Professors rate 'RateMyProfessors'

Since starting school, most people have had their favorite and their least favorite teachers.

Thanks to the Internet, students now have a public forum to voice their opinions on professors they loved and on those they disliked. Created in 1999 as TeacherRatings.com, the site now known as RateMyProfessors.com is an anonymous review site allowing students to leave comments and ratings about various professors.

The site, which is owned by MTVu, harbors more than ten million student ratings for approximately one million professors.

At ARC, 1,232 professors have rating pages.

Professor ratings are based on a five-point scale where students rate the professor on average easiness, helpfulness, and overall quality.

Anthropology professor Kristina Casper-Denman is considered a “good quality” professor, with an overall quality rating of 4.5.
Denman said, “I have reviewed my page before…I appreciate that students take the time to not only say that they liked my class, but that they appreciate that I can help them in learning and loving the materials.”

Denman has one of the highest numbers of student ratings with 138, but philosophy professor David Lopez reigns as the most reviewed professor at ARC with 157 ratings. In addition to Lopez’s overall quality rating of 4.7, he also holds the most “hotness” ratings with a total of 44.

The optional “hotness” rating allows students to indicate professors they consider attractive with a chili pepper icon.

Denman, who has zero “hotness” scores, stated, “I’m sad about the hotness, but I suppose that’s the least important score.”

Greg Jorgensen, who teaches chemistry, is another “good quality” professor, with an overall quality rating of 3.6.

A Feb. 9  comment stated, “ I suck at chem, and I always have. I am currently in [Jorgensen’s] Chem305 class and have never met a teacher more willing to help you learn!”

Jorgensen feels his ratings are relatively accurate and often finds amusement in student comments.

“I find it kind of entertaining,” said Jorgensen.  “I love my job and I will do anything to help my students out.”

Not all of ARC’s professors are considered “good quality.” Out of the ratings, some professors have been rated “poor quality.” While students’ comments seem to indicate different reasons for labeling professors as “poor,” the teachers themselves have their own ideas for student reasoning.

Accounting professor Dieter Kiefer has an overall quality rating of 2.3, and a variety of choice comments from students.

An Aug. 6, 2009 comment stated, “This professor is rude and useless. Take his class if you need one last push towards suicide.”

However, Kiefer has an easy solution for dealing with such comments.

“Don’t read RateMyProfessor,” stated Kiefer.  “My goal is to be known as the hardest accounting teacher while I teach students accounting and tax, two very hard subjects.”
Wes Green, a Computer Science professor, believes his “low score” is mainly due to the difficulty and one of a kind nature of his classes. His courses prepare students for the certification tests necessary to enter the computer technology industry. Green places little merit in RateMyProfessors.com’s rating system.

“It’s their sounding board, a way to get back, “ said Green.  “My job is to get these students ready for industry…so yeah, I’m going to meet some resistance.”

Instead, Green, along with most ARC professors, relies on end-of-semester responses to Student Learning Outcomes surveys. These surveys indicate to the professors and the college, the effectiveness of the course.

In addition to good feedback from Student Learning Outcomes surveys, Green frequently receives letters and emails from past students, who are now working in the field of computer technology.

“Here’s about 15 [letters] from students who are in the Intel industry,” stated Green. “If you want to find out the truth about me, go ask those guys.”