Alexis Kestler
Course Hero is an online learning platform that provides access to study resources contributed by students and educators around the world. While it contains a wealth of helpful content, much of it is blurred or obscured for users who don‘t pay for a premium membership. If you‘ve ever felt frustrated trying to make use of Course Hero without subscribing, this guide is for you!
In this detailed walkthrough, you‘ll learn how to view full Course Hero answers for free using nothing but your browser‘s developer tools. We‘ll also cover legitimate methods of earning free unlocks without resorting to sketchy Discord servers or Telegram groups.
Follow each step carefully and you‘ll be unlocking Course Hero documents like a pro in no time!
What is Course Hero and How Does it Work?
Course Hero is an online learning platform that provides access to study resources like test banks, practice exams, flashcards and more for thousands of college and high school courses. The materials are contributed by students and verified educators around the world.
The platform operates on a freemium model – some content is available for free, but premium features like unlimited access and higher-quality materials require a paid subscription. Non-subscribers are able to view brief previews and snippets of documents, but the full text remains obscured.
This is where Course Hero‘s genius business model comes into play. By showing you just enough to demonstrate the value of a document without revealing everything, they entice you to pay up.
As you can imagine, seeing blurred or blocked answers can be incredibly frustrating when you‘re trying to study! Thankfully, there are still ways to access full documents without handing over your credit card.
Step-by-Step Instructions to Unblur Answers
The best method for revealing Course Hero answers involves using your browser‘s developer tools to inspect page elements and make tweaks to the URL.
Follow these steps carefully:
1. Right-click on the document and select "Inspect"
First, navigate to the Course Hero page containing the document you want to unblur. Once it loads, right-click anywhere on the page and choose "Inspect" from the menu that pops up.
This will open up your browser‘s developer tools, which allow you to view and manipulate elements on the page.
2. Click on the "Sources" tab
In the developer tools window, you should see a row of tabs at the top. Click on the one labelled "Sources".
This will take you to a page that lists all the resource files Course Hero loaded to build the document page.
3. Expand the "doc-assets" folder
On the left side you will see a list of folders and files. Click on the arrow next to the folder named "doc-assets" to expand it.
This folder contains all the image files that make up the full document.
4. Right-click on the file named "split-0-page-1" and open in new tab
Under the "doc-assets" folder, look for the file named "split-0-page-1". Right click on it and choose "Open in new tab" from the menu.
A new tab will open displaying an obscured version of the first page.
5. Remove "-html-bg" from the URL
In the new tab‘s address bar, you should see part of the URL reads "-html-bg". Highlight this section and delete it.
Once deleted, hit enter and the top half of the document will be revealed!
6. Change "split-0" to "split-1" to unblur bottom half
Some Course Hero documents are split into multiple images. To reveal the bottom half of this first page, change "split-0" in the URL to "split-1" and hit enter again.
Not all documents have split images so this step may not always be necessary.
7. Modify the page number to navigate multiple pages
To view additional pages, change the "page-1" value in the URL to "page-2", "page-3" and so on. You‘ll have to toggle the split as well to reveal all parts.
And that‘s it! With these steps you can unlock the full text of any Course Hero document for free.
Why This Works
Course Hero obscures answers by layering colored bars over the original document images. By inspecting the page assets and opening them directly in new tabs, we can bypass the obfuscation measures.
Deleting "-html-bg" removes the colored overlay, revealing the first image underneath. Toggling between split-0 and split-1 displays the separate top and bottom halves of each original page image.
Keep in mind that this inspection trick only works because Course Hero has to load the full documents on the page for their legitimate split view preview feature. There are no encrypted files or advanced protections in place.
Legit Ways to Earn Free Unlocks
While it doesn‘t cost anything, unblurring documents via inspect element is still considered circumventing Course Hero‘s paywall. Here are some legitimate ways to earn free unlocks instead:
- Upload 10 new documents to receive 5 free unlocks
- Receive 1 free unlock for every 5 documents you upload that get viewed
- Get 1 free unlock for each of your documents that receive 5 thumbs-up votes
- Review 5 documents to earn 1 free unlock
- Provide ratings on 5 documents or questions to earn 1 free unlock
Utilizing these rewards sparingly can give you access to a decent amount of content without having to pay. Just be sure not to overuse any one method too quickly.
Avoid Sketchy Sources Like Discord and Telegram
You may encounter people on forums or social media promoting Course Hero unlocking services through Discord or Telegram groups. Be very wary of these!
Most are scams at best, trying to profit off selling free information. Often they‘re outright dangerous malware traps. Don‘t risk your security and privacy for a few answers.
The inspect element method shown here is completely safe and direct when done properly.
Conclusion
I hope this guide has proven that you don‘t need to be a Course Hero subscriber to access their full library. With just a web browser and some determination, any student can unlock study materials.
That said, the inspect element trick could stop working at any time if Course Hero decides to patch it. I‘d recommend using it sparingly and responsibly.
The key to making it work is following directions closely and carefully manipulating the URL values character-by-character. Don‘t rush – if a step doesn‘t work, reread and try again. With practice you‘ll get the hang of it in no time!
Happy studying, and may your searches for knowledge be fruitful! Let us know in the comments if you have any other tips.
