Sharath Ragunathan
Ratemyprofessor.com
The ultimate folly, which, of course is unpardonable, that one can commit, is to end up in a class and causes you to regret that moment of insanity for the remainder of the semester. What hurts the most is when you realize that even the brain of a donkey could have made a better decision. Before each one of you start identifying yourself with a donkey or for that matter a certain individual named George W Bush, relax! Help is here.
Ratemyprofessor.com is a popular website among the student community. Many students from over 5000 colleges’ nationwide comment on nearly 650,000 of their professors on the website. A good percentage of them belong to NJIT as well.
Students can find an assortment of comments and opinions that are posted anonymously by fellow students. Professors are rated on easiness, helpfulness, clarity and, oddly enough, “hotness.” On the face of it, the last category might appear preposterous to some, however, the website has a link to a NY Times article that highlights the need for instructors to be attractive. A “hot” professor gets a chilly pepper icon next his/her name besides the other smileys for good quality, poor quality and average quality.
Many students at NJIT make use of this “student resource.” Karthik Srinivasan, a graduate student of Computer Science, said he uses the website while picking his courses every semester.
“Some of the comments can really help you gauge the effectiveness of an instructor/course and if you can get this information at the beginning of the semester, it can only do good for you,” Karthik said.
The website also lists a Do’s and Don’ts guideline for comments, but in reality no one seems to be following them. Many students indulge in profanity when commenting about professors they didn’t like.
“The vulgar comments sometimes make me wonder if this site needs an R rating,” Uday Chander, a master’s candidate at NJIT, said. Some of the comments are also personal and have nothing to do with the quality of teaching. A warning is issued on the website that highlights the potential of being traced based on the IP address whenever the comments posted breach the guidelines provided.
The general consensus among students is that the website is useful in part because it offers a brief idea of what students are getting into. Critics of the website, which includes a large number of professors, have been arguing that the ratings are not scientific and so no credit must be ascribed to the comments posted.
“The unreliability of the views stems from the fact that you get only extreme reactions of students, either overly praising the professor or demeaning his/her competence,” said Dr. George Olsen, Graduate Advisor of the Information Systems Department. Olsen also feels that the ratings are just a “data point” and that they do not really reflect reality. “But as long as professors draw the positives out of the comments, there is nothing to complain,” he added.
John Swapceinski, the creator of the website, too admits that the ratings may not be statistically valid. “[The ratings] are a reflection of the opinions of different individuals and so must be treated as such,” he says on his website. He also adds that he has received a number of emails from professors threatening legal action but has chosen to ignore them.
There are however, several skeptics, that are against the website and most their criticisms are attributed to the method of collection of the opinions and ratings. The slackness is due to the fact that the persons posting the comments are not validated. A single person can post multiple different comments about the same professor. Students can therefore potentially sabotage the image of a professor. Malicious comments can also be posted by students who haven’t even taken a professor’s class. Also the person posting the comment may have been an insolent, lousy individual who didn’t put in the required effort to complete the course. Every university has their fair share of such imbecile persons.
“There is no way to tell if the comments are indeed true,” said Anna Lai, a bio-medical student at NJIT said. “The website is useful, but I don’t think it is necessary,” she added.
Some students feel a better way to get to know about a professor is to ask friends who have taken the course under a particular professor before rather than relying on some random person who may not even exist. But then, the very existence of the website is to help students who don’t know anyone to get a rough idea.
Olsen feels that students usually get to know about a professor way before they register for a class and this information is not necessarily solicited only through the website. Word about a particular professor’s teaching method spreads like “wild-fire,” he says.
“It is no wonder why some of the professor’s classes get filled on the first day of registration itself.”
Richard Egan, a professor in the Computer Science department, compares these ratings to a “beauty-pageant,” fun to read but should not be taken seriously. The average rater is one who is either happy with a course or the one that is extremely annoyed. The in-between ones are indifferent towards the idea of faculty assessment and so don’t participate in the rating process, he says.
There are some professors that feel that the website is extremely helpful and its existence is warranted. Terry Nonnemacher, a professor of Management feels that the comments in the website are helpful and to a certain extent true. “I often find a match between the comments I see on the website and the feedback forms filled out by students at NJIT,” he says. He feels that the current system at NJIT is okay but the delay in issuance of the results can be annoying.
“I sometimes have to be behind the neck of someone to get the feedback. It can sometimes take more than two months for me to get them,” Nonnemacher said.
The website also has its share of proponents. Those that benefited from the website’s comments, feel that the website is a godsend to confused students. “The website is especially useful to students that opt for the e-learning courses. Oftentimes, these students don’t have anyone to get information from and in such cases the website with its opinions is an elixir to them,” says Paresh Borad, a graduate student of Computer Science.
Despite the large number of detractors, the proponents of the website aren’t small comparatively. “I assiduously check the rating of the professor before I decide on the course. Sometimes the website has been the only source of my information and not once till now have I repented any decision,” says Sudhanshu Goyal, a student of Computer Science.
Ketty Ibanez, senior electrical major, is also one of the many that find the website and its comments extremely useful. She feels that the founder of the website is doing a great service to the student community.
Swapceinski says, “We have received thousands of emails from students telling us how true the comments turned out to be.”
Over 700 of NJIT’s professor are rated on the site. Dr. Jonathan Curley, a professor in the English Department is one of the most highly rated professors. A comment from the website says, “One of the coolest teachers I have ever had. Very clear, very funny, very easy and most importantly very down to earth. Overall he is just great. Take him if you can”.
Curley said, “I am only a reflection of my students, so the high ratings are really more about them than me.” He contends that these ratings are valid as they endorse the reciprocal nature of an ideal classroom in which professors and their students learn in tandem. “As long as my students get high marks on ‘rateyourstudents.com,’ I will be more than happy,” he says.
Even though he thinks the site is pretty useful, he is also of the opinion that a variety of factors needs to be considered by students before taking a decision on the course they want to pursue.
NJIT has a faculty evaluation system that is carried out at the end of each semester. Students fill out forms evaluating their professor, the course textbook, and even the conditions of the classroom. However, many students don’t feel this evaluation system carries any weight. Students feel that nothing is done based on the results of the faculty assessment.
“It’s a joke. It’s just one of the many things we do for the sake of doing. Nothing comes out of it, so naturally I don’t feel obligated to put down my honest comments,” says Siddhartha Kumar, a graduate student of Information Systems.
According to Dr Priscilla Nelson, Provost, the assessment is used extensively to improve and adjust course delivery. However, the results of the evaluation are not made public. Nelson says the results aren’t made available to the students as the comments are considered to be a property of the evaluated faculty members and the release of such information is the prerogative of the assessed. She also adds that the assessment by the students is one of the factors that are considered while attempting to arrive at a complete picture of faculty contributions. Many students though, feel that they should get to know the results.
When the evaluations are done only at the end of the semester it doesn’t add value to the process.” I always tell my students, if you have a problem with me, tell me now and I will be able to fix it before it becomes too late,” said Egan. These sentiments are echoed by Nonnemacher as well. He even supports a mid-term evaluation so that professors can adapt according to the results. But then, will students take the risk of a fair evaluation which can potentially jeopardize their grades?
The rampant criticism of the website doesn’t seem to have had any effect on Swapceinski. He is constantly looking to add greater functionality to the website and has also come out with another website to rate doctors.
(Article published in The Vector, college newspaper @ NJIT)
