Should Teacher Evaluations be made Public

[Jerry]

At Rate My Professors (www.ratemyprofessors.com) most of the Computer Science Profs have been rated by someone.

Of course the main problem with a site like this is validity. How do we know that the person doing the evaluation is someone who took the class?

My questions is this: Should the CS Department publish end of the semester course evaluations on the web?

If the Department did make them public, would you be more likely to make comments on your evaluation or less likely?

What are the up sides and down sides?

[Chris Swingler]

Well, first of all, the one professor I absolutely hated last semester has the lowest rating possible, so I agree with it.  (And don't worry, he wasn't a CS prof.)

I'm in favor of this.  Not only will it encourage students to be more honest on their evaluations, it will also pressure the professors who get poor ratings to improve their teaching.  Granted, I think there are other departments that need this more than the CS department does (math and IME come to mind), but it seems like a good idea to me.

However, there is always the problem of the one or two students who could care less about the evals and just make Pac-Man figures out of the bubbles... but it wouldn't be fair to remove those from the published statistics.  Most students are wise enough to be able to sort those out from the majority rating.

--Beanie

[Guest]

Well, either way it doesn't seem as though many (any?) professors take them seriously, regardless of what is written.

It's interesting when you make a comment on an evaluation, and several semesters later you hear those exact same sentiments being reiterated by a completely different class.  I think a lot of students realize this, and the pac-man effect kicks in ("Why bother?").

Perhaps the "public humiliation" of seeing the same review(s) over & over again might incite professors to actually take the criticisms into consideration, rather than simply get defensive about their "style".  If nothing else, it would give new students fair warning as to what a professor is like.

[Ryan Lintker]

If you know enough other students in the department, you can get a very good idea of what to expect from the various professors in the department.  The problem with that is that it is usually well into Junior or Senior year, and by then you've already been in the 240 class with a subpar instructor, or are stuck in a class you don't like with teacher you don't get along with at the helm.  Making evals public would help the younger, unfamiliar students make some of those choices.  Sometimes though, students don't have a choice in professors for certain classes.  Professors can teach a class for years without missing a beat, causing generations to have to endure the same routine.  At least then, the various levels of students have some common experiences to help a conversation...."does he still have those 1 question pop quizes?"  "yeah, always on the days when I didn't have time to read"  "oh yeah, I really hated those."  It's a great way to forge new friendships.