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Claim Your BusinessVista Higher Learning has a rating of 1.02 stars from 99 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Vista Higher Learning most frequently mention access code, customer service, and foreign language problems. Vista Higher Learning ranks 188th among Language Learning sites.
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All in all, in person learning trumps this in every way. It's nothing unique or special, only multiple choice questions assinged by the teacher with maybe videos, audio, and a calendar with due dates. Every other site on the internet has these, don't pay for this one. VHL was just fine in high school when it was free and all, but now when we have to buy textbooks for college the $#*! is a complete scam. Careful cause their policy is no refunds, so goodbye $20 and their programs they run suck for handling them anyhow.
All in all, in person learning trumps this in every way. It's nothing unique or special, only multiple choice questions assinged by the teacher with maybe videos, audio, and a calendar with due dates. Every other site on the internet has these, don't pay for this one. VHL was just fine in high school when it was free and all, but now when we have to buy textbooks for college the $#*! is a complete scam. Careful cause their policy is no refunds, so goodbye $20 and their programs they run suck for handling them anyhow.
Tip for consumers:
please don't, promote better and more caring websites like conversifi(it's expensive but you actually learn a thing or two)
Products used:
textbooks & access
Too complicated to maneuver. I have learned nothing. I just cheat on my assignments every single one. I would rather scrape my knees off glass then do this everyday.
Tip for consumers:
Opp city
Products used:
None
My senior in high school signed up for a course to start the semester and obtained the required textbook for it from Vista Higher Learning. After further discussion with her advisor she decided to drop the course and take something more appropriate for her direction within the first two days. VHL will not refund the $149.00 text. Granted their policy does state "No refunds, no exceptions" for online texts somewhere in the writeup on it. However, this policy and response takes advantage of 17 year olds and their families who are simply trying to move forward in their education. This policy alone should be enough that no school should utilize Vista Higher Learning for providing the texts for their courses.
Among the hundreds of activities, there are probably just a couple that are good. A waste of money and time.
This website needs to be updated with the following errors. There needs to be better examples for the assignments and they marked answers that were correct wrong. The price for the book should be cheaper
It is a bad software/company which did not keep the student dashboard available either for two more days in order to see completed assignments or grades. Why to delete all as soon the course ended? We students sometimes has problems with missing grades or missing assignments and when a professor ask for proof we do not have how to proof that our assignments were completed due to the fact that VHL CENTRAL did not keep a copy or did not send a copy to the students! NOW I have to pay again and retake the same course in my college to write off the F grade I had.
This website is ridiculous. I don't know why my school for every language class I've taken so far wants to use outside websites that don't work properly for a crap ton of money that comes with a textbook that you don't even get a physical copy of unless you pay an absorbent amount of money for. I'm now extremely behind of my assignments because the website didn't keep records of any of them.
Vista Higher Learning has unfortunately taken over many colleges and universities. More and more lazy professors are relying on this useless software that will cost students close to $200 per course. They are likely getting kickbacks from VHL. If you want to truly learn a language, I would suggest that you avoid Vista Higher Learning. The text is mediocre, the software doesn't work, and is very difficult to use. They will not refund you under any circumstances. Look them up on BBB, and other review sites and see for yourself.
When purchasing a book or code through the site, be extremely careful. The site did not give me the option to look up the correct book for my class until after I purchased a very expensive online code. I ended up paying $75 extra for the book because of a horrible designed website with little to no direction. After talking to a very nice woman in customer service, I STILL was not able to get my money back to buy the correct book. I do not recommend using this site for buying books or codes, you're safer using an outside site.
- This website is horrible. The activities are ridiculously hard and if you don't understand what you're doing wrong, you either have to look up the answers on quizlet to save your grade, then learn nothing, or you fail the assignment.
- It was extremely expensive.
- Not geared for helping people learn. The 'interactive' textbook doesn't even pronounce words, or let you copy and paste directly out of the book.
- Some of the problems in the book are so advanced. Without help it's almost impossible to learn because they do not provide ANSWERS. Even if you wanted to put in extra hours to study, it's virtually impossible if you're not understanding the problems because there are no answers or explanations to any questions.
- Quality: This textbook is not organized in a way that English speakers will easily grasp the grammatical usage in the Spanish language. The set up is honestly so counter-intuitive.
Tip for consumers:
Prepare for a lot of overtime.
Products used:
Vistas 6e SE(LL) + SSPlus + wSAM (36M). Total: $292.28
It is nothing short of baffling how unintuitive the learning 'process' is for this service. The amount of mandatory homework for classes is incredibly tedious and does nothing but frustrate and agonize when they randomly decide to use words they have never gone over in quizzes and exams, forcing you to use google translate if you're lucky enough to not be proctored, or to bite the bullet and hope you can guess correctly using context clues. You might as well just watch youtube videos, you will probably get further.
Tip for consumers:
Treat it like you're memorizing formulas and not actually learning a language.
I purchased what I thought was a hardcover textbook & workbook. I made a mistake and purchased only the digital text & workbook. I received the workbook and contacted them to return the digital book or pay the difference for the hardcover text. They said their systems do not allow for partial refunds of any kind. I don't know any online purchase I have ever made where I have to return ALL the items to get the correct item. Now I have to incur the shipping costs to return the physical workbook and get refunded just to purchase it all over again. I will be making that purchase somewhere else and I'll even be willing to pay more. Ridiculous. They don't 0 stars, but you have to select at least 1 to submit the review.
When purchasing a textbook through VHL, not only must you pay extra for the physical textbook to arrive bound (instead of loose-leaf!), but your access to the electronic textbook only lasts for 24 months. Despite the cost exceeding $250.00, you can only extend access once those 24 months are over, for the low price of another $200.00.
The fact that they charge for the book arriving assembled, and that you are only leasing access to the E-textbook is egregious. Horrible company to be forced to deal with
I'm a student and my teacher uses it for homework and tests, it can be harsh but it helps me learn. I find it annoying though that it takes off so much credit when it's even a day late though
Not only was I forced to pay an nonrefundable $175usd to rent an online access code(so that I can't even sell the book back to recoup some of the price), but this program is actively killing my desire to learn a foreign language. The textbook is topical at best and doesn't scale well since its just a pdf, and the questions are subjective and have a very thin margin of error. Not to mention that the system for synchronous group projects is *literally* broken. Find out if your university uses this program beforehand, and AVOID IT ALL COSTS.
It always freezes. I have to constantly reload the page. Sometimes my web page will just shut down entirely and it'll say it's not responding. LIKE I'm just trying to do my work and it's so frustrating that I have to spend 20 minutes to get the page to work. LIKE IF IT'S GONNA BE EXPENSIVE CAN IT JUST WORK PROPERlY PLS. I have work due at 11:59 and I cant even get the thing to work. And I know its not my computer because it's new...
Accidentally purchased the wrong version for my class. (why there are two versions for the same thing is beyond me.) No way to get my $150 back even though I noticed it within 5 minutes. Seems to be just a good way for them to make money. So far the program has been terrible as well. Why teachers use this money stealing program is beyond me. If you can avoid it, but unfortunately like in my situation my class requires it so they go $300 from me.
Tip for consumers:
Avoid if at all possible
Products used:
Portales
AVOID AT ALL COSTS
They will happily take hundreds from your bank account then tell you that you need to buy another code to access what you have just purchased. They are predatory and make sure they do all that they can to scam students for every cent they have. This company needs to be investigated by the state of California and fined for every student they have ripped off.
Tip for consumers:
DON'T USE THEM
Products used:
None, they are holding it hostage until I can find more money for them to extort
I am trying to do my assignment and the website won't let me do anything and sometimes says that th right answer is wrong and you run out of attempts
Absolutely the WORST program I've ever used for education. I've never seen a program actually gaslight its users, it's insane. You pretty much have to already know basic spanish to understand any of the lessons. The textbook is written with HORRIBLE examples that are useless at best for the questions they ask you. I've actually cried my eyes out trying to learn using this god forsaken program. I wanted to learn spanish and this program made me HATE IT. Context for questions is non-existent, it's like it expects you to magically know what context the questions are using. Multiple times it will mark answers as wrong, come to find out what I originally put was right after using all 5 attempts, so that's a SERIOUS design flaw there. There are so many things wrong with this program it would be impossible to list them all.
Tip for consumers:
don't
Products used:
VHL textbook and program
Don't know if Vista Higher learning vet their teachers, but they hire the likes of Rosanna Keppeler who on October 26th, 2019 in Stafford Virginia (Case # 179GC*******-00) was arrested for refusing to take a breathalyzer test. Consequently convicted of a DUI. I'm sure there are many good teachers out there, Why encourage drunk driving. I had a close family member seriously crippled for life from a drunk driver. If this is some kind of forgiveness to this person, why don't they disclose this first. Why should i spend money learning from a fake?
Honestly if you want to learn a language please use Duolingo. This platform is not good, ever two seconds it says that you get a 0% for putting a space at the end of a single word. I know this sounds kinda dumb, but I was assigned this for school and every time I opened the app I just immediately felt sad no matter what happened.
Tip for consumers:
Don't use it.
This is my first college class and this is a terrible introduction. Even my NATIVE SPANISH SPEAKING mother can't figure this site out. I was completely confused on all my assignments and make-shift "lectures" my professor taught. I have a terrible grade in this class because of this hell site. Honestly just drop the class if you learn they are using this program
Tip for consumers:
Drop the class, it's better than an F
I was excited to enroll in an online class for self-paced learning, the concept worked well in regard to working full time while trying to earn my degree.
I was under the impression that I was a strong-willed, emotionally resilient person. That was before opening this website for the first time, and I am not exaggerating. There have been a few times where I have been at a breaking point and had to walk away.
Right off the bat, this program is unforgiving and incredibly time consuming. It's killed any motivation to truly learn Spanish, which like I said, I was excited to do before!
I cannot believe that the college I'm enrolled in would sign off on this course. Please don't make the same mistake I did.
As a NATIVE BORN Spanish speaker, I was curious to take the Spanish class, the website seemed ok but as I progressed through the many unnecessary wording and the confusing manner they explain an activity I realize that this website was going to be a pain. I have learned Spanish with a Spanish professor and this website's grammar seems made by a Spanish middle schooler. Anyways walk away if you see this website on your Spanish professor textbook requirements.
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