Spring Break
OSU faculty ranks high overall on RateMyProfessor.com
Website which ranks professors based on anonymous comments by students lists OSU as 44th in its top 50
Gail Cole
Issue date: 11/18/08 Section: News
"Even if a faculty member struggles at the beginning … there's ways for them to improve and still get through the tenure process," Johnson said.
Even when students fill out formal evaluations for classes, found as mandatory bubble sheets and supplementary written evaluations for each department, RateMyProfessor.com is still used by many students at OSU.
However, not all see it as the perfect tool for evaluating professors.
Giang Dang, a graduate student in business, said she has used RateMyProfessor.com several times before taking a class but knows it is difficult to judge a professor based on a few anonymous ratings.
For example, Dang said that after reviewing the negative rating of a professor on the site, she ended up enjoying the class.
"Everybody has a negative and positive side," Dang said.
Cassondra Pittman, a pre-dental junior in microbiology, uses the website "every time I sign up for a class," but believes a professor won't always get fair ratings since she thinks many students who are upset with a professor are most likely to respond on the site.
"Sometimes you can't take it too seriously," Pittman said.
In addition to RateMyProfessor.com, Pittman also uses the Grade My Professor feature on MySpace.
Though RateMyProfessor.com is a useful tool, there are formal ways for students to voice praise or concern about their OSU professors.
In order for specific input to be considered during the faculty review process, a student must turn in a signed letter to the professor's department head to be put in a professor's file for use in future reviews.
"If a student's willing to sign it, good or bad, they can do it and ask for it to be put in the faculty's personnel file," Johnson said.
Gail Cole, senior reporter
news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231
Even when students fill out formal evaluations for classes, found as mandatory bubble sheets and supplementary written evaluations for each department, RateMyProfessor.com is still used by many students at OSU.
However, not all see it as the perfect tool for evaluating professors.
Giang Dang, a graduate student in business, said she has used RateMyProfessor.com several times before taking a class but knows it is difficult to judge a professor based on a few anonymous ratings.
For example, Dang said that after reviewing the negative rating of a professor on the site, she ended up enjoying the class.
"Everybody has a negative and positive side," Dang said.
Cassondra Pittman, a pre-dental junior in microbiology, uses the website "every time I sign up for a class," but believes a professor won't always get fair ratings since she thinks many students who are upset with a professor are most likely to respond on the site.
"Sometimes you can't take it too seriously," Pittman said.
In addition to RateMyProfessor.com, Pittman also uses the Grade My Professor feature on MySpace.
Though RateMyProfessor.com is a useful tool, there are formal ways for students to voice praise or concern about their OSU professors.
In order for specific input to be considered during the faculty review process, a student must turn in a signed letter to the professor's department head to be put in a professor's file for use in future reviews.
"If a student's willing to sign it, good or bad, they can do it and ask for it to be put in the faculty's personnel file," Johnson said.
Gail Cole, senior reporter
news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231
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