Before reading this article in the NCTE imbox, I already had formed my own opinions on what I thought of the site ratemyprofessor.com. I would be lying if I didn't admit that everytime I register for a new class each semester, that I didn't check out the available professors for each course and choose which one I take it with depending on the type of feedback ratemyprofessor gave. In the article, it discussed a correlation that was pretty consistant between ratemyprofessor.com's feedback, and a student evaluation called IDEA's feedback. It was found that, "Student rankings on the ease of courses were consistent in both systems and correlated with grades.
Professors’ rankings for “clarity” and “helpfulness” on RateMyProfessors.com correlated with overall rankings for course excellence on IDEA.
The similarities were such that, the journal article says, they offer “preliminary support for the validity of the evaluations on RateMyProfessors.com.”"
This didn't seem to come as a surprise to me-- mainly because I have yet to take a course with a professor in which ratemyprofessor.com wsa off the charts and dead wrong in it's evaluation of the teacher. I have found them to be quite fair reviews. Although it is true that the way a teacher looks is taken into account, there are other reviews that are centered around the quality of the professor's instruction style as well. Some might think that it's only the two extreme types of students who give reviews-- those who are either very enthusiastic and did well in the course, or those who received bad grades and hated the course. I, however, think that there are those who are in the middle, and willing to admit to both a professor's strenghths and weaknesses in the style of teaching. Ratemyprofessor.com, in my opinion, is a fairly accurate and very useful tool for students to use and take advantage of on the internet.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
My first time hearing about ratemyprofessor.com was actually during our class period. It seems as though it is a pretty neat page where any student can find out the ratings of any teacher on campus. Although, I don't think that it is the best way to be advised in what courses one should take. I would think that being at the stage in life that most are with having the responsibility of going to college and such, students would be fair and admit the strengths and weaknesses of any professor.
I love ratemyprofessor.com I would rather know how a professor's personality and course load was before I choose to place them into my schedule. I know it may seem childlish and If I do the work then I shouldn't have a problem but I like having feedback from other students to help me make final decisions. I think that ratemyprofesssor.com is just an added advior to help with the course selection process! I will continue to use this website unil I graduate or taken off the internet completely, and because its so useful I think it will!
Post a Comment