Rate My Professor?

[5$footlong]

Have any of you been rated by your students (or have rated your professors) on this website http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ ?

I am non teaching faculty so I had forgotten all out this site until one of my colleagues came into the lounge today upset by comments she had read about her class.

I am appalled at the comments student write about their professors. It is as if professors don't have the right to demand academic excellence. Ridiculous!

 

[kathryn]

I think for ones own emotional well being, it's best for profs not to check out this site.

I did once, and I was also shocked by some of the comments (though also happy that other students had posted disagreeing with a couple nasty posts: definitely from students who didn't want to have high standards imposed on them).

Just like any other site where one can post anonymously, some people take it as an outlet for their own worst behavior, and I think it draws more students who hate a class/professor than the opposite.

 

[sme702]

I have rated past professors before, but have been brutally honest about it (but I was an older adult in school). I've seen, however, that some people would put just nasty comments -- whether the teacher would deserve it or not I'm not sure, I wasn't in that class or that student.

Everyone has a right to their opinion, but being nasty/cruel is the wrong way about it. Being honest about homework, tests and study times is what the site should be about.

 

[maddiesmum]

I was told by past students of this site and some evaluations posted there about me, mostly good. However, it also provides space for vengeful comments by students who hated me because yes, I dared insist upon hard work and excellence as the standards for success in my classes and they were not prepared to meet the challenge. Tough.

I prefer to evaluate my own teaching success based on student performance, comments from individual students made to me and each semester's official student evaluations which at least enable us to see that there is a correlation between the evaluation they give us as teachers and the amount of motivation each student had to take the class.

I disagree that the average student knows what is good for them at the time they are experiencing it and have always believed that students using evaluations to air sour grapes is beneath them and not worthy of my attention. I am never interested in whether or not they like my socks (although one student once thought I should be apprised of this), and senior students needing my course to graduate who then proceed to use evaluations to tell me that I should be ashamed because I would not accept late work from week 2 of the Summer intensive semester at the time of the final exam, well, quite frankly, they deserved the tough semester I put them through. Every second of it!

Clare

 

[Shadowpup]

I wouldn't waste my time on that site ... what useful information would it give you?

I checked them out once because the site showed up when I did a self-google, and I was curious. There were two comments posted, both nasty. Both were regarding classes I'd never taught, during a time period several years after I'd left the university faculty! The site took them off at my request. That was actually more than I expected, and a good sign. Still, anonymous feedback is hard to judge and you can't even be sure that the people posting are students (at least based on my own experience you can't).

You've probably found, as I did, that periodic reviews conducted during the class provide the best feedback in terms of changing an approach mid-course. Stick with those evaluations, and with your own observations of how your students improve during the class and once they begin their careers.

(edited above to clarify)

 

[4fitNphun]

Don't pay any attention to those negative comments. They are mostly from lazy bums and trouble makers in class.

I had taken a math class with a professor with horrible rating on the site. Going into class, I was expecting the professor to be horrible. I found that professor was one of the best math professors I have had. She was on time, patient, explained the problems step by step. She was always available during office hours and even did midterm and final reviews on weekend (hardly anyone showed up for those). Long story short, I found that people who put negative comments were those who were busy texting, talking or generally not paying attention in class.