4 ms·

It's funny to think that there is a website devoted to the report card feature of your newsletter. Rate My Professor, while kind of despised, its existence is

It's funny to think that there is a website devoted to the report card feature of your newsletter. Rate My Professor, while kind of despised, its existence is tolerated.

learnstats2 11y ago
When Rate My Teachers first came out, teachers were annoyed by bad reviews and sometimes frightened of the consequences. Now - it's tolerated, in my opinion, because students on there are a lot nicer than you might expect them to be. I'd be curious to know what, if anything, has changed over that time.
- comrh 11y ago
  I had a college professor specifically mention he would love if everyone went on and gave him honest reviews because he was able to get them immediately after the class ended (the feedback cards via the university were 2-3 months behind the semester).
  - mikekchar 11y ago
    In my high school classes, I used to always give a handout (I have killed so many trees... :-P) I often included a short survey that the students could fill out in a minute or two at the end of class. It was a checkbox affair to keep things as anonymous as possible (although some students occasionally wrote comments which I appreciated). I found it unbelievably useful in improving the classes. Of course, it's hard to get information on how the students are personally relating to you. I also would have welcomed a way to get feedback without invoking a confrontation. Elsewhere in this thread I describe how it is inevitable that some students will come to hate you (either by mistakes on your part, or because of problems that the student is having personally). You have to accept that it is part of the job, but I would have welcomed some way to see if there are any common threads that I could work on. Of course, just like any profession, some teachers can't deal with criticism. Just look at programmers. Tell Joe Blow that his design could use improvement and instantly they turn off. Some will take it as a cue that they need to submarine you politically so that you aren't a threat to their job. :-P

It's funny to think that there is a website devoted to the report card feature of your newsletter. Rate My Professor, while kind of despised, its existence is tolerated.

learnstats2 11y ago

When Rate My Teachers first came out, teachers were annoyed by bad reviews and sometimes frightened of the consequences. Now - it's tolerated, in my opinion, because students on there are a lot nicer than you might expect them to be. I'd be curious to know what, if anything, has changed over that time.

comrh 11y ago
I had a college professor specifically mention he would love if everyone went on and gave him honest reviews because he was able to get them immediately after the class ended (the feedback cards via the university were 2-3 months behind the semester).
- mikekchar 11y ago
  In my high school classes, I used to always give a handout (I have killed so many trees... :-P) I often included a short survey that the students could fill out in a minute or two at the end of class. It was a checkbox affair to keep things as anonymous as possible (although some students occasionally wrote comments which I appreciated). I found it unbelievably useful in improving the classes. Of course, it's hard to get information on how the students are personally relating to you. I also would have welcomed a way to get feedback without invoking a confrontation. Elsewhere in this thread I describe how it is inevitable that some students will come to hate you (either by mistakes on your part, or because of problems that the student is having personally). You have to accept that it is part of the job, but I would have welcomed some way to see if there are any common threads that I could work on. Of course, just like any profession, some teachers can't deal with criticism. Just look at programmers. Tell Joe Blow that his design could use improvement and instantly they turn off. Some will take it as a cue that they need to submarine you politically so that you aren't a threat to their job. :-P