It seems that engaging in Forum discussions was set as part of the coursework, or at least perceived that way by the students - see quote below:
That makes more sense to me. It’s not that the students are trying to take the easy way out and getting someone to do their homework, it looks more like they’ve been oriented to engage in the forums in relation to their question as part of their class assignment. It would be good to send some feedback to the teacher that they’ll need to rethink this for the next time they run this class.