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Ratings Web site attracts concerned students |
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Thursday, 02 November 2006 |
by MILLIE TOLLESON
News Reporter
Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part article on ratemyprofessors.com
As class registration time rolls around again, students like junior social work major Sumer B. Hodge turn to the Web site ratemyprofessors.com for a recommendation on a particular professor.
“If I don’t know the teachers, I usually look at
[ratemyprofessors.com]. If it says one is better than te others, I
usually try to get that one,” Hodge said.
Although Hodge is skeptical of some of the posts, she said they have been accurate for the most part.
It is this type reliance on the Web site that worries associate
sociology and social work professors Dr. Beth L. Davison and Dr. Jammie
L. Price.
Davison and Price studied the Web site and its purpose, and published
their findings in a report titled “How Do We Rate? An Evaluation of
Online Student Evaluations.”
“We are not against the concept,” Davison said. “We actually like the
concept, but would like to see the university create their own Web
site.”
According to ratemyprofessors.com, Appalachian consistently ranks in the Top 100 most posted schools out of 6,000.
“There is so much potential for a university-run Web site,” Price said.
“There appears to be a great demand for the information from students.”
Davison said one main problem with the Web site is the type of
questions asked in the evaluation and the “sexualizing of the
professional environment” through questions about the professor’s
appearance.
“[The Web site] encourages an anti-intellectual climate because of the
questions they ask, or more importantly, don’t ask,” Price said.
Davison said a professor’s overall score is currently only based on ratings of clarity and helpfulness.
“Clarity and helpfulness can be part of it, but it needs more,” Davison said.
Davison said it should also take into account other issues such as how
much a student learned, how knowledgeable the professor was and the
relevance of the information taught.
Davison said many of the posts seem to be from the extremes, either the students who strongly liked or disliked a professor.
“Many students see it as a way to vent or to get back at a professor,” Davison said.
Hodge said it is important that students are able to weed out the unhelpful posts.
Hodge said she does not base her decisions solely on the ratings the professors receive.
“I always read the reasons why, because why that student didn’t like [a
professor] might not be a reason for me to not like them,” Hodge said.
“Some say things like, ‘write a lot of papers’ or ‘have to study a
lot.’ That’s not a reason not to like a professor.”
Price and Davison have approached the Faculty Senate about the idea of a Web site provided by the university.
Price said a university-run Web site could simply provide a summary of the results of end-of-semester evaluations to students.
This would cut down on costs to the university by saving paper and
labor as well as providing more accurate and less biased information to
students, Price said.
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I look at this site as a tool and if the university has control of that tool then where does the objectivity truly lie. In my years as a student at App St. and other universities, I have always wondered if the end of course evaluations where used. I have seen very little come from these evaluations. This website would have been a wonderful tool to use when I had to take classes outside of my major.