• mazzilius_marsti@lemmy.world
    9·
    17 hours ago

    man i hate those online content that you MUST pay to do homework for the courses. They were over priced and back when i use them, they didnt even grade the homework correctly. E.g. the stupid Mastering series Mastering Physics, Mastering Chemistry and Cengage. I once spent 3 days on a problem because the system didnt like how I wrote the answers. So something like

    • coordinate (3x,space herey)

    instead of what they want:

    • coordinate (3x,y)
  • ExperimentalGuy@programming.dev
    21·
    21 hours ago

    One way to get around that is changing the user agent. I’ve never changed the user agent and had a loss of functionality, it always seems like they have a stupid user agent check just to make sure you’re using windows/chrome.

  • HexesofVexes@lemmy.world
    26·
    1 day ago

    DRM - the bane of good user experience.

    GOG nailed it - no DRM, low prices, convenience.

    If most book publishers released their texts with new features (e.g. linking references, or adding additional notes to proofs/solutions) they’d get their sales. Instead they just slap DRM on and…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkWQvzrv6gI

    • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.todayEnglish
      23·
      1 day ago

      The problem is most courses require a code that costs about ten dollars less than the book. Pearson did this to destroy the used book market.

      • Euphoma@lemmy.mlEnglish
        5·
        19 hours ago

        Pearaon also has homework on their site these days. I’ve only used pearson for physics homework, because I didn’t have the need to read the book. I needed to buy the book for the homework though

      • PKscope@lemmy.world
        6·
        20 hours ago

        The ONLY money I spent during my entire time at uni has been on these stupid Cengage and Connect courses. I blame the teachers, more than anyone, for using these awful services. I also blame the Uni for not advertising that it would be required for the coursework. The teachers are either too lazy or too overworked to make their own materials or teach from an analogue book which doesn’t spoon-feed the lessons and grade things for them. It’s a shit system and nothing made me madder than a required class using these services.

        For a few of them, I just lobbied the department to pay for it saying I wasn’t able to afford it, and they paid for my license or whatever.

        • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
          3·
          15 hours ago

          I also blame the Uni for not advertising that it would be required for the coursework.

          Just like Steam now says "REQUIRES KERNEL LEVEL ANTICHEAT" like a big ugly Surgeon General’s warning, I think college courses should say stuff like this too.

          Along with “REQUIRES INVASIVE KERNEL LEVEL REMOTE ACCESS MALWARE BROWSER TO TAKE EXAMS”

    • Rolivers@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      7·
      22 hours ago

      They did a long time ago. Overpriced books that only changed layouts yearly just so that they can charge you for it again. Like having to keep up with the editions so that you can follow the lessons.

      Yarrrrrr

    • wavebeam@lemmy.world
      25·
      2 days ago

      Pearson, HMH, and all the major for-profit educational resource providers (and much of the not-for-profits, too) are literally actually evil.

  • Johanno@feddit.org
    97·
    2 days ago

    Some websites do this.

    Change the user agent to windows and it works.

    Fuxk you piece of shit!

    Amazon does this too. After you bought a movie you can’t watch it in full hd on Linux. User agent doesn’t help.

    However if you tell their api that you are an smart tv running Linux it works…

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
      2·
      15 hours ago

      However if you tell their api that you are an smart tv running Linux it works…

      I wanna figure out how the heck to do this. 1080p doesn’t particularly bother me, but it’s pretty ridiculous getting discriminated against like that.

      • Johanno@feddit.org
        1·
        1 hour ago

        In my case the highest resolution was 360p Because Linux is bad.

        Then I installed kodi, amazon vod plug in and it worked.

      • Johanno@feddit.org
        14·
        2 days ago

        Drm was not the issue they just refused to run high quality on Linux.

        Linux Browsers Support drm too.

  • Fenrisulfir@lemmy.ca
    143·
    2 days ago

    They can’t even use proper punctuation in their error messages? Is this that AAAA+ software I keep hearing about?

    • Integrate777@discuss.online
      2·
      1 day ago

      All my professors taught and programmed in linux, but when it comes to exams, you need windows for the lockdown browser to do your exams. If you only had a linux machine, you won’t be passing your classes!

      At least for assignments, the professors requested pdfs and not docx or smth.

    • underscores@lemmy.zipEnglish
      17·
      2 days ago

      They can force you to use Windows.

      What you can do is ask if using a virtual machine is fine. or don’t ask at all and have a virtual machine image of windows ready.

      • pogmommy@lemmy.mlEnglish
        20·
        2 days ago

        As someone who’s worked for several years in higher ed IT and used Linux during my studies, this’ll only get you most of the way there. Unfortunately some proctoring software (Respondus Lockdown Browser comes to mind) can be incredibly invasive, and to my knowledge will refuses to run in a VM.

        Instructors also have a tendency of not disclosing during registration whether or not they use these proctoring softwares.

        I’m lucky enough that by the time I was all-in on Linux, I wasn’t taking courses that used that exam model, but it’s why I make sure that the helpdesk at my current institution offers loaner devices to students who either have computers incapable of running the proctoring software, or who simply don’t want that kind of software on their own machine. It’s a pain in the ass to work with, but apparently it’s enshrined in our faculty’s union contract.

  • sorghum@sh.itjust.works
    119·
    2 days ago

    I have this exact problem when I have to manage Apple devices for work. Nothing that user agent switcher can’t fix.

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      105·
      2 days ago

      Pearson is a testing company. They use all sorts of sketchy shit under the guise of anti-cheating. Much of that requires specific plug-ins and stuff that only work in Windows.

      Even if you could get it working, but they’ll likely just say you were cheating, and take the $300+ you paid to take that required test.

      • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
        67·
        2 days ago

        Pearson using all sorts of extremely invasive and questionable kernel-level access plugins to make sure people don’t open notes to cheat on their test on their computer. People just open their notes on another device. Or, you know, paper.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          15 hours ago

          They use massively privacy-invading measures to ensure that you don’t do that. I don’t know about Pearson specifically, but there are horror stories from the “proctoring” industry about what people have to put up with.

          For example: “facial detection, eye tracking, and algorithms that measure “anomalies” in metrics like head movement, mouse clicks, and scrolling rates to flag students exhibiting behavior that differs from the class norm” As is widely known, facial detection doesn’t work as well for dark-skinned people, and eye and head movement of so-called “normal people” is not fair to people who are not cheating, but not “normal”.

          And you can’t leave your desk because you might have something out of camera sight to help you cheat. Straightforward right? Not really: “A University of Florida student felt forced to vomit at her desk when the proctor threatened to fail her if she left the screen (Harwell, 2020). She vomited at her desk in front of the stranger.”

          Maybe you can get away with hiding notes on another device or paper, but they try hard to make that impossible. They want to you to get up and show them everything in the room before you start your test. They want to see your hands at all times, and even track your eye movements. If your eyes are always darting to a certain area off screen where you might have notes, they might interrupt your test and demand to be shown what you’re looking at. If you look up or off to the side when you’re thinking, they’re going to demand that you show them what you’re looking at too. If you think you can scroll through notes on your phone… maybe. But, they often demand that your hands be visible on-camera at all times.

          It’s an arms race, and sometimes people do manage to cheat, but when that happens the proctoring companies just implement more and more outrageous surveillance.

        • mech@feddit.org
          5·
          2 days ago

          When my wife did her online courses, she actually had to set up a webcam showing her face and hands while she did the tests.

            • mech@feddit.org
              7·
              2 days ago

              They actually made her set it up so it shows her hands, face and screen at the same time.
              It was a bitch to even find an angle to set it up, and then she got yelled at every time she leaned back too far.

      • sorghum@sh.itjust.works
        39·
        2 days ago

        The only solution for that is to proctor exams in person on their equipment. Miss me with all that nonsense. Makes me glad I’m done with schoolin’ for now…

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
          6·
          2 days ago

          They actually already do that. Many schools will have dedicated exam rooms setup (some are even certified by Pearson) where you empty your pockets before entering, cameras are trained on you while you take the test, recorded for future review if needed, the computer is configured to be locked down to only the test site and there’s a test proctor actively monitoring as well.

          Honestly just give me a printed packet in a classroom with a teacher watching the test takers any day

        • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
          24·
          2 days ago

          Oh Pearson definitely does thst as well. But not everyone lives near or has reliable transit to a testing facility. Online testing is essentially a requirement for those people.

      • Rooty@lemmy.world
        21·
        2 days ago

        Linux will never become relevant on the desktop until its has better spyware support.

    • WhirlpoolBrewer@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 day ago

      This is probably just user-agent sniffing, right? I’d say swap it out to one that claims you’re on windows and see if that fixes it. Good luck :)