Cengage Learning Reviews 592

I can login in to the website easily but when I try to access the textbook THAT I PAID FOR the website refuses to load. I honestly feel scammed because I rarely access my textbook and when I do I can't copy anything I have to go through this round about way just to copy a few sentences into a google doc. I hate that my college uses the Cengage website for textbook access, Kindle is way better.

The worst virtual learning website ever. Wasted money for sure. The testout was far way better.

Easily the worst way to learn programming imaginable, doing the projects on here are horrid. I can have the proper outcome and the error messages are trash, the coding base is garbage and the entire thing feels heavily outdated.

My entire experience with this platform is nothing but bad. There is not a single positive thing that I could say about this platform that would be true.

To start, the user interface is horrible. I started writing issues down as I came across them, but the list became too long so I'll just give a few examples of some of the most atrocious:

-A magnifying glass next to search bar that does nothing when you click it
-Drag and drop answer boxes where you can't drag incorrect answers out of the box, forcing you to use a trash can button that deletes everything, even if there are multiple answers
-Sometimes, pictures are partially cut off and need to be expanded for seemingly no reason at all. The expand button is not near the bottom where the picture actually cuts off, but rather in the top right corner of the image. This then brings the "expanded" view, which is not even any bigger, off from the right side of the web browser inside of a smaller window, and you have to use scroll bars (vertical AND horizontal) just to view the whole thing.
-Things are just generally obscured. I have to click through multiple drop-down menus to get to assignments and book chapters just to even see the link that I can click on.

Again, these are only a few examples in a dumpster of user interface crimes that drive me insane, but I'm still barely touching the surface of what's wrong with this platform. Images used in lab assignments are very difficult to see and end up feeling more like a game of "Find the Thing You are Allowed to click on" than actual learning experiences. The labs themselves lag a lot, despite the fact that it's just a glorified point and click adventure game with a little bit of drag and drop, except that I'm not having any fun.

Then there's the lab questions. There was clearly very little thought when putting this thing together because the questions are either unhelpful to understanding the concepts that they are "teaching", not even explained at all at any point in the reading or the lab, or both. I know that things are just not explained, because I've gone back through the entirety of the first chapter just to find where it explains something that a question that it asked in a lab that was for that chapter, and the only thing I found out was that I wasted my time.

They call their platform MindTap, but I believe it should be called SpinalTap instead, because this is the most painful learning experience I have ever had. I got a cheaper price than what is typically offered due to my school, and I still feel like I was ripped off. If you are a school or a teacher, do not consider using this. It's clear that they don't put any value on education, because if they did none of these problems would exist. This needs to be better, and the fact that this is accepted as an educational platform in its current state is depressing.

This platform is the worst thing to happen to education. First, I believe it was designed for lazy professors who need help teaching. The labs are complete GARBAGE. There are so many problems, and they don't even explain what you should do or give examples of what they expect. So you're just clicking aimlessly around the screen until something happens and for my (hardware labs) the quality of the pictures for the drop and drag are pitiful.

This learning program is by far the worst I've ever encountered. I've dealt with this program 3 previous times, and this time around I'm doing all of the assignments within the 2 week free access period because that's how much I hate this company. If the people at Cengage read this, I only have one thing to say: Do better.

Charges to access website, charges to access homework, charges to verify that your bank information is correct, and a subpar platform.

Every time I sign in, Cengage says "Closing your previous session, please wait." And I have to close the whole window and redo it. Every. Single. Time. I do not have another session open, the last time I was on, I signed out. Then, while doing an assignment, I click on the ebook link within the assignment and it says "it appears you are signed in on another window, signing you out now." THEN DON'T PUT THE LINK IN THE ASSIGNMENT
Seriously hate using cengage and it sucks not to have a choice.

This has to be one of the worst learning platforms. It is lazy, slow, and extremely frustrating to navigate. Its way over priced and the labs are unbelievably slow. Try to avoid this as much as you can classes that use it can be miserable.

Horrible, slow, incorrect logic and unpleasant formatting. This is the worst online school resource I have ever used. Almost every program used for classes has some problems, but Cengage stands out for all the wrong reasons. Having to reload the entire page each time you want to check an answer in 2023 is ridiculous. Having no example problems linked to the homework questions in an online textbook is just lazy, and to charge over $100 for a program when there are better options out there is nothing short of taking advantage of students stuck with this god awful program. Any reviews that speak in any regard considered positive are likely bought or paid for by the company, I can't see how anyone who uses this program for more than 10 minutes wouldn't have a problem with it

Oh my what a pile of crap website. Crashes frequently. Just when you need it most it crashes. Hope I never have to use them again. If I could award negative stars I would. I gave them two stars because I had to call customer service once and they sort of helped but what a junk website……

I wholeheartedly agree with all of the other negative reviews. Nothing has ever made me so viscerally upset. If I ever see or hear of Cengage again, I will start a petition to ban it.

Horrible program that cost too much, and gives too little. The questions and material are more subjective and based on delusion. Facts that seem made up at times. Along with technical support that doesn't understand their own program and caused me to spend an hour on the phone trying to just get access to the program.

The content provided to teach the material is ridiculously unprofessional. The people chosen to record the audio mumble, and the audio sounds like it was recorded on an android phone from 10 years ago. There is oftentimes background noise, crackling sounds, and weird cuts that are extremely distracting. Furthermore, the actual videos skip over steps constantly, which is very unhelpful for students learning material for the first time. The access codes are incredibly expensive, but the content is significantly worse than the free content you can find on YouTube. Considering I had to use YouTube to actually find the full steps to perform any of the calculations, this is a complete waste of money.

Implementation of Cengage feels like borderline extortion. I advise you to drop/switch courses that use Cengage Webassign, or check with the professor if it's a hard requirement. Course learning materials are poorly adapted to their e-books which is what they sell you 'bundled' with their homework access Webassign. In other words, just getting a pre-owned textbook is pointless since you won't be able to do homework for the course without Webassign access. For math, especially higher level required for STEM, tutors in provided explanation videos are sloppy, rarely helpful, and often skip important steps which can/will leave you more confused than when you started a problem. Generally a scummy company that doesn't care for your education, note that many of the 5 star reviews were posted on the same few dates (are fake).

The software can't analyze the paper very well and will give you the wrong grade constantly. I do not know how this company hasn't been sued or shut down. Colleges should be banned from using this software and actually teach.

It's bad enough that books you've purchased are only available via a frustrating app both to access and use. But on top of that, you aren't warned that key content may be missing from the books due to unexplained 'copyright' issues.

The app, Bookshelf, has the minimum features you'd expect of an e-reader app, but is not very well-designed overall. I've had issues with highlighting, zoom levels, page turning, and more. For the most part, it's bearable, at least.

But there is no ARM version, so it's not suitable for a number of tablets, which is exactly the kind of device designed for reading e-books. And it treats some tablets, eg. Surface Pro, as if they are PCs or laptops. So, the 'two device' use (one PC, one tablet) you might expect when purchasing a book, might turn out to actually be limited to one device.

Worst of all, though, I recently spent $80 on a book only to discover almost every table in the book is blanked out. All that's there for each is a message saying it can't be included for copyright reasons, with no further details. Pay for a full book, get one with key elements missing. No warning when making the purchase.

I won't be trusting Cengage ever again.