UD‘s got the impression that many American university students now routinely check Rate My Professors before taking a course. Despite RMP‘s obvious limitations, students really have to.
Why? Because unwise tenure decisions at some universities have wedged into place professors like this one.
Recently disciplined by the Ohio State University Office of Human Resources, the professor (this is his self-published book) has generated many student complaints about his teaching.
Here is a recent newspaper article about him.
October 26th, 2009 at 7:02AM
It appears that there is plenty of dysfunctionality to go around there.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:15AM
Just be careful of RYP. I know of professors who pump up their own evals by submitting phony data and others who submit false information about colleagues. There’s no way of verifying that the information in there is actually submitted by a student.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:27AM
True, GTWMA. In writing about RMP, I’ve said that only professors who have at least two pages worth of comments and scores should be considered.
October 26th, 2009 at 1:45PM
I wouldn’t even trust that, UD. There’s no way to verify a single bit of that data. I could go in today, and post 2-3 pages of glowing comments about myself or 2-3 pages trashing an enemy. No one would be the wiser. While we all would hope that our colleagues wouldn’t behave in that way, your blog makes us all too familiar with the depths to which some will sink.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:10PM
Point taken, GTWMA. I still think students should consult RMP.
October 26th, 2009 at 4:21PM
Although there’s no way to verify a single datum, RMP would cease to exist if the data in aggregate were not trustworthy. Go figure. It reminds me of the site intrade.com, where anyone can place bets on various social issues. Recently, the betting was against health care legislation being passed. Economists are interested in the site because there’s pretty graphs and the betting is fairly accurate. Outside of the bettors and economists, I don’t think anyone is too interested in the site. If the Administration wanted to influence the graphs so they said that health care legislation would be passed this session, they could bet too, I suppose.
October 26th, 2009 at 5:25PM
Actually, Brad, during the last election there was quite a lot of evidence that individuals and groups were succeeding to manipulate intrade markets. Freakonomics, Five Thirty Eight and Marginal Revolution all blogged about it.
RMP will exist whether or not the information is trustworthy. It’s about entertainment.
October 26th, 2009 at 5:52PM
I like the way that a customer (?) review on Amazon says that a death sentence was "was rendered unto him."
Still turning the implications of that over in my mind.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:25PM
Do real college students write as badly as ratemyprofessors.com commenters?
I have difficulty believing someone who claims to have taken a third-year college course, but misspells “sentance.”
October 26th, 2009 at 6:50PM
Yeah, sentance hurts… A statement uttered during a seance….
October 26th, 2009 at 7:50PM
"Dr Gleason is too synical."
October 27th, 2009 at 12:23AM
Hey UD, here’s a guy close to home whose ratings are on par with Alexander’s:
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1230684
Fortunately, he’s an adjunct who, to the best of my knowledge, has only taught one class at GW, but I’m told he’s a walking nightmare in the classroom.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:12PM
At my previous institution a couple of colleagues were waging war against me (at the time a very junior faculty member) for reasons that still baffle the imagination, I went down to the main office for the department, which also housed the most senior faculty, and in the printer I found a comment about me in a Rate Your Profs sort of forum — it was negative and it was about me. The itty bitty problem — it was printed in the dialogue box, before it had been submitted. Yes, as in: "Get out! The call is coming from inside the house." Sorry, but anyone who gives even one teeny tiny scintilla of merit to RYP and its ilk ought never to be allowed to be on any sort of committee that hires, grants tenure to, or fires anyone, ever or to have an opinion on such hiring, firing, or promotion.
dcat