The Course Hero Scam – Exposed!

It’s hard to know what to think of Course Hero, a site that declares itself as a “social learning network” where you can “give and get” information. Why are people buying Course Hero accounts from others? Is there a Course Hero scam? The mystery continues. 

Although Course Hero seems to be a very promising way for tutors to earn money, there have been a lot of people online posting their intent in buying verified accounts of Course Hero. The question is for what? 

What is the real reason behind the buying of accounts? Is it that hard to make your own? Why is Course Hero blocking accounts without prior notice? All these questions raise a lot of concern. Through this honest Course Hero review, 

Product Name: Course Hero

Founder: Andrew Grauer, Jared Grauer, Gregor Carrigan

Price: $9.95 – $39.95 per month

Rating: 13

Best For Teenagers & Adults 18 years old and above. Students, teachers, etc.

Recommended: Not recommended for tutors trying to find a stable income flow. 

What is Course Hero About: Course Hero is an online learning resource where students and tutors can access millions of subject-specific documents.

Summary: Course Hero is an online platform for over 20 million students to ask questions about course content as well as access course-specific study resources such as tests, essays, and revision guides.

What is Course Hero?

Course Hero is an online learning resource where students and tutors can access millions of subject-specific documents.

Founded in 2006 and based out of Redwood City in California, they provide three ways for you to make money online.

• Uploading Documents
• Referring Friends
• Tutoring

Similar in some ways to other online learning platforms like StudySoup, Course Hero pays you to upload educational material such as study guides, flashcards, quizzes, class notes, and practice exams.

When you refer a friend, you can earn a commission from the materials they upload.

Tutoring for Course Hero is different than most online tutoring platforms. Rather than a virtual classroom-type setting, Course Hero’s tutors spend their time in a Q&A-type forum… which is a great way to help others if you don’t enjoy the 1-on-1 live video of other work-at-home tutoring companies.

How Does Course Hero Work?

Using Course Hero’s platform, students can form study groups where they can share their files and brainstorm. Moreover, they can also browse the database for resources, take complete online courses, and receive online tutoring.

Plans & Pricing

Since Course Hero is a crowdsourcing education technology platform, it comes with free subscription options that involve uploading content, becoming a tutor, or referring another person to the site, all of which unlock resources. However, according to verified Course Hero reviews, this provides limited access to the study material. But if you pay for premium services, you can get instant access to all the materials.

There are 3-course hero subscription price options available:

• Annual membership: $9.95 per month which is billed in one advanced installment of $119.40.
• 3-month membership: $19.95 per month which is billed in one advanced installment of $59.85.
• Monthly membership: $39.95 per month.

The Monthly Membership allows users to ask up to 10 Tutor Questions, the 3-month Memberships comes with 20 Tutor Questions while the Annual Membership grants users up to 40 questions.

As you can see, if you opt for the course hero annual membership, you will save more money over the course of the year. Comparing it to the 3-month membership, the annual membership will cost you $120 less per year. Meanwhile, the monthly membership costs four times as much as the monthly payment of an annual membership.

A student who is always on the lookout for new study materials but does not have access to physical libraries or resources can opt for the annual membership. However, many students may not want to avail themselves of the service for that long.

If you are simply facing a rough patch in your current semester, opting for the 3-month membership provides the most value, according to Course Hero reviews by students.

In contrast, the monthly membership course hero price is a bit on the high side so it may only be appropriate for students who are facing a one-time study emergency.

Finally, if the plans and pricing are past your budget but accessing those documents is of paramount importance for your studies, you may want to consider getting a no-interest credit card to cover your membership fees. 

Refund Policy

Course Hero has a great refund policy. If this is your first time using Course Hero and you found out that your GPA has dropped compared to the former semester, Course Hero will offer you a full refund. To get the refund, provide the support team with copies of your transcript.

You can also cancel your subscription at any time.

What Does Course Hero Offer?

Student groups, clubs, fraternities, and sororities have collected test files for decades, giving members of those groups a distinct advantage over others. Course Hero and similar websites put everything on the table for everyone, leveling the playing field.

By providing class notes, old exams, and more, Course Hero gives students an additional chance to learn material that they did not understand the first time a professor taught it. If they didn’t understand a concept in class, had problems with a homework assignment or missed a lecture, these websites are a chance for redemption and learning.

For faculty, Course Hero gives you the chance to see how students are sharing the information you teach them, and to look at the different ways other professors are teaching similar subjects. You can get ideas, know which tests and homework problems were most difficult and gather tools to better teach your classes.

These websites also promote social development. You can join a study group and meet students in your class you otherwise might not have worked with. You can choose to study through the internet or meet at a physical table and chairs on campus. In this way, Course Hero allows you to make connections with others who you can help, and who can help you.

The more people Course Hero and similar websites connect, the more students and faculty there could be learning, growing, and sharing.

Course Hero Key Features

The Course Hero platform offers different ways to make their members’ lives easier. They offer the following:

Unlock Millions of Documents

With Course Hero, you can unlock notes, essays, study guides, lab reports, and homework help, and gain access to them throughout the time that you are subscribed to the service. Most documents allow you a brief preview of the content so that you can be sure that this is what you want to download. To find your research and study materials, you can search for relevant queries on the Course Hero’s search bar or browse by subject, book, or school.

By sharing your own study materials, you can also earn tutor questions to get academic assistance from Course Hero’s online tutors. Course Hero also allows you to rate the tutors and based on their ratings, tutors can get more students in the future.

Offers Practice Problems

Course Hero uses its database of academic materials to form its own practice problems. The questions come in sets. Once a set is completed, you can repeat it by clicking restart if necessary. Once you have successfully completed a problem set, you can also go forward to finish a new set of questions.

24/7 Tutors

Tutors are fellow Course Hero users who get paid to help you. According to a Course Hero tutor review, top tutors have the potential to earn as much as $500 every week.

Not surprisingly, teachers from all over the world are migrating to e-learning platforms which gives them not only teaching liberty but an opportunity to make additional money as well. 

If you want to get personalized help from an online tutor, you need to first earn tutor questions.

To do this, you need to create an account and upload your original study materials. Then just ask your question, select the subject, and a tutor will help you out. Once your tutor has successfully helped resolve your query, you can rate them. However, if the tutor is unable to help you out, you can get your tutor’s question back and try asking another tutor.

Textbook Solutions

Course Hero offers a new feature, which helps with getting solutions and explanations for different activities, books, and questions.

As it is a new feature, the catalog may be a bit limited, however, they are constantly improving. Thanks to this Course Hero feature, you can find help and solutions for nearly any subject that you’ll have in college, so it’s a big plus.

Scholarship

If you need help going to college, you can rely on Course Hero to help you out. A typical Course Hero scholarship review shows that these scholarships are easy to apply for if you meet the service’s requirements. Most scholarships only require short answers, although there are some that will require you to submit an essay. 

Currently, Course Hero is offering five different types of scholarships, including the Veteran Hero Scholarship, Rise Up First-Generation Scholarship, Community Hero Scholarship, High School Super Senior Scholarship, and Hero Student Scholarship. However, if you do not qualify for a Course Hero scholarship, there are student credit cards you can use as an alternative. 

Usability

An education platform is only good as long as it is comfortable to use. If it is too convoluted or requires a learning curve, students may feel they are wasting precious time just learning how to access the service. This can be a big turn-off for them.

Interface & Ease of Use

We have also considered interface and ease of use when creating our Course Hero scam review. The platform is comfortable and quite intuitive with flawless functions. Even people who use the platform for the very first time will find it easy to navigate.

Mobile Accessibility

According to smartphone statistics, mobile phones are slowly but surely replacing personal computers. Course Hero has also developed its iOS and Android mobile apps for people who want to access study material on the go via their smartphones or tablets.

Help & Support

To contact Course Hero’s customer support team, you will need to fill out an online form that will ask you what they can help you out with, your contact details, and any other additional information that you would like to contribute. The staff is very helpful and offers detailed answers to your queries, according to the average Course Hero scam review.

Aside from this, they have a knowledge center where you can read in-depth articles about how to get started, how to get payments and refunds, academic integrity, and their educators.

Unfortunately, Course Hero does not offer a phone or live chat option which would have made working with them much easier but could possibly cause a poor customer experience. As stated in the customer service statistics, bad customer service costs US businesses $1.7 trillion. A bit expensive, isn’t it?

Can You Make Money With Course Hero?

There is no question that earning through Course Hero is possible. Although tutors are giving their feedback about their earnings, plenty of them have complained about the low payment Course Hero is giving them.

Sharing academic pieces will let you earn money using this platform. Tutors on Course Hero earn money by authoring correct answers and helpful explanations to questions that are asked by students and other users on Course Hero. Tutors on Course Hero can earn up to $1,500+ per month by leveraging their knowledge and expertise to help students around the world.

As a Course Hero tutor, you earn $3 for every question you answer successfully, which means you are giving correct and valuable information. You can answer as many questions as you would like, and I know I’ve said this already in my Course Hero review, but all the work is done on your own schedule. 

Considering that you can make between $12-$20 per hour as your Course Hero tutor payment, working as a Course Hero tutor is a great side hustle opportunity that makes the most of your time. Course Hero tutors average $300/week, and the top tutors earn around $500 a week.

The way you are paid to answer questions is that students pay for access to Course Hero study resources and tutors. Because you are helping them get the information they need, Course Hero pays you for your time and knowledge.

Still, raises up the issue, is Course Hero reliable?

How To Make Money With Course Hero?

The Course Hero tutor salary is paid via Paypal. On you have added a verified Paypal account, you may request to withdraw your earnings at any time using a button on the “Tutor Earning: page of your dashboard. It can take up to 7 business days to receive earnings once a request to withdraw has been made.

It is important to note that tutors are paid by the student asking the questions. Course Hero just facilitates these payments. There are also a number of reports of tutors having their accounts closed without receiving their pending balances.

Course Hero is available to students and tutors 24/7. There is no set schedule or minimum hours requirement. Unfortunately, this also means that you may be online at a point when there are no questions that need answering, or another tutor beats you o them, providing no opportunity to make money back for the time you were available. This again, raises the question, is Course Hero legit?

Course Hero Reviews Summary

Course Hero’s rating with Better Business Bureau is A+, and it has over 24 million students and tutors on its network. With annual revenue of $100 million, Course Hero is one of the biggest names in education technology in the market. However, like all services, it has its good and bad days.

Here is one Course Hero online prep test review:

Positive Course Hero Reviews

“There are a lot of different study features which make it great for doing homework and revision. You can get help with homework on topics that have little material from tutors. You can get multiple answers which adds perspective to your problem.

Overall, I think CourseHero is a good study tool. It is easy to navigate around and get assistance with material on different topics.”

Neeraja M. from GetApp, 08/2021

Negative Course Hero Reviews

Some Course Hero complaints are related to its help and support service:

“Every time I upload documents it takes several days (a lot longer than their claimed 24-hour period) for me to receive my unlocks. Whenever I try to contact customer support, they always pretend that it’s because I didn’t upload enough documents even though my account says I uploaded 10 documents.”

Jimmy V. from Sitejabber, 10/2021

Truth Behind Selling Course Hero Accounts

Upon conducting thorough research, the reason behind buying a Course Hero account is that most tutors that are trying to get in do not have the diploma to submit on the platform itself to get verified.

Although it seemed like an acceptable reason, faking credentials or using a different account to earn is not encouraged. Yes, you will earn and at the same time help a lot of people but the integrity and honesty of being a “human being” are not found in these kinds of acts.

Is Course Hero a Scam?

Just to be fully transparent with you, I have not connected to Course Hero myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials, and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what Course Hero genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt by programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn Ways to Avoid Online Scams then click the highlighted text. 

Course Hero purports to be all about helping students get better grades by giving them access to course materials and tutors. However, both contributors/tutors and clients describe this company as villainous.

Clients maintain they get charged exorbitant fees for worthless information and can’t get the company to stop auto-charging their credit cards. Contributors and tutors maintain that the company inexplicably closes their accounts — absconding with their earnings — after they’ve spent hours doing the site’s bidding.

What I Like About Course Hero

• Personally, I like the Q&A tutoring format because it provides greater schedule flexibility.
• Free to sign up.
• Multiple ways to earn money.

What I Don’t Like About Course Hero

• It would be nice if positive–negative reviews were more balanced.  
• Low pay.
• You’re still trading hours for dollars. There is no passive income potential here.
• Sudden suspension of account is rampant.

My Final Take On Course Hero

Course Hero isn’t perfect, but they have potential. It’s also free to get started, so I wouldn’t discourage you from checking them out. 

They’re not the only free opportunity out there though. There are hundreds of work-at-home gigs you might find to be a better fit… and as a tutor or home freelancer, you may want to diversify and work with more than one. 

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably more serious than most people are about earning an income from home. Maybe it’s because of a medical issue, young ones at home, or a soft job market… either way, a simple place to start is what you need in order to get what you want. 

Like it or not, Course Hero and similar websites are probably here to stay. They’ve introduced an innovative product that will not stop here but grow in the future.

The thing to worry about now is how to address these websites.

Instructors need to be sure to tell their students what will be considered cheating and what won’t. Request that students tell you if they find your information online. Share with students that posting information online may result in harder tests, at the detriment of an instructor’s time and a student’s grade.

If the goal is to have students learn the subject and looking at Course Hero helps, maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all? Maybe it is useful to try to teach students to use these new resources responsibly instead of banning it from the classroom.

Some other things instructors can do to fight against cheating:

• Keep tests after you hand them back, so students don’t have the chance to upload them to any website.
• Post only answers, and not questions, on CULearn for homework and tests—that way the answers won’t mean as much.
• Give students old tests to study from, so that there is no reason for them to search online. This could help to level the playing field for those who would have cheated and those who never would.
• Give people the opportunity to report cheating anonymously—no one likes to be the ‘tattle-tale’
• Try to give students a reason not to cheat by providing everything they need to perform successfully

The line between getting assistance to study and cheating is sometimes hard to see. Course Hero makes it even more difficult.  While new technologies can provide more opportunities for dishonesty, try using them as a resource or as a reason to teach your students about ethics in education.

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