Depending on where college students look for professor reviews, they may be looking at biased or skewed results. Many sites like RateMyProfessor.com attract students who have strong feelings, either positive or negative, on a professor. Students may have strong feelings on a professor but not have put in the time and effort necessary for the course themselves. An alternative to these third party sites which seem to become increasingly popular at Universities across the country is university sponsored course reviews. This leads to an increase in reviews from students for a more well rounded view of a course and professor.
Students appear to be divided over their views towards online reviews and how they utilize them when registering for courses. UMD Senior, Nicole Gutierrez, says that she has never posted a professor review on sites such as Rate My Professor because she doesn't feel it will sway a student when registering for their own courses, "I just don't think that it actually makes that much of a difference in people's decisions."
CourseEvalUM provides results only for courses where 70% of students in the class participated in the evaluation.
The University of Maryland has its own professor and course review system that it utilizes to track course and professor evaluations from students each semester. Unlike sites like RateMyProfessor, CourseEvalUM is specific to students enrolled at the University of Maryland and only publishes course reviews for which at least 70% of the students enrolled in the course completed a review for so that they can provide a more well rounded review of the course and
professor. UMD students can only view the CourseEvalUM reviews if they have completed their own professor reviews from the semester prior. This works to provide students a more well rounded view of the course than other third party site do. The official UMD course review site is able to send students constant reminders via email to encourage them to complete the reviews. This type of approach to only publishing reviews with a 70% minimum participation rate prevents a polarizing evaluation of the professor. This method prevents courses from having reviews only from students who had a strong enough opinion that they felt the initiative to go write a review for the professor, rather it will gather information from a majority of the course no matter their opinion on the course.
professor. UMD students can only view the CourseEvalUM reviews if they have completed their own professor reviews from the semester prior. This works to provide students a more well rounded view of the course than other third party site do. The official UMD course review site is able to send students constant reminders via email to encourage them to complete the reviews. This type of approach to only publishing reviews with a 70% minimum participation rate prevents a polarizing evaluation of the professor. This method prevents courses from having reviews only from students who had a strong enough opinion that they felt the initiative to go write a review for the professor, rather it will gather information from a majority of the course no matter their opinion on the course.
OurUMD, Koofers, and RateMyProfessor among popular third party sites where students can submit reviews for their professors
CourseEvalUM restricts access for students wishing to view their professor's reviews to those who have completed their professor reviews for the semester before, which presents a larger number of student input than other review sites. Other course review sites often only attract students who feel very strongly one way or another about a course or professor which does not provide as much of a well rounded evaluation for the course. These sites also do not provide as much data such as grade distribution for the reviews because they do not have the data from the University. However, as mentioned before, the school sanctioned review site requires students to have completed their reviews from the semester before so these third party sites are often a more accessible and convenient choice when registering for classes.
One can often tell a difference in the quality of review from those posted on a University sanctioned site and one such as Rate My Professor simply by the wording and content of the review. Professors at the University of Alabama read and responded their own reviews off of Rate My Professor.
Due to the nature of sites like RateMyProfessor, reviews do not always focus on the actual teaching style or effectiveness of a professor. In an article with The Crimson White, John Beeler, a history professor, said that "sometimes there are those occasional comments about how I changed a student's opinion about history and how I am one of their favorite professors, and that's what I like to see. Unfortunately Rate my Professor worries more about how I dress and how easy my class is rather than how I have influence the lives of many students."
(photo from RateMyProfessors.com)
In a NIU poll, students were asked "Do you use Rate My Professor to choose classes," the results were as follows:
- 35 out of 50 said Yes
- Out of those who responded Yes:
- 12 said the reviews played a large role when choosing classes
- 17 said it somewhat affected them when registering for classes
Studies show positive reviews reflect positive correlation to student’s academic success
When it comes to rating a professor and a course, there are many factors which affect how a student completes a course rating. In a study by Marsh (1987, p. 316), it was determined that there was a positive correlation between the work load and rating of a course. This is an example of utilizing different variable to evaluate a course rather than the personality of the instructor. Often times, students can treat reviews as a popularity contest for finding the most charismatic professor who makes the course enjoyable, but students do not actually feel engaged in the course or feel they are gaining valuable knowledge.
Quality of reviews vary depending on major
When it comes to reviewing professors, a combination of qualitative and quantitative data can be utilized. A professor of statistics at Berkley describes the problem with rating professors quantitatively as the average does not provide an accurate well rounded view.
"If all other instructors get an average of exactly 4.5 when they teach the course, 4.2 would be atypically low. On the other hand, if other instructors get 6s half the time and 3s the other half of the time, 4.2 is almost exactly in the middle of the distribution. The variability of scores across instructors and semesters matters, just as the variability of scores within a class matters. " (Phillip Stark)
On the other hand, qualitative reviews and comments from student can provide a more in depth view into a professor's teaching style and ability, but the reviews can vary by the student's major. Those in a more technical major such as math or science are more likely to leave short responses, while those in the arts and humanities field are much more likely to go into more detail and leave more colorful reviews. This can present the appearance that arts and humanities students feel more strongly about their courses, instead it simply being the result of a difference in personality based on their major.
