Feature.

Rise of

the ratings |

How RateMyProfessors.com
is impacting the academic landscape

By Jacey Gibb,
Assistant Editor

wo months ago, when

winter semester registration
was just another impending
deadline circled on your
calendar, how did you go about
deciding what courses you’d
be spending the next 16 weeks
with? Did you rely on advice
from your older siblings? Press
your peers for information? Or
did you do what every young
person does these days when
they’re faced with something
they’re unsure of: turn to the
Internet for answers.

Back in 1999, a software
engineer by the name of
John Swapceinski created
the website TeacherRatings.
com, primarily because of
his frustration with a former
professor. Fourteen years and
aname change later, the site
now boasts over 15 million
user comments, evaluating
1.7 million professors and
compiling ratings for over 8,000
schools. With such impressive
numbers to back it, there’s no
doubt that RateMyProf is a far
reaching vehicle. But despite
the website’s popularity,
it hasn’t been without
controversy and criticism.

12

What is RateMyProf?

The website itself is an online
collection of comments and
ratings of different professors
and, more recently, schools
overall.

When rating a professor,
students must provide
answers on a scale of 1 to5
on the professor’s easiness,
helpfulness, and clarity, as
well as the student’s interest in
the subject prior to the course
and how much they used the
textbook. It is also required
that they list what course they
took with the professor, in

Have an idea for a feature? Contact the editor at editor@theotherpress.ca

PROFESSORS

About

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the most criticisable, if the
professor is attractive.

Despite all of the
information required or
voluntarily provided by the
student, a professor’s “Overall
Quality” only comes from a
combination of two categories:
their helpfulness and clarity.
Depending on the collective
number of these two ratings,
the professor receives a face
representative of their quality:
a smiley face for a good rating,
a non-expressive face for an
average rating, or a sad face
for a poor rating.

Top Lists Pra

 

     

other ratings. This means
that readers are left unaware
of things like how well the
person rating the professor did
in the course. Someone leaving
an abysmal rating might only
be doing so because they
received a failing grade, while
arave review might come from
a person who received an A+.
Another factor to take
into consideration is that, like
most places on the Internet,
RateMyProf can be a cesspool
of negativity. Because ratings
are kept anonymous and
there’s no risk of consequence,

Without contest, the most negatively received aspect of

66

the website was the idea of being able to rate a professors
attractiveness. Ifa professor receives enough ‘hot’ ratings,

a chili pepper appears next to their name on their page.

addition to leaving some sort
of comment—though some
users opt for non-answers such
as “No comment.”

Along with the required
fields, the website offers
students a chance to add
information like what final
grade they received, whether
attendance in the class was
mandatory, and, the feature
of RateMyProf that is easily

How useful is the website?
Unfortunately, not all of the
information provided by
students actually shows up
on the website. Though things
like how necessary the course
textbook is or what grade

the student received can be
included during submission,
these don’t show up ona
professor’s page with the

users can feel entitled to
embellish their comments
while hiding behind a monitor.
Despite these downsides,
the website is still one of the
only sources students can refer
to for information pertaining
to instructor quality. Schools
often issue formal evaluations
for new instructors, but these
are not available to the public.
Professors can also choose

Photo illustration by Joel McCarthy

to conduct their own course
evaluations either during or

at the end of the semester, but
these are usually for personal
reference only. Other than
word of mouth or drawing
from personal experience,
RateMyProf is the only guide a
student can use.

Is the website actually
accurate?
A recommendation to check
out RateMyProf usually comes
with a free salt shaker, a.k.a.
you shouldn’t take the website
too seriously. After all, user-
based websites are usually
a breeding ground for rabid
tempers and trash talking.
While RateMyProf edits
content regularly and reserves
the right to remove any
comments relating to things
like “derogatory remarks
about religion, ethnicity or
race, physical appearance,
mental and/or physical
disabilities,” these sorts of
comments still exist on the site.
But despite the skepticism
towards the website, it may be
more valid than people give
it credit for. A fair amount of
research has been done on
the website's legitimacy, with
mixed results. A paper released
by the University of Maine
entitled “RateMyProfessors.
com versus formal in-