Interesting thread! (Aren't they all?) My _hunch_ would be that the issues involved would be analogous to publishing comments about a person in a newspaper or other public venue - and thus would depend in some measure on the laws and practices regarding libel (in the case of libelous comments that could be proven to be untrue). The complicating factors: 1) whether or not professors can be seen as "public" figures (in which case, at least in the U.S., as I understand it, pretty much anything goes); 2) whether the forum is seen as a public venue (hence, the laws apply) like a newspaper, or more like a private one (at least in the U.S., especially in light of 1st amendment rights of free speech, again, anything goes); and 3) how these laws and practices vary from country to country. On all of these matters, there are _real_ experts on the Air list (you know who you are - smile!): I hope they'll pitch in and contribute their insights. While I agree that such a site/process is not necessarily bad - at the same time, I would hope that no one would take such a site as anything more than a "customer satisfaction" measure - and that, among purely self-selected customers (probably those really enthusiastic about and those really pissed off at a certain professor). Given the real anonymity of the comments and ratings, this information _could_ be useful, if read carefully - but I don't see anything at the site suggesting such caveats. At the same time,: this seems to take the "student as consumer" model to a new height -or low, insofar as, in my view, such a model is pretty much opposite to what I think higher education, at least as rooted in liberal arts traditions, should be about. Perhaps this is why I received the lowest ratings in my university for "easiness"? (smile) In any case, looking forward to hearing from our real experts on this - Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/ Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23
From: Homero Gil de Zuniga <hgildezuniga@wisc.edu> Reply-To: air-l@aoir.org Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2003 03:27:15 -0500 To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: RE: [Air-l] Evaluation Logs
That was funny. Regarding your question, I don't exactly know where the limit is but I guess that as long as they don't infringe any basic human being rights, they should be fine. I also would imagine that it depends on peoples' perception. In any case, it was interesting finding me rated... :) Probably the fact that they said I was good and evidently HOT (just kidding) made me see it not necessarily and intrinsically bad... More thoughts? Anybody with a cyberspace- law-policy background? Hernando?
Cheers,
HGZ
Homero Gil de Zuniga
http://www.homero.educations.net Project Assistant for the Journalism & Mass Communication Department www.journalism.wisc.edu UNIVERSITY of WISCONSIN-MADISON http://www.wisc.edu PO BOX 260022 53726 Madison WI, USA e-mail: hgildezuniga@wisc.edu
Office: (608) 263-7852
"It is nice to be important... but it is much more important to be nice".
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin@aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org] On Behalf Of EGodard Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 12:05 AM To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] Evaluation Logs
I apologize if this has already been discussed here; I haven't seen it, and have looked through the archive.
What thoughts have ye on sites such as http://www.ratemyprofessor.com? Are there legal boundaries to what the site can allow? Are things said there contestable against the author and/or the site?
Given relatively small numbers of evaluators per professor evaluated, I would presume there to be negative bias. Interestingly, however, the FAQ for that site in particular claims 60% positive ratings.
-eg
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