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
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 _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
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
_______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
_______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
I guess the public evaluation of a course and a professor - and its subsequent publication - can be quite an important tool in measuring customer satisfaction. And as this is nothing more than an opinion poll in the same way a download site invites its customers to rate the program just downloaded I guess there can be no legal barriers to the publication of the poll's result. HOWEVER, the tool as it is on the web can heavily distort the result as it invites everyone to vote. The sampling is as bad a convenience sample as other web surveys inviting anyone to give his or her opinion. Maybe this is old school thinking, but as someone from Old Europe I stick to old school rules, like reprentativity of a sample. And then comes all the questions if student evaluation is really the way to judge the quality of a teacher. But this is an entire different discussion. For me, the result produced by //www.ratemyprofessor.com is just rubbish. Regards Frank Thomas Rosny, France Charles Ess wrote:
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
Frank Thomas wrote:
[snip]
For me, the result produced by //www.ratemyprofessor.com is just rubbish.
I almost hate to send traffic to the site, but here's a really interesting one: http://www.word-of-mouth.org/Default.asp The site acts as a clearinghouse for reports filed by third parties about a person. The site doesn't let you view the reports about you unless you pay. Cute, eh? -- Jack Nerad
Regarding teacher evaluation web sites, EGodard wrote:
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.
You have to remember that the evaluations on these sites are anonymous, anyone can set up a hotmail, yahoo, etc. account without providing their real name, and the site owners have no way of checking a contributors name against any course rosters. Thus, the unexpected postive skew might simply be due to enterprising professors rather than students. Further, a high number of negative ratings may well be due to one very disgruntled student writing in from a number of anonymous email accounts. To answer your first question, then--what do you think about teaching evaluation web sites?--my response is that they are completely unreliable. Their only value is as indicators of the low regard in which professors are now held--what other professional group is broadly subjected to evaluation by people who generally have no conception of what good practice is? What other group would people presume to rate on the internet despite the obvious impossibility of doing so in a fair manner? --Christian Nelson
participants (6)
-
Charles Ess -
Christian Nelson -
EGodard -
Frank Thomas -
Homero Gil de Zuniga -
Jack Nerad