I found that anyone (student or faculty) can rate professors using this service. There is no way that pick-a-prof can tell who is doing the rating without a list of students and their id numbers. So if your classes are getting to big, sign on to the service under different email addresses and give yourself bad reviews. Similarly you might want to give other teachers great reviews if you want the students to go to their classes instead. In fact I looked at one of my reviews and it started off "Mark is a great teacher ..." which makes me believe that one of my fellow faculty members submitted this.
Sarcasm aside, the results of this type of polling can be easily biased by just a few individuals. Mark Eakin [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Mon, 24 Mar 2003, Paul Bernhardt wrote: > Speaking of grade inflation pressures. > > Paul > > http://www.pickaprof.com > > > March 24, 2003 > > New Online Guides Rate Professors > > By TAMAR LEWIN > > > OLLEGE PARK, Md. ? When Kelaine Conochan, a sophomore at the University > of > Maryland here, was choosing courses for this semester, she went online to > Pick-a-Prof to check out the teachers ? and their grading patterns. > > "In one of the classes I was thinking about, the professor hadn't given a > single A," Ms. Conochan said. "And I thought, if there's no chance for me > to > get an A, I'm not going to take it." > > Ms. Conochan's consumer-minded approach to her education is not unusual > these > days: many students see higher education less as a learning opportunity > than > as a high-priced commodity whose value will be enhanced by good grades. > > So it is perhaps not surprising that students are devoting more energy to > digging up information that will help them gauge their chances of > succeeding > in particular courses. Students at most universities can find > compilations of > informal reviews by past students, describing professorial quirks, > testing > and grading habits. And recently, the Internet has spawned > entrepreneurial > efforts to provide more elaborate ratings on sites like > professorperformance.com, ratingsonline.com and ratemyprofessors.com. > > But Pick-a-Prof, a three-year-old Web business, is taking consumerism in > higher education to a new level, allowing students on some campuses to > see > the grade distributions for every course and every professor, along with > the > percentage of students who dropped the course and student reviews of the > professor. > > "I'm sure Pick-a-Prof is going to catch on big," said Brandon DeFrehn, > president of the Maryland student government, which paid $10,000 to bring > the > service to campus. "In terms of the way American higher education is > going, > it's becoming more of a consumer good, with students seeing themselves as > customers and demanding more information." > > Many students who use the site are enthusiastic, saying it is almost like > having Consumer Reports ratings on the professors. Many professors use > the > Consumer Reports analogy, too, but not all see it as healthy. Some said > that > information was always good, but others worried that increased emphasis > on > ratings would lead professors to focus more on popularity than on > substance > and to forgo complex and subtle instruction for what was easily > accessible. > > Pick-a-Prof, the creation of two graduates of Texas A & M, uses state > open > records laws to mine public universities for statistical information, and > then posts the information online for students. Pick-a-Prof is available > on > 51 campuses, including Florida State University, Indiana University and > the > University of Colorado. At most colleges, the student government pays > $5,000 > to $10,000 a year for the service. > > Maryland's student government signed on last year, but only last spring's > grade distributions are online. > > "It's never easy to get the information, and in several cases, we've had > to > use a lawyer, but it's never had to go as far as litigation," said Chris > Chilek, who founded Pick-a-Prof with John Cunningham. "The whole idea > behind > this was that there's lots of information being kept that no one's ever > made > readily available. > > "We began thinking about this when we were registering for classes, and > you > had to keep flipping back and forth in the catalog to see when different > classes met, and we were saying it would be so much easier online. Then I > asked John if he knew anything about a particular professor, and we > realized > that would be easy to do online, too." > > Students can also use the site to build a class schedule or read course > descriptions, reading lists or biographical material their professors > have > posted. Many professors go online, too, both to check student comments > and to > see whether their grading is too loose or too tough. > > "I looked at my grade distribution, and I thought maybe mine were too > high, > so I'm going to get a little stricter," Peter Sandborn, a mechanical > engineering professor, said. "I know students look at the site, but I > hope > they aren't shopping for courses entirely on grade distributions. I do > think > part of the educational process is to learn from different kinds of > teachers, > good and bad, because out there in the world, they'll work with different > kinds of bosses, good and bad." > > Other professors contended that although ratings might be useful for > choosing > a refrigerator or car, they commodify education in an unhealthy way. "I'm > not > saying the sky is falling, or that it's a crisis, but I do believe that > if > you start orienting your work to the applause of the audience, that has > unfortunate effects," said Dr. William T. Stuart, the director of > undergraduate studies in the anthropology department. > > Professors said that choosing the professor who gave the most A's was not > as > sensible as choosing the highest-rated refrigerator or air conditioner. > "My > most rewarding course evaluation came from a student who wrote that they > earned a D in my course, but learned more in this final course in their > undergraduate experience than they had in previous courses," Robert L. > Infantino, associate dean of the College of Life Sciences, said. "A grade > distribution does not capture this." > > Just how reliable Pick-a-Prof's ratings are is open to question, too, > because > anyone with an e-mail address can post comments on the site. > > "Ideally, every school would do something like Pick-a-Prof themselves," > said > Patrick Wu, a member the Maryland student government's executive board. > "But > because our school has been unwilling to make the information and > evaluations > available to us, and because we feel that students want the information > so > badly, we went to Pick-a-Prof." > > Mr. Wu and other champions of Pick-a-Prof said better access to > information > about teaching style and practices would ultimately improve educational > quality. Furthermore, they said, most students are not focused solely on > finding the easy A. Indeed, a search of the site found that professors > who > gave more A's did not, as a rule, get higher student ratings than those > who > graded more harshly, nor did professors who gave higher grades have fewer > dropouts than their tougher colleagues. > > Here at College Park, a sprawling campus with more than 25,000 students, > most > students were unaware that Pick-a-Prof was available, although the campus > newspaper, The Diamondback, has carried articles in the last year about > the > student government's decision to spend $10,000 for the service and renew > it > for another year, for $6,000. > > Karen Bragg, a spokeswoman for Pick-a-Prof, said company data indicated > 27 > percent of the College Park students had registered with Pick-a-Prof and > used > it this semester. But interviews with dozens of students found only 1 in > 10 > had heard of Pick-a-Prof, and even fewer had used it. > > "We know there's not as much awareness as we'd like," Mr. DeFrehn said. > "This > is still pretty new on this campus." > . > . > ================================================================= > Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the > problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: > . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . > ================================================================= > Mark Eakin Associate Professor Information Systems and Management Sciences Department University of Texas at Arlington [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
