Ratemyprofessor.com, the website commonly used by students to rate and comment on their class experiences with instructors, is not so popular with the professors themselves.
The website allows students to make public ratings and comments, giving everyone an insight on professor’s personalities, teaching methods, expectations and oddly enough, attractiveness.
Some comments left are more serious than others, but this makes you wonder if the professors read the reviews or not.
“Every once in awhile one of my students says something about a funny comment they have read and I may go check it out, but overall I don’t think most faculty care one way or another,” said developmental math professor Bamdad Samii.
Sociology professor Vickie Jensen admits to taking a look at her reviews.
“I have looked at them–not very often, but I have,” said Jensen.
Although some comments may be “funny,” as mentioned by Samii, others may benefit professors by giving them an insight on what teaching methods worked for students and which did not.
Communications major Veronica Jarquin believes that professors should take comments into consideration because it is a popular site for students.
“It’s not good however, that we have to rate their hotness because that is totally not relevant to their teaching style,” said Jarquin. “They should take into account our comments about their teaching style so that they can enhance our learning and be more productive themselves.”
Samii agrees with Jarquin that the attractiveness ratings are unnecessary to students when deciding what professor they would like to take a class with.
“I may have cared when I was younger and more vain. But in general I’ll gladly miss out on a student that is choosing his or her educational path based on the physical appearances of the instructor,” said Samii.
Students like Jarquin hope that professors will take comments on their teaching methods into consideration, to either better them or continue their great work.
“I believe that most faculty’s teaching style is a reflection of their teaching philosophy and is something that they have developed with lots of thought and consideration,” said Samii. “I teach the way I do because I believe it to be most effective in delivering the content that I find most relevant, not because I want to please someone.”
Samii and Jensen share the idea that if they are going to take any student comments into consideration, it is going to be the comments they receive from the CSUN student evaluations at the end of each semester, not the site.
“The serious comments I receive that are critical are usually similar to that which I get on my evaluations, and I take my evaluations into consideration when I am getting my course[s] ready for a new semester,” said Jensen. “So directly, no, I haven’t incorporated the critical feedback from ratemyprofessor.com.”
