2008 Woodie Awards
Putting evaluations online would benefit all
Staff editorial
Issue date: 11/26/07 Section: Staff Reflections
- Page 1 of 1
Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, the shoe is on the other foot and students get the chance to give professors a grade.
Web sites, such as ratemyprofessor.com, allow college students to create a profile for their professors and rate them. The idea is that students signing up for classes have the opportunity to read the comments from past students and make an "educated" decision about signing up for that professor's class.
While it must be fun to vent or perhaps praise a professor, the comments on these Web sites should be taken with a grain of salt. Unless there is a large sample of students who have graded a professor, it is likely that the comments are unfair. For students, these sites probably don't provide much educational value.
However, these Web sites at least provide students the opportunity to see what other students are saying about professors. The end of the semester evaluations that all students fill out about their classes and professors are never seen again, but on the Web, students can help each other know what to expect.
If the university were truly interested in allowing students to voice their opinions about classes and professors, it would be a good idea to require students to fill out those course and professor evaluations online and then allow UNC students to view them using their Bear number. This way students and professors would have easy access to the evaluations and there would be a large enough sample size that future students would know exactly what to expect.
If the evaluations were put online, perhaps professors would even feel an obligation to adhere to the advice of students regarding their courses and make changes for the better. And if the evaluations were put online, students might not feel so apathetic about filling them out.
While it would probably take quite the effort to put the evaluations on the Web, it might be a worth while investment for the university.
Web sites, such as ratemyprofessor.com, allow college students to create a profile for their professors and rate them. The idea is that students signing up for classes have the opportunity to read the comments from past students and make an "educated" decision about signing up for that professor's class.
While it must be fun to vent or perhaps praise a professor, the comments on these Web sites should be taken with a grain of salt. Unless there is a large sample of students who have graded a professor, it is likely that the comments are unfair. For students, these sites probably don't provide much educational value.
However, these Web sites at least provide students the opportunity to see what other students are saying about professors. The end of the semester evaluations that all students fill out about their classes and professors are never seen again, but on the Web, students can help each other know what to expect.
If the university were truly interested in allowing students to voice their opinions about classes and professors, it would be a good idea to require students to fill out those course and professor evaluations online and then allow UNC students to view them using their Bear number. This way students and professors would have easy access to the evaluations and there would be a large enough sample size that future students would know exactly what to expect.
If the evaluations were put online, perhaps professors would even feel an obligation to adhere to the advice of students regarding their courses and make changes for the better. And if the evaluations were put online, students might not feel so apathetic about filling them out.
While it would probably take quite the effort to put the evaluations on the Web, it might be a worth while investment for the university.
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