Web
site gets student feedback
Professors have mixed feelings on
RateMyProfessors.com
By Jacque Nguyen
Staff Reporter
He will destroy you like an academic ninja.
He
teaches well, invites questions and then insults you
for 20 minutes.
This
class is boring, but I learned there are 137 tiles on
the ceiling.
To
avoid professors and classes like these, John Swapceinski
said he founded RateMyProfessors.com, a free Web site
that offers a public review of university professors
from across the United States and Canada.
Ronald
Pitcock, an English professor, said he is familiar with
the Web site and said its always a good idea for
students to give feedback.
Its
just one of many places for students to give specific
feedback, Pitcock said. Its a valuable
site for students to share their views with each other.
Sociology
professor Keith Whitworth said he is also familiar with
the Web site and that any kind of feedback from students
is helpful to his teaching, as long as it is consistent.
The
more opportunity for evaluation, the better formal
or informal, Whitworth said. I want to know
how Im performing in the classroom. If the feedback
is consistent, I would be glad I had the opportunity
to gain that feedback.
With
the many other professor-review Web sites on the Internet,
like PickAProf.com and TeacherReviews.com, some professors
say they are a little skeptical about the accuracy of
the information.
H.G.
Dollar, a math professor, said he has mixed feelings
about the Web sites.
I
dont know how objective they are and kind of wonder
how valid it really is, Dollar said. But
evaluations are always important to me.
Brian
Youngblood, associate director of bands, is also skeptical
but said the site is a reasonably fair way for students
to voice their opinions.
A
Web site or any kind of discussion board can have very
skewed information, Youngblood said. But
most students have to pay money to be in a class and
like with anything you pay for, you would want your
moneys worth.
Swapceinski,
now a software engineer in California, said an instructor
who made his life miserable at San Jose State University
provided the inspiration for the site.
She
was a real ogre, he said. It made me realize
that my life for those three to four months would have
been a lot different if it hadnt been for her.
Later, I thought, If only there was a Web site
where I could have found out about her ahead of time.
I searched for one and couldnt find any, so I
started my own.
Some
students say teacher-review Web sites are beneficial
to them when registering for classes.
Curt
Rolston, a sophomore business major, said the Web site
helps students decide if they want to take the class
or not.
Seeing
the ratings would influence me to take a class or not,
Rolston said.
Junior
business major Raphael Kreklau said the Web site is
a way for students to communicate with other students
to find out what he or she really thinks about a certain
professor or class.
(The
site) is a way of sincere evaluation from students,
Kreklau said.
According
to the Web site, RateMyProfessors.com has been online
since 1999 and now contains more than 200,000 ratings
for professors from 1,700 schools, with hundreds of
new ratings added each day.
When
word of the Web site gets out at a university, the ratings
grow like wildfire and students really begin to benefit
from the information, Swapceinski said.
j.f.nguyen@tcu.edu
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