Ranking changes as students progress through the course

Hi colleagues!

I would like your opinion and advice on this situation.
A student purchased my course, went through half of it, and gave it a 5 star rating. I thanked him by sending a message. Next this student took another small amount of my course and changed his grade to 1 star. He then went through 100% of the course material in a few days.
I contacted support to complain and ask for the grade to be removed.
I received the following responses:
1. "A student can learn a lot about a course even in the first few minutes. Things like audio and video quality, as well as an instructor's teaching style are very important to student satisfaction.
We have found that the average of reviews left early in the course match the average rating by students who wait and take more of the class. To make a great first impression, we recommend focusing on providing a lot of value in the first sections of your course to really engage your students, and leave a good review at the same time."

It turns out that the support team found that the average review stays, but in my situation it turned out to be a change from 5 to 1. I wrote about this to the support service, to which I received an answer:
2. "Since there was no interactions with yourself which might suggest this user had ulterior motives, and the time between the original review and update is rather small, we would not consider this change to be suspicious. "

I wrote to the support service that again the factor of passing the course in full is not taken into account and also tried to give an analogy:
You made the cake, I bought it from you.
I eat half of it, I give you 5 stars for the whole dish, almost immediately I eat another small piece and change the rating of the whole dish to 1 star, then I finish the cake completely. And there is nothing suspicious in this, because I did not correspond with you?
To which I received an answer:
3. "The consumption would not be a reason for us to invalidate a review. Your analogy is a reasonable one, but we do not consider it inherently suspicious that someone would change their rating as they consumed more of a course, or that they might watch an entire course and yet still rate it poorly. "

I see no further point in communicating with the helpdesk, because I see that they are constantly trying to streamline the sharp corners of the student's behavior:
First they write, "on average grades don't change," then, "since you haven't communicated with the student - there's nothing suspicious here," and finally, "it's okay that someone changed their rating and then passed the course completely."

Why do you think Support service avoids being specific:
"Half course, best rating, a little forward, worst rating, then learning 100% of the course content."
And is there really nothing suspicious about this student behavior in your opinion?

Comments

  • I find this type of behavior to be really suspicious and abhorrent. I think it is highly suspicious and if we're in the Trust and Safety division I would flag this user as suspicious.