Homework platforms add unexpected costs for MSU students

Her classmate, kinesiology junior Luke Whittaker, paid $80 for a McGraw-Hill platform to complete homework assignments.

"We already pay for tuition," Whittaker said. "They should give us free books to use, personally."

In some cases, paying for a digital platform is the only way to access extra credit.

Human biology sophomore Kyleigh Mason paid $55 for an online platform called Aktiv to access extra credit assignments for her organic chemistry course, although the price was "worth it" once Mason got her desired grade.

It creates a pay-to-play system: Those who can afford the platform secure a grade cushion, while students facing financial barriers are forced to accept it. For others, the materials present a frustrating trade-off between balancing out-of-pocket costs and features that make coursework easier.

Human biology sophomore Madison Bush spent roughly $300 on course materials in a single semester, including an $80 secondhand physical textbook, which Bush prefers because she can resell it at the end of the term for some money back.

Mason, who spent nearly $500 across various online platforms her freshman year, prefers digital.

"If you're not understanding the subject, you can click a button and then it'll explain it for you," Mason said. "You can keep redoing practice problems or get new practice problems with like different information and different numbers."

For professors managing massive lecture halls, digital tools are often a logistical necessity rather than a preference.

Statistics and probability professor Elijah E. Dikong, who teaches high-enrollment courses like STT 200 with nearly 2,000 students, said automated homework platforms like WeBWorK are necessary to handle the amount of student grading. Hand-grading weekly assignments for thousands of students is just not feasible without an extensive network of teaching assistants and departmental funding that doesn't exist.

Yet Dikong acknowledges the drawbacks of relying on digital platforms over traditional methods, where students retain more.

Apple brownie thank grand starter unhand bebe bronze tyra.

To ensure engagement during large lectures, Dikong uses in-class polling platforms like Top Hat to get real-time understanding among hundreds of students at once. Recognizing the financial friction these systems cause, Dikong and his colleagues coordinate with platform representatives to discreetly distribute complimentary access codes to low-income students who cannot afford the extra out-of-pocket fees.

Faculty in the Eli Broad College of Business face similar challenges, leading many to use platforms like Breakout Learning, an AI-driven digital platform that facilitates small-group business case discussions for large lectures.

Business professor Scott Hamric, who teaches sections of 300 to 500 students for BUS 200, said Breakout was deliberately selected as a substitute for expensive commercial textbooks.

Hamric said BUS 200 relies on faculty-created materials for core instruction at no added charge, capping the required platform cost at $120, roughly 8% of the $1,420 MSU estimated students spend annually on books and supplies.

Accounting instructor Allison Dellapelle, who teaches over 1,000 students annually in ACC 201, spent nearly a year piloting and co-developing over 25 unique scenarios on Breakout to complement her self-published course pack.

Regarding students' complaints about paying for temporary access, Dellapelle compares the digital fees to personal training sessions. "You're paying for guidance, practice and feedback that help you achieve a fitness goal," Dellapelle said. "While access may be temporary, my goal is for the understanding of the content that students develop to carry forward beyond the course."

Linda Miles, the director of Open Educational Resources at MSU Libraries, said these platforms create a tricky balance: They offer great learning tools for students and save time for teachers, but lock professors into expensive commercial systems.

To lower costs, MSU Libraries offers an OER Award Program that helps professors switch to free, open-source textbooks and learning tools. In the 2025-26 academic year, OER was used across 526 course sections, saving roughly 17,000 MSU students an estimated $1.7 million.

Miles said commercial publishers provide polished "ancillaries" like slide decks and exam question banks; instructors managing heavy workloads often default to these programs over open-source alternatives that are harder to find.

"Sometimes faculty find it difficult to give up the benefits of these products, even when they are philosophically aligned with OER principles and would very much like lower costs for their students," she said.

Miles recommends the Textbook & Course Materials Search page on the MSU Libraries website to see whether physical or digital copies are available for their classes -- although these workarounds don't exist for online homework portals tied directly to a student's grade.

MSU Libraries hopes to work with campus administration on a "course marking" system during class registration that allows students to see which classes use "no-cost" or "low-cost" -- typically defined as below $50 -- materials beforehand.

Currently, students often register for classes blind to the true out-of-pocket cost of attendance, discovering mandatory $100+ paid platforms weeks later when syllabi are published. Universal course marking would force price transparency up front, empowering price-sensitive students to factor software and textbook expenses into their budget or opt for sections that prioritize open-source tools.

Beyond registration transparency, library leaders are advocating against commercial "automatic textbook bill" proposals, which automatically add digital textbook fees directly onto tuition bills under the guise of discounted digital rentals.

While ATB programs can save money for students who plan to rent e-textbooks, Miles warns they create new hidden traps. Automatic billing cuts students out of the secondhand textbook market entirely, preventing students from buying used books or reselling books at the end of the semester, while forcing students to pay for digital rentals even when free library reserves or OER options are available.

As MSU Libraries expands its OER programs and pushes for course-marking tools during registration, library course reserves remain a student's most reliable strategy for lowering class expenses.