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Profs taking formal, informal evaluations with a grain of salt

Professors don’t rate the website ratemyprofessors.com very highly.

The popular website advertises itself as an open forum for students to comment on their experiences with present or past professors. With over one million instructors in the database, the site uses a variety of categories including easiness, helpfulness, clarity and rater interest.

The comments on the site can range from glowing reviews to scathing attacks, including comments such as, “do yourself a favour and stay away from her class,” and “he’s puffed up.”

While some students vow to never use the website as a reference tool, the supposed 10 million posted opinions speak for its popularity. However, it’s questionable whether the site actually provides legitimate information students should be taking into consideration when choosing their courses.

“Students definitely look to their peers,” Penny Westmacott, academic manager for the faculty of science, said. “We encourage students to gather info through a variety of sources [before choosing their courses].”

Westmacott added students should be asking themselves several questions before trusting the site as a reliable source.

“Students should be asking if they know the people posting on the site and if they value their judgment,” Westmacott said. “It’s opinion so you can’t say if it’s true or not.”

Britanny Hein, a second-year nursing student, admitted to being an infrequent user of the site, but was hesitant to believe all the comments.

“I wouldn’t say I really trust them — I bet you a lot of them come from people who were really angry and just wanted a way to bash their teachers,” Hein reflected.

Some professors who have sifted through the site have seen such insulting comments. One professor noted she visited the site once, and saw comments so hateful to women that she never felt inclined to look at it again.

Other professors have skimmed the site out of curiosity, but felt the comments have little to no effect on student choices.

“I have never checked my profile and given the unrepresentative nature of the comments, I would not give it much weight,” Robert Solomon, law professor, said. “The [University Students’ Council] course evaluations provide much more systematic responses.”

Heather Kean, a fifth-year women’s studies student, conceded to using ratemyprofessors.com to check which classes were easier. Although she didn’t believe the site to be completely authoritative, she was also skeptical about the USC evaluations.

“You can get the results online,” Kean said. “I’ve seen professors given really high ratings on their teacher evaluations, when my friends have said they were awful.”

Westmacott encouraged students to look at other sources when deciding on courses.

“Another option is to actually ask to talk to the instructor who teaches the course. We also ask students to sit [in] on the course they’re registered in as well as the one they’re thinking about. Talk to the instructors, tell them honestly you’re trying to decide what’s the best course for you.”

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