing how morally bad is photocopying, just try to consider under what financial conditions the most students in the world are living... –  Mar 17 '14 at 10:36
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    @jwg "Paying one semester's depreciation on a $90 textbook (which can be minimised by being careful with the book) is a very different proposition to paying $90 to 'rent' an online resource for one semester." Your university must have significantly more generous buyback rates than mine did. – Fomite Mar 17 '14 at 18:35
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    @Fomite I attended a large, public, US university, and I often ended up paying only like $30 for a textbook, net. I would pay for a used copy at the bookstore for $50 or $60, and then sell it back at the end of the semester for $15 to $20. Granted, this is the exact reason why textbooks cost so damn much, but that's not the issue under scrutiny here. – asteri Mar 17 '14 at 20:09
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    @Fomite: you should cut out the middleman, and sell directly to students in the year below. – jwg Mar 17 '14 at 21:40
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    I am surprised that the legal ramifications of the issue that the professor is forcing the class to disclose personal data (the fact that someone is studying a particular subject, along with a part of their success in that subject) to a third party outside of the university have not been brought up in any of the answers or comments. – O. R. Mapper Aug 25 '14 at 09:58
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    @O.R.Mapper Same thought I had. I also empathize with OP's general irritation over what seems like an unreasonable requirement. – Ellie Kesselman Oct 28 '14 at 06:04

9 Answers9

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I'll start with

How may I fight for our rights as students on this issue?

For one, politely express your displeasure to the professor.

Some professors aren't in tune with the cost of textbooks, and may not realize what a burden it is to shell out $90 for their course, when it's $90 that you can't recoup by selling back the text, or avoid by using the library's copy of the text.

They may even think they're doing you a favor by offering this "interactive" system, not realizing that you don't find it useful.

If the professor isn't interested in hearing what you have to say, you can further express your displeasure in the end-of-course evaluation (my university's specifically ask about the textbook) and possibly in a respectful letter (signed by your classmates) to the department chair.

Is this ethical? Wait, is it even legal?

As the other answers have pointed out, it's not universally considered unethical or illegal.

As unpleasant as the result is in this case, it probably would not be a good thing to set too many bureaucratic rules on what textbook or other educational resources a professor can assign. Given that the cost of tuition is usually many times higher than the textbook price, it is generally desirable for the professor to assign the textbook that will (in his/her opinion) offer you the best educational experience and therefore, the best return on your tuition investment.

Of course, students tend to appreciate when the professor can find a low-cost option that is also educationally sound. But that's generally considered a bonus, not a requirement.

In this case it sounds like the extra content doesn't contribute anything useful to the educational experience - in which case, you should let the professor know. (Again, politely and non-combatively.)

I also want to point out that requiring "bundled" course content that goes along with the textbook is closer to assigning a required software package (which, unlike textbooks, you can't buy used or re-sell) than assigning a textbook. I agree with you completely that it's substantially different than being asked to pay for a textbook.

For every class I've ever taken that required specialized (non-free) software, my university installed the software on my laptop for me for free (given that I was registered for the course in question). In most cases, instructors try to use free software or software that comes with a free student license, because they realize that a software purchase is different from a textbook purchase. Or they'll provide the software on lab computers that students can use during set hours.

Imagine if you had to buy a new non-refundable software package for almost every class you were enrolled in, including buying the same software multiple times for a sequence of intro classes on a subject.

Yeah, it's a waste of money, but your professors might not see that unless you point it out.

ff524
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  • +1 This is a very reasonable and well thought-out answer, and my own opinion on how to handle this is exactly the same. It is a great skill to be able to look at both sides and stay open-minded and reasonable while still speaking out and asking for a change. – Jason C Mar 16 '14 at 15:51
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    Complaining politely to the professor is certainly reasonable advice, but I would not expect it to have any effect. Once a professor has hitched their wagon to a particular piece of courseware, their self-interest mitigates strongly against changing to something else, such as open-source courseware that doesn't cost students money to use. –  Mar 16 '14 at 19:02
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    @BenCrowell I wouldn't necessarily agree, I personally have had success with this method! Some professors do actually want what's best for students, and just haven't thought through the full implications of the bundled courseware. – ff524 Mar 16 '14 at 19:06
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    @BenCrowell also, success doesn't necessarily mean prof has to abandon the courseware - it could just mean prof agrees, "I'll also make quizzes available on paper (or in Blackboard) for students who don't want to buy the courseware" – ff524 Mar 16 '14 at 19:11
  • Unfortunately, I had a tenured professor that made us pay 100 dollars for his quiz booklet -- it was a loose leaf page bound by O-rings. It literally would take > $2.00 in the printing shop to copy, but he charges it because he "wrote" it. Keep in mind this guy apparently is the longest teaching professor in our school. Many people have expressed politely to the school and this professor about the booklet, but frankly, they really don't care. – theGreenCabbage Mar 18 '14 at 14:09
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    @theGreenCabbage sadly, there is no foolproof way to make people care (if they don't). – ff524 Mar 18 '14 at 14:19
  • It's something I am internalizing as I enter my third year in engineering. – theGreenCabbage Mar 18 '14 at 14:20
  • @theGreenCabbage wow, I hope your experience hasn't been that most don't care :( – ff524 Mar 18 '14 at 14:23
  • I may be idealistic in that way, but in general most classes I've attended so far haven't been that they don't necessarily care, but they can't care because the first two year classes are so large in order to get general-ed out. I'm hoping as I enter my pre-junior year, class sizes will become smaller :). – theGreenCabbage Mar 18 '14 at 14:31
  • @theGreenCabbage ah yes, "can't afford to care" is a tough problem that I have some sympathy for – ff524 Mar 18 '14 at 14:32
  • It certainly is hard when lecture sizes are 200+. Engineering can be self-esteem draining as you feel like a number rather than an individual. So I certainly feel "idealistic" that things may not go the way I wish it could be (where students feel rewarded for their hardwork, and professors that take the time to care), but it's something I am internalizing, and understanding :). – theGreenCabbage Mar 18 '14 at 14:34
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    -1 If a professor demands that you pay him $1,000 to give you a sheet of simple exercises for 20% of your grade, it's unethical. If it's $1,000 to someone else, it's unethical. If it's $100, it's also unethical. The unethical lies on obligating someone to pay something for one specific person/company in exchange of same grade. That leaves no option to the student, he can't choose alternatives. The amount and the receiving person doesn't change that. – woliveirajr Mar 19 '14 at 13:41
  • @theGreenCabbage: In order: Complain to the professor, then the undergraduate program administrator, then the student union, then the department chair, then to the associate dean, then to the dean. Don't complain to a higher level unless the lower level has heard your complaints and been unhelpful. If none of those people care, then you're probably out of luck. – unforgettableidSupportsMonica Aug 23 '23 at 09:25
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This is a situation that is in my opinion exploitative and unethical. The majority of the blame lies with the publisher, but some lies with the professor as well. On the professor's part, it's not the kind of behavior that is universally agreed to be unethical, nor is it something that anyone would consider to be extremely unethical (like giving an A in return for a sexual favor).

Here's some background. For decades, publishers have exploited the fact that they could name a price for a college textbook, and it would very little effect on sales, because the adoption decision was being made by the professor, who wasn't the person paying for the book. Over roughly the last 30 years, they have raised the price of textbooks at a rate much too high to be explainable by the combination of inflation and any rise in the costs of production. The skyrocketing price of textbooks has caused many students to find other ways of obtaining the book, and one of these is buying used copies.

Publishers hate the used market and will do anything they can to kill it off. Within about the last 5 years, they've found the magic bullet. They sell the book along with access to a web site, as described in the question. They convince professors to use the online services by appealing to their self-interest. They offer professors an extremely easy and convenient way to obtain an evaluation of their students' work, through the publisher's web site. In many cases, the professor buys in to the system, and then over the following years the price is jacked up more and more. This happened, for example, with Pearson's product Mymathlab, which now costs math students at my school $90 a semester! Professors may not be aware that there are free solutions. E.g., for people who teach math, some good free systems are Myopenmath and Webwork. For physics, there are free systems such as Lon-capa and my own software called Spotter. But the free systems do not have marketing power behind them and may be more work to set up. Therefore professors condemn their students to exploitation through the likes of Mymathlab.

Is this ethical? Wait, is it even legal? How may I fight for our rights as students on this issue?

As a student, you can work through student organizations. Here in California, the student group CalPirg has been working actively on this issue.

As a professor, I try to do my best to inform my colleagues about alternatives to proprietary textbooks and proprietary courseware.

Whether it's legal -- well, I guess that depends on where you live. I think it's legal throughout the US. In Greece, for example, all textbooks are free -- although from what I understand their system is a disaster. Here in California, our former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to get more free and open-source textbooks adopted in K-12, and a state senator named Darrell Steinberg has been trying to do the same at the college level. (Google on SB 1052 and 1053 and California Open Education Resources Council.) Schwarzenegger failed. The jury is out on Steinberg, and I'm not sure his approach is a good idea. If you wanted to get this outlawed in California, Steinberg would be the logical guy to approach.

The problem with trying to deal with this politically is that the current setup appeals strongly to the self-interest of two politically powerful groups: publishers and professors. It's against the self-interest of students, but students don't vote in sufficient numbers to be politically powerful, and they don't have the financial or political resources of the publishers or organizations like the California Teachers Association.

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    "majority of the blame lies with the publisher" how can it be? So if right now I published something and put 500$ as a price for it and you force people to buy it, I am mostly to blame? And you are just a little bit responsible for it? Sounds strange. – Salvador Dali May 10 '14 at 02:10
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    @SalvadorDali: So if right now I published something and put 500$ as a price for it and you force people to buy it, I am mostly to blame? And you are just a little bit responsible for it? Yes, IMO. The publisher is more to blame because (a) they profited; (b) they made the decision to raise the price; and (c) they concocted a technological system to prevent students from buying used books. The professor is less to blame because in most cases they had limited options (or limited options they were aware of), and all of those options were approximately equally bad for students. –  Aug 23 '16 at 22:05
  • Not sure what kind of limited opinion are you talking about. I just randomly typed free math books and the first link was this one: https://people.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.html . I have not even tried. In majority of the discipline all the knowledge can be found for free on the internet. The fact that some professor forces you to buy a book in my opinion makes him responsible. It is his problem that he was too lazy to spend 1 hour of his time to investigate alternatives. – Salvador Dali Aug 24 '16 at 01:09
  • @SalvadorDali: I'm an enthusiastic supporter of free textbooks, and have written several myself. However, many free textbooks are not of very good quality. Just because a google search turns up some books, that doesn't mean that they're a viable option for every instructor in all cases. Many instructors do not even have the ability to choose what textbook they want. For example, my school offers about 10 or 15 sections of first-semester calculus every semester, and all instructors who teach that course are required to use the same text. –  Aug 24 '16 at 05:27
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In addition to the, so far, three other fine answers, are these two important points:

(1) Was the compulsory extra course fee announced up front, at the time you signed up or paid for the course? If so, you may have little recourse. On the other hand, if this "extra fee" was sprung upon you after the fact, then this could be an example of trading/bargaining in bad faith and is condemned universally.

(2) Even if the $50 fee for the basic learning kit were deemed acceptable, it appears that the students now have the option of either doing some homework themselves or paying another $40 for someone else (OK, in this case it's a something else) to do it for them. That could be seen, in a small way, as buying an educational credential, and should also be condemned universally.

Martin F
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    Yes, (1) is a good point. This came up recently in my school's faculty senate. The problem is that although the information actually is made available somewhere to the students, they don't know that the information exists. this could be an example of trading/bargaining in bad faith The underlying ethical issue is that students do not have any ability to bargain or make decisions about whether or not to spend this money. The seller is the publisher, the person who decides to buy is the professor, and the person who pays is the student. –  Mar 16 '14 at 22:12
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    I feel that (1) is a key point. I am willing to use the word "unethical" to describe the practice of telling a student only after the fact about a hidden fee. Such fees should be announced in advance, so that students are afforded the opportunity to visit the instructor, the department chair, etc. and say "I would like to take Course X, but I am not comfortable paying mandatory fee Y. What alternative arrangements can you tell me about?" – Pete L. Clark Mar 16 '14 at 23:12
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    @PeteL.Clark: At my school, the answer from the dean or instructor will be: so sorry, but you have to pay the $90 for Mymathlab, and we disclosed this somewhere on the college's web site. I don't see how this resolves the ethical issue. The student is over a barrel. The student needs the course and has no choice. It's no different ethically from saying that all homework must be done on special glossy fuschia-colored 6"x8" paper with rounded edges -- which costs a dollar a sheet and can only be bought from one supplier. –  Mar 17 '14 at 01:21
  • @Ben: All the instructors at your school will be unsympathetic when approached about this in advance? I don't see how you could know that. One reason for disclosing this in advance is that there are usually other sections or other courses (it is certainly not always true that the student needs that particular course) and always other schools. If a department or a university is intent on requiring students to pay these extra fees, students should go elsewhere unless they feel there is corresponding value added to offset the additional fee. – Pete L. Clark Mar 17 '14 at 05:43
  • About your example with the glossy fuschia-colored paper: the ethical violation would come if the instructor does not have a good reason to believe that the additional fee confers some educational value. In some courses, customized paper might have some educational effect: even in (public!) junior high school arts courses I remember being told which materials were acceptable to use for a project and which (less expensive) ones were not. – Pete L. Clark Mar 17 '14 at 05:47
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    Choosing how much you want to pay is a fundamental feature of American higher education. There are some students who pay more than $100K more than others for an education for which the added value is subtle and subjective. At my university an in-state undergraduate student who maintains a 3.0 GPA pays zero tuition. On the other hand, students have to buy their own "blue books" for exams (they are sold in the university bookstore and even in local convenience stores). Is this an "ethical violation"? I don't think so. Students choose what they are and are not willing to pay for. – Pete L. Clark Mar 17 '14 at 05:54
  • Also: I was accepted to the same Ivy League school (IVS) both undergrad and grad, went elsewhere as an undergrad on a full scholarship, then got paid to attend that IVS as a PhD student. So students can be aware of these choice and make decisions which are academically and financially sound. I think the ethical obligation that faculty have is to make a good faith effort to keep student costs down. In this case: yes, I suspect the OP's instructor may not be making such an effort, but without knowing the full situation I am not willing to conclude that the instructor is behaving unethically. – Pete L. Clark Mar 17 '14 at 06:06
  • The fee must have been announced and UNDERSTOOD by the student BEFORE they decided to apply to the given university, for to make any difference to the argument. Putting it into small print that most school kids will not read when deciding on a university is not good enough. – Ian Mar 18 '14 at 10:31
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ff524's answer is absolutely great and I wholeheartedly agree with all notions present therein. There is however one approach I would like to additionally highlight: Contacting the student council. This is exactly what the student council should be able to handle. It depends on the institution how much power they hold, but in most it should be enough power to at least raise the issue at a level where the institution will listen. I would not argue that this behaviour is unethical (except if the fee was secret till after the fact, which I assume it is not), however if students have an issue with it than it's the student council who is in place to voice the opinion of the student body as a whole. (If however this is only the case with a single course it's less likely for them to pick it up, but if it's the case with one course it's likely the case with more and at least they might do a survey on the issue)

David Mulder
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If your university allows instructors to charge for "materials fees" for classes—such as studio art classes or laboratory classes in the sciences—then it is not, strictly speaking, unethical to insist students access a particular paid resource. However, if such fees are not permitted, then it really is not fair to ask students to pay for quizzes if it would not be required for them to do so elsewhere.

However, although it may strictly speaking be ethical, I would agree with Pete L. Clark that such practices are not desirable. Being completely beholden to someone else's syllabus and teaching materials at the university level is not a good sign, as it shows more the desire to simply get things done rather than doing things well.

aeismail
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    I don't buy the analysis in the first paragraph. The rules about materials fees were written a long time ago. E.g., here in California, we have rules for public schools that are enshrined in our ridiculously long ed code. The rules predate the internet and were written to apply to physical objects (test tubes, oil paints), not to services or information. In any case, ethical behavior isn't derivable from laws and regulations. –  Mar 16 '14 at 01:38
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I think it is absolutely normal and very common at universities (and elsewhere in education) that you have to buy a specific textbook for your course in order to pass the exam.

Unfortunately, this lead to the bad practice that professors force students to buy their (or their friends') textbooks. I do not think you should blame your professor personally, because it is a very common problem (at least in my environment), and I am sure you will meet this issue thousands of times in your career.

Besides the ethical problems, I think this practice is very dangerous because exams are distorted in a way that you can easily pass if you have the book. This will motivate even not-very-smart students to buy the book - and so get passed to the next semester and buy the next book as well.

I have no idea how this issue could be solved, but it is present everywhere as far as I know. You have to buy a textbook for your course, that's OK. The professor asks questions from the textbook on the exam, that's OK again. I don't see how you could get your point through in this case.

We have a similar situation in a law's school, where books are actualized each year upon some minor changes in the law. On the exams, these "new laws" are always asked in order to force students to buy the new book each year, despite that it is 99% the same as last year. It's been an issue for years, and it is a law's school where you would expect students to be able to find some legal way against this practice, but so far, they couldn't.

leeladam
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    The OP isn't complaining about having to buy a book, about the cost of the book, or about the professor assigning his/her own book. The OP is complaining about having to pay a large extra fee in order to have an account on a web site, which allows him/her to take online quizzes. –  Mar 17 '14 at 20:04
  • @BenCrowell: I understood the OP. Buying the online material can be considered as buying the "whole" book, or another book, or whatever. The point is that you have to buy something to learn from for the exam. The question is what and why you have to buy. – leeladam Mar 17 '14 at 20:50
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    It's not like buying a book. In your example, it's like telling the law students to buy the book to get the material for the exam, and also requiring them to pay a separate fee to be allowed to take the exam. – ff524 Mar 18 '14 at 09:47
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    The University has a duty to provide all books that are required in the university library in the way that is reasonable for all students to access. It is optional for a student to buy a book, a student can choose to buy books so they are able study in a location of their choosing. – Ian Mar 18 '14 at 10:40
  • @Ian: Print textbook reserve service is traditionally provided by many, if not all, university libraries. However, I'm unaware of any evidence that it's actually a duty. I would assume it's just a tradition. There are good arguments for abolishing the tradition, but I don't know of any schools which have actually abolished it. Library reserve textbooks can come in handy while students are waiting for their online orders of print textbooks to arrive in the mail. – unforgettableidSupportsMonica Aug 24 '23 at 09:10
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So the professor is not willing to do his/her job, and instead makes the student pay money to a 3rd party for what the professor has already been paid to provide.

I expect a course to be self contained and the professor to cover everything that is needed to pass the exams. It is OK to require books to be used, only if they are provided in the university library in the way that is reasonable for all students to access.

I see this as a professor that is too lazy to set their own tests. If a student did the same, they will be expelled for copying someone else’s work.

Ian
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Something I don't see being mentioned much is the issue that while this learning kit is critical to being able to get any points on the quiz component of the grade, it doesn't at all guarantee success in taking them, or certainly the non-online major tests (other than the presumably small component described as quoting the text).

In other words, a necessary but not sufficient condition.

This puts it much more in the camp of "a class that happens to have an expensive textbook cost," of which there is no shortage among faculty who seem to be bragging that they would never use this sort of non-print resource (or at least this provider of it), and absolutely separates it from the numerous straw-man comparisons of a "bought and paid for" grade. To sum up, it's not at all unethical to require students to pay an (even if viewed as extravagant) amount in exchange for the right to work a sheet of assessment questions and receive a grade for it. That's called tuition. That's called student fees. That's called textbooks. There is, at present, no accredited university that awards grades without expectation of a student having paid something to earn that right.

thebishopofcalc
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  • while this learning kit is critical to being able to get any points on the quiz component of the grade, it doesn't at all guarantee success in taking them Not true. According to the OP's description, success on the quizzes becomes trivial if you pay the price. The OP describes a simple strategy of searching for words in a web browser. –  Aug 23 '16 at 22:09
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It's legal, and probably also ethical.

The professor might be an underpaid and overworked adjunct, who lacks the time to write their own quizzes. (Is it ethical for schools to hire so many adjuncts, and to pay them so poorly? I'm not sure.)

Forcing students to pay ~$50 or more helps provide extra money to the textbook publisher, which can then spend the money on making a better textbook. And on making resources for the instructor: quizzes, PowerPoint slides, videos, and more.

Yes, yes, you can possibly finesse your way through the quizzes with Ctrl+F. You might learn something along the way (or you might not).

Some students might do the quizzes without Ctrl+F. They'll study the chapter, then write some or all of the quiz from memory. These students might actually benefit from studying each week's chapter each week, in a timely and unhurried manner, instead of just cramming ten chapters in the few days before the exam. Plus, answering the quiz questions will help to strengthen and reinforce their memories of the textbook concepts. Their quiz marks might end up lower, but their exam marks might end up higher.

Edit

Is there anything I can do to improve this answer? If it's wrong, why is it wrong? Please leave a comment.

unforgettableidSupportsMonica
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