Bad reviews

[BIMMEP]

Iam just wondering why students who leave a bad rating dont answer the messages or start a discussion to elaborate more for them! They just complete 5% of the course leave a bad reviews without asking any question! 

[Thor]

For now there are no requirements for students to respond to messages or leave text feedback with any review.

If I buy a shelf on Amazon, I think it is a bad product, I leave a bad review. I may get a refund. I am not obligated to tell you why.

I understand it is hard to fix anything, when you don't know what to fix as an instructor. We all get 1-star reviews with no text, nothing you can do, just shrug and move on.

I can normally tell if a course is bad (in my opinion) within 5%. 

[LibbyC84]

Bad reviews can be so frustrating. As an instructor, I rather they ask for their money back instead of leaving one star reviews and bring down my percentage...but there isn't really anything to do about it. I do see a lot of instructors (because I take a lot of courses myself) pushing in their course "if you don't feel this is a five star review please message me and tell me what you were looking for or how i can make it better." But honestly, even as an instructor myself, I have never reached out to another instructor to tell them what isn't working for me. I don't leave a bad review, I just leave no review.

[RandyMinder]

@LibbyC84 - 

"As an instructor, I rather they ask for their money back instead of leaving one star reviews and bring down my percentage"

I could be wrong but I think Udemy allows someone to leave a 1 star rating, get a refund and their rating says. It does not get removed if the students gets a refund.

[Itangishaka331]

That's good 

[LibbyC84]

I think you are right about that- that people can leave a review and get their money back. I just wish if they were going to get their money back they wouldn't leave a bad review because it is so harmful for us instructors. Low reviews and without leaving solid feedback that can help us grow is also frustrating. 

[Nasser67]

Agreed with statement.

I personally base of review to decide the course.

[Zaur_Tregulov]

Hello everybody! As I know, if student gets his money back, review will be deleted after 90 days from that moment. But I can be wrong.

[RajGupta]

If you get a lot of reviews it does not matter. If you get 10 1 stars and 20 5 stars, it probably does not matter. That is why you should continually ask for reviews using the Udemy suggested language.

"I hope you liked the course but please review a review and share your thoughts either way."

[RandyMinder]

@LibbyC84 - Unfortunately you are going to have to accept the fact that Udemy's rating and review system is just flat out broken and lends itself to abuse.

I have found that roughly 1 in 5 students leave a rating. About 1 in 4 of those leave a review. About 1 in 2 of those leave a review that is useful. So, if my math is right, maybe 1 in 40 students leave a useful review.

I have simply stopped looking at reviews. I honestly have not looked at a single review in months. I do look at ratings on occasion because of promotions that I do, and I like to highlight my courses that are highly rated (4.5 or higher). 

I have seen so many instructors on this forum tell new instructors to focus on improving quality. Well, when only 1 in 40 students leave a useful review, that is pretty impossible to do.

[Itangishaka331]

Good 

[Nasser67]

That's useful information, i guess we need to give our best and let the rest taken care off.

[JeffSharman592]

What you say makes sense. If a student wishes to purchase a course, they can check out the previews. From this, it should tell them if the course will be a good fit for them. If they buy the course, they must complete at least 50% before leaving a review. Anonymous reviews should not be allowed. If a refund is given, any review should be deleted or not allowed. 

I understand that reviews are deleted after 3 months. If this is the case, why have I still got reviews on some of my courses over 4 months old?

The review system is misused in some cases. This is obvious. I have also seen people, supposedly from Udemy trying to sell reviews. Is Udemy aware of this? 

Reviews can be useful, but my experience tells me that the majority of reviews do not leave comments that can be acted upon. This is of no use to anyone. I still love Udemy. I just wish they would pay more attention to the views and experiences of their greatest asset. The Instructors.

[JunWu-Socia528]

I totally agree with you, unfortunately it is the other way around. The students gets better treatment, since they are the ones who "pay". Even though us instructors are what give Udemy it's "quality"

Very unfair. But no one is going to do anything about it.

[Zahed_Zisan]

I got a 1-star review a few days back. When I asked what he/she found wrong with the course there was no reply but this morning the student changed the 1-star to 5 star rating and wrote a review 

[Itangishaka331]

Very good 

[MarkLengyel086]

I think Udemy should not allow students to leave rating without feedback. It's really frustrating. 

But my favourite is when someone leaves a feedback saying that it's a great course and leaves a 2or3 star rating. WTF?

I think the whole Udemy feedback system needs some serious rethink.

[HaChris]

Hi,
I don´t have experience with other teaching platforms but in themeforest.net (software, graphics etc.) you are not allowed to review 2 stars or less without a reason. That´s fair, gives you a chance to work on it and also give a qualified comment. 
I am new here but could anybody from Udemy-Team give us a feedback on the topic?

[ElianaC]

Hi, @HaChris & @BIMMEP The reality is that most students do make up their minds about a course's quality within the first 10-15 minutes, and if they're not impressed, they won't come back. To capture representative student opinions, it's important to ask for a rating early on.

There are also a number of factors a student can review in the first couple of minutes, such as the course’s audio & video quality and an instructor’s teaching style. To make this first impression great, we recommend providing a lot of value in the first 10-30 minutes of your course to hook your students and make them want to continue your course (and leave a good early review).

We also found that asking for reviews early on is really helpful for new courses because students are more likely to take a course with “social proof”. If we didn’t ask for reviews early on, it may take days, or even months, for someone to finish your course and leave a review. 

Eliana Cerna

Udemy Community Moderator 

[BIMMEP]

Hi Eliana;

i do agree with all things that u have said,

but the system must ask the students who leave bad rating to type their comments and feedback so that the instructor can modify. We send them messages to ask them for their feedback but they dont reply. If they send us the feedback the courses will be better on this platform.

[HaChris]

... thank you @BIMMEP, that is exactly my point.

[BIMMEP]

You are the one to be thanked HaChris, 

[JeffSharman592]

I disagree. First of all, the courses all have preview videos. This gives the student the opportunity to assess the course before purchase and decide whether to buy or not. If, as you say, 10 min is enough to assess a course, the previews should do it. If they buy without using the previews, then 50% completion is realistic to give an honest assessment of the course.

But let's be honest here. In some cases, reviews are used for nefarious purposes. If not, why do so-called Udemy members try to sell reviews to instructors? I have been approached more than once. Also, why do I still have reviews over 4 months old?

All instructors can do at the moment, is accept everything as in most cases no comments are given and no replies are received when questions are asked.

[Shahtajbhutto]

Hi ElianaC, Thanks for your helpful response! I understand now why only 300 out of my 20,000 students reviewed the course. I've uploaded a new course, and for my next one, I'll remember to focus on asking for honest reviews from students within the first 10 to 15 minutes. 

[EricYeboah294]

In my humble opinion l think there should be a webinar on reviews and ratings because this is an area that only the Udemy professionals can give us the through picture of the review and rating system that they are operating with, and how it works. 

[JodyHughes138]

Today I got my first less than stellar review that seems extremely sus.

I had someone enroll in my course yesterday and write a review less than 24 hours later. Meanwhile, the course contains months worth of material and I can clearly see they watched maybe 33% of the videos.  What made it even stranger is they didn't even really write anything negative, lol.

It was my first and only review on that particular course.  Seems like they signed up with only the purpose of writing me a review, hmmm....

[MarkLengyel086]

Most of the time they don't leave feedbacks which is a shame. At least you would be able to show your side of the story. To be honest I wouldn't let students leave reply without feedbacks.

I remember one guy left a feedback on my course saying "Good" and gave a two star rating. Stupid.

But there is another reason I think people may give bad reviews at the start and this is the constant popups for students to leave reply. I contacted about this Udemy earlier. I think it's just stupid to ask students for a feedback after watching only a couple of videos. 

[predmijat]

Hello,

I would also like to voice my opinion on this subject. Just recently I released my first course, started to get 5 star reviews, but then I received a 3.5 star review with no additional feedback.

The student in question watched 5% of the course, which is 18 minutes, and I have ~35 minutes marked as "free preview". Does anyone else see the issue here?

Best,

Predrag