Regarding a 1-star review..
Can we email or message a student directly to seek clarification regarding a 1-star review? What are Udemy's guidelines regarding this?
Answers
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I think we can write to student through message section.
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You cannot email but you can direct message them. In the review click on the student name and then click on send message. If the profile is private then you might need to go to your list of students and then you can send a message from there.
I've done this several times for bad reviews and about half the time students revised the review. Make sure you are respectful despite the fact that a 1-star review is unfuriating. Honestly I use chatgpt to tone down my response.
Note that there is a big difference between a 1-star review with no explanation compared to a student that actually wrote something.
Good luck!
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Everyone gets these occasionally. It is frustrating and annoying because they hardly ever give reasons. I did try asking for reasons on some occasions but I never received 1 reply. It does not happen often so I don't lose any sleep over it.
One student did leave a comment with his review which was abusive. I reported it to Udemy and they removed it.
I don't think you can email a student directly but it will be best if you can clarify this. I wish you well.
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This is what frustrates me with Udemy. It sometimes seems that they have no understanding of the real world. For example, I am a long time University Professor, and as such rely heavily on my course reviews for continual improvement. However, in the real world, i.e. in academia, course reviews are only considered from students who have completed the course.
In other words, how can one review something they have not spent the time working through. You cannot write a review on the workings of a Tesla vehicle by just looking at it from the outside. You may not like the styling, but once you drive it and study its features, you may fall in love with it.
There are many reasons that one may begin to dislike an instructor or course as one begins it, but wait, things will change. Then when complete, in most cases, you will think differently. If not, then give it a poor review.
I have just been working through one of my UB courses and wanted to see why there was a sudden drop in the review points. Low and behold, among the 5-star reviews was a one-star review. I went into the course and sure enough, the review was written based on a 10% completion rate. That should never have been accepted by Udemy.
It would not have been accepted in the "real world" where I work daily. So I ask Udemy, "Why are you accepting this?" That has a direct impact on my earnings and, from my perspective, demotivates me from adding new courses to the platform.
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The Udemy rating system is in need of a complete overhaul. No matter what, you will get 1 star reviews. You could have a course on physics and have been awarded the Nobel prize in physics, and some "student" is going to leave a 1 star rating saying you have no idea what you are talking about.
I rarely get 1 star ratings, but when I do, they are infuriating. Half the time the students don't watch more than 2 or 3% of a course and are already prompted by Udemy to leave a review. NO student should be given the option to leave a review that hasn't completed a majority of a course, since many courses, especially on technical topics like most of mine, build upon each lesson to get to a final result. Nobody can give an actual valid and useful review after they have completed the first section which is usually where to download and how to install the software and a basic GUI tour or overview. Udemy should not allow reviews until a student has viewed at least 25-50% of any course.
I will get a dozen 5 star ratings in a row, students will say things like "This is the best course I have ever seen on this topic" and "The instructor explained everything so concisely and clearly", then the very next rating will be a 1 star with the student saying "The instructor explains nothing" or no text at all, just a 1 star. Seriously, Then the very next review will be a 5 stars saying again how it's the best and most complete course they have ever seen on the topic with such clear and detailed explanations.
There is literally nothing anyone could say that would validate or justify rating the courses I have presented as 1 star. Think about it. A 1 star is literally the worst you could possibly rate something, meaning absolutely horrible with nothing of use. Nobody could legitimately think a course is a 1 star course unless it was truly terrible, no effort to present information about a topic, with horrible audio and terrible video, which none of my courses fall under any of these descriptions. Almost all 1 star raters will leave it the same day they signed up, and then also get a refund, meaning once they have gotten a refund, you can not even message them if you wanted to, which I personally have never reached out to a student to ask them to rethink their rating or rate me higher, I don't care at the end of the day. And not ever, not a single time anyone has left a 1 star rating did they ever reach out for help, never asked a single question, just instant 1 star rating and then gone, refund in hand…
This is indicative of fraud in my opinion. Anyone that signs up and gets a refund right away has probably just stolen any and all downloadable resources and is probably rating it 1 star thinking they need to justify to Udemy why they are asking for a refund so quickly.
I have even had a student tell me in the private messaging that the course content was amazing, best course he has seen on the topic, but that he has terrible eye problems and compromised vision and it is hard for him to make out the text onscreen in the lectures, then publicly left a 1 star rating. He even said in his 1 star rating "The screen is blurry and I can't read the text". So he left a 1 star review because he has a medical condition. I sent screen shots to Udemy showing both his private praise of the course and the public 1 star review and told them this is not acceptable and no one should be rating a course negatively due to their own medical conditions. They reached out to him and I forget if they took the review down or he revised it to 5 star.
I've had a 1 star rating from a student saying that the course was so advanced and I just go right into super complex stuff with no explanation. My response to the review is with timestamps from the video they were talking about that has me telling them exactly what buttons to hit and why we are doing it, but it never makes a difference, the students get the refund and are already out of the course and you can't message them or even get a response from them. The content at that point in the lecture was literally the most basic concept for the software that ANYONE should be able to understand, and the 4500-ish students before this individual never had a problem and most said how easy to understand the examples were and how great the progression of starting so easy and building to complex topics was, but hey, you can't make everyone happy.
I wouldn't even be surprised if some negative reviews are coming from accounts linked to other instructors with competing courses.
I feel like it is unfair for a student to be able to sign up, watch 5% of a course, get a full refund, leave a 1 star rating, all in one day. Don't know how to fix it, other than not allowing reviews until a larger percentage of time is spent watching the course. And there is that old saying about having skin in the game, maybe if you drop the course and get a full refund you shouldn't be allowed to leave a review.?! Anyone can sign up to 30 courses in a day, watch a few minutes, leave 1 star ratings for all, and get full refunds, and that is all 100% in accordance with Udemy policy…
And if you made it this far, you see how much I dislike the Udemy rating system…. haha ;)
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