As a college student, don’t even get me started on Pearson/Cengage. Terrible UX, horrible glitches, and the “access codes” which only exist to shake down students for money and undermine the used textbook market.
Access codes that cannot be purchased independent of a textbook. The fact that these companies structure their "products" that way bothers me less than the fact that universities allow their students to be exploited by it. Learning that they don't actually care about my personal or financial wellbeing really disillusioned me to the whole college education system.
Using a Pearson-controlled compu-text is a very simple sign that the professor or administration (whoever has decision making power) is terrible and not worth attending.
That’s all well and good until you realize that the class is a graduation requirement and it’s not going to improve anytime soon.
Complain to your university. We outsource grading the weekly portion of homework to Pearson because there is no money for TA's. The alternative would be a fulltime position to administer a LONCAPA instance for the institution, but in the current financial climate that's an impossibility.