Maintaining Equipment
Hi,
How do you keep your computer, microphone, and sanity intact while teaching online?
I just received an infuriating one-star review on my 87-hour course that I’ve spent so much time updating and refining. Naturally, I did the only rational thing, I threw my computer out the window.
Here’s the masterpiece of a review that inspired my counter-productive actions and rant:
"The presentation is slow, painful, and drawn out over short clips which spend part of the time with the greeting and goodbyes. I'd rather read a book, to be honest."
My entire greeting and farewell combined take about two seconds, I say "Welcome back!" at the start and "Have an amazing day!" at the end. I thought this was just being kind and courteous.
With nearly 5,000 paying students, I’ve long accepted that pleasing everyone is impossible. Some say I’m too fast, others say I’m too slow.
At this point, I'm writing this on my phone because my laptop is now in pieces. If this review isn't removed, my phone is next. Then maybe my desk. Possibly my WiFi router, just for good measure.
To be honest this kind of thing kills my motivation. I have a day job and really don't need this.
So how do you maintain your equipment (and your sanity) after these kinds of reviews?
Ron
Best Answer
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Hi @RonErez - You could do what I do. I have not read a single review of any of my ~40 courses in at least 6 months. I will sometimes look at ratings but I never read any reviews. Most of my courses are rated between 4.4 and 4.6. Reading reviews is like watching the news every night. I don't need the aggravation.
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Answers
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Hi Ron, I hope your equipment is fine and you didn't really break it down.
Few points:
If you have 5k paying students, this one 1 star review won't make much difference, no?
Do you need to make your course that long? Wouldn't it be better to break it down into smaller courses?
That review you received is actually helpful. It tells you something that you can improve in the future. Perhaps it does not warrant a 1 star review, but you can still learn from it.
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Yes, I agree. Indeed I politely responded to both the review and the student and do my best to adjust the course accordingly. Luckily there is ChatGPT to help tone down my anger and respond politely. Actually I get loads of 5 star reviews but the occasional 1-2 star review has dropped me down to 4.4 and there is a noticeable drop in sales as a result. I totally agree that perhaps I could revise my initial videos and check if they are too long. I should take this as constructive criticism. I'm still infuriated and wanted to vent. The thing is I'm really constantly revising and improving the course and responding to Q&A it's just so demoralizing. Indeed I shouldn't take it to heart. Thanks @Kamil!
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I feel your frustration, we all get occasional 1 star reviews, and the more courses you publish, the more experiences like that you will get. What matters is your overall performance, across all courses.
Personally, I would also find it annoying if all your videos would start with greetings and goodbyes. I did that for the first course, never done it again.
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Hi Ron,
I think a 1-star review is over the top for the greeting and exit. However, I can understand how it might get taxing for some people after the first 300 videos!
Personally, I just do the greeting and exit at the beginning and end of each section, not video.
You might want to add in your "Introduction and How to get Help" video that they can you can speed you up, and slow you down, and put on subtitles. That might resolve some of the other criticisms that you mention.
Phillip
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Great idea. I'll do that. Perhaps I could also create a brief roadmap to the course. For example some students can skip directly to section 6 if they have some programming basics down that way things are less boring. Initially the course hardly covered the basics and students complained that it is not suitable for beginners so I added more foundational material.
Indeed I'll do my best to learn and improve. Actually some students write to me "Have an amazing day!" or "Happy Coding!". I guess this is not for everyone. For example some of my examples involve characters from sesame street because I think it's amusing but again perhaps it's not for everyone.
Actually the first lecture of the course focuses on where to get help and reaching me via the Q&A, etc so I could mention speeding up the videos too.
Thanks again!
Ron
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Hi @RandyMinder
Interesting approach. I do teach at a university and indeed stopped reading student surveys for the past few years. Perhaps I need to get to that level of confidence on Udemy.
I think I'll add a video as @PhillipBurton suggested and try to take reviews less to heart.
Thanks!
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meu nobre as vezes existem profissionais que compram o nosso curso e colocam comentários ruins e avaliações pessimistas, se for o caso, quem tá se preocupando e eles porque provavelmente o seu conteúdo é bom e ele tá com inveja, mas se for um aluno mesmo, provavelmente é um aluno que nunca conclui nada ,porque é muito exigente e nunca aprende nada, quando vc vai ensinar algo não podemos nos basear em apenas um comentário pois existe pessoas que estão em níveis e estágios deferentes no aprendizado.
Então não esquenta a cabeça e continue mudando a vida de alguém.
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I have a reminder on the 1st of every month to check the Ratings section. I filter by having comments, as you can't do much about ratings without comments. I go through each: Positive ones give me more confidence, and negative ones, I note if I can take any action and note them down in my to-do list. I ignore 1* ratings with comments about my accent and some outlier feedback.
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