KOZLOWSKI: Educational paywalls unfairly harm students
Over the course of midterm exam season, many valuable hours of sleep were lost — but not due to the exams themselves.
While trying to memorize the timeline of Charlemagne, my flashcards on Quizlet were no longer available because I needed to upgrade to premium to continue. This gave me the ultimatum of choosing between my grades and paying an absurd fee for more efficient studying.
Time was wasted not only when investing in the annual plan but also by the various interruptions that spammed my laptop while trying to study. These interruptions have no business being showcased on a software whose purpose claims to solely assist students.
I am no stranger to receiving free trials and advertisements regarding premium subscriptions on services such as music streaming or audiobooks, but I was surprised to see them on my favorite studying website.
After having already spent strenuous amounts of time creating the digital flashcard set on Quizlet, time would not have allowed me to create a new one by hand in time for my exam. And so, the decision was predetermined for me to pay the fee.
While Quizlet used to be an accessible and helpful tool for users to study without intrusive and disruptive advertisements, it is now the perfect trap for profit. Platforms like Quizlet have unfortunately become a tactful resource to make money at the expense of education.
When desperate students are faced with the choice between their grades and paying a monthly fee, the decision is apparent. These websites have become the ultimate breeding ground for sponsorships and marketing, which takes away from the focus necessary for studying and goes against the platform's intentions.
The trick is in the handful of attempts they give you for free in the beginning. Then, once you are in the bulk of your study session, they end your "free" trial and pressure you to invest in a premium plan. By then it is too late to resort to old-fashioned index cards and a highlighter.
These subscriptions create the perfect trap because if students are fighting time and stress, their ability to make rational decisions is impaired. The frustration of studying for an important exam and being prevented by a paywall prompts you to do almost anything to climb that barrier, which is a monthly fee.
It is frustrating to be in the middle of listening to your favorite song when it abruptly stops because you do not have Spotify Premium. But, in that context, the money is going to the artists and producers of the product. Where is the money going if I am the one who created the flashcards or study guide?
These new fees are reported to be a result of incorporating content derived from school textbooks and standardized tests. This was done in the hopes that it would appeal to a broader audience of students, but it did quite the opposite. On the contrary, students are disappointed in the new fees demanded by their favorite online study tool.
Exams are inevitable, so exemplary preparation for these tests is also necessary. This puts students in a difficult position because they are forced to pay a fee in order to do well on an exam.
There are some alternatives to paying for a premium subscription to online study tools — I have heard many students report that they resorted to using Artificial Intelligence to generate study guides and study sets to help prepare them for exams.
This is when I knew these fees would become a larger problem than anticipated. While various other platforms utilize AI to enhance their functioning, education should not be among them.
The concept of studying is entirely threatened by the prospect of AI, and the additional fees recently enforced on online studying tools only add to this issue. AI has already begun to monopolize many industries, but if it happens to invade learning practices, then a bigger issue is at hand.
Learning will become completely reliant on AI because it is the most accessible and easy-to-use studying tool for students. And this will prevail until all education is dependent on AI. While it seems like a reasonable and productive use of technology, it infringes on the skill sets students must put into practice to become successful.
While this is only a prediction of the possible future, I think the effects of premium fees will contribute to a similar outcome. These fees force students into unfair ultimatums that jeopardize their education, which does not benefit anyone since students need the utmost support and protection.
Alexis Kozlowski is a first-year in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in English and minoring in film. Kozlowski’s column, “From a Scarlet Heart,” runs on alternate Thursdays.
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