Rate My Professor Rating- Perspectives on benefits and drawbacks
21 Sept 17
College students face struggles almost every single day. From registering for you major-driven courses, getting to know the location to your classes but wait a minute. This is not the most crucial thing on the planet. Yes, is not about the class, is not about the schedule; is all about the one who you will be controlled by on the other side of the desk.
You know is coming once you got all the dreadful and pushy emails from your professors to do some pre reading or some surveys and quizzes for the class. But you might not care about them now, at least.
Nowadays, people prefer doing things virtually. With the rapid evolvement of the technology, people now can go online and do pretty much everything, even rating a certain person or a certain thing. So that is why there is a creation of the ultimate weapon for the 21st century college students: Rate My Professor (RMP).
RMP is an online review site. RMP was founded in May 1999 by John Swapceinski, who is a software engineer from Menlo Park, California. This rating site allows college and university students to be able to rate their professors and school campuses anonymously within the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
This site invites reviewers to give the score from one to five under four categories: easiness, helpfulness, clarity and the rate for interesting class and subject matter. Students can decide to give a hot chili pepper to a “hot” teacher or a thumb down for the one that they totally hate.
RMP became very popular among college students around America. Each year, millions of students are logging on to use RMP to choose their best professors. Normally, students will pick their professor based on qualities such as tough grader, interesting lecture or whether he or she gives you many assignments or not. By just one click, students can view all the evaluations and reviews of the professors.
There are a pros and cons to the website, just like other online reviewing site. And just like other university or higher education institution, Marymount students use RMP as a key to select classes and professors. There are always two side of the story. On one side, students will hear something absolutely horrible about the professor; on the other hand, students will see that this professor is actually nothing bad at all. There are times that you know the rating is true but sometimes, RMP can be wrong; they are all depends on personal experiences or different perspectives.
The most valuable thing about RMP is that people can go anonymous to make their own comments, which made their words brutally honest! You will see a variety of thoughts are from different types of student, ranging from the laziest, the always skip class to the ultimate superstar. Another great thing about RMP is teachers or professors are normally not on this site. Students can basically write anything about their teachers and of course, they don’t really care, they just write it down.
One more thing that describes why students really love RMP: It is very easy to access. There are no requirements to create an account or anything similar. All you need to do is go online, type RMP in the Google or any search machines and you can find your professor name and you can view or add your own comments on this site totally anonymous and free.
Angela Meija, a new Colombian student major in Communication at Marymount has her own opinion about RMP. “I don’t like it because it predisposes the student,” said Meija. “It is good that students can share their experiences, especially, those who post the way of evolution, which in my opinion, is important to know,” said Meija. “However, I still recommend it, as long as students are conscious that we have different cases. If you are a good student, doesn’t matter how exigente the professor is, you will get good grades. But, if you are a lazy student, then grades are not going to be the best even if the professor is condescending,” said Meija.
Shahad Alruwaydhan, a Business major student From Saudi Arabia said: “I am very familiar with this site. I have been using this web for more than two years,” said Alruwaydhan. “This website helps the student a lot because they shear their information about the professor.” “However, sometimes you can’t find what you want about the professor,” said Alruwaydhan.
“Yes, I heard about Rate My Professor from classmates in community college.” said Tiffany Caronome, a North Seattle College alumni. “I believe in karma when it comes to selecting a professor/course, but curiosity about others’ perceptions have led me to investigate often using this site. The layout is streamlined and easily usable for searchers,” said Caronome.
Many students admit that RMP is very easy to use. Sometimes the pros outweigh the cons. “Very easy search by professors, schools, rating, etc. Good fonts for reading. And professors and students alike seem to fret about (and aspire to) the chili pepper rating,” said Caronome. “However, words limit are a bit constricting, when you’re trying to give evidence-based reviews! Also, there are far too many ads (luckily they’re “click to close”),” said Caronome.
Despite of having a decent amount of drawbacks, students still need RMP for some certain reasons. “I never had problems with RMP. Always functions perfectly.” said Tiffany. “I would definitely recommend RMP to get an idea of the workload expected, how much the textbook is used, whether the instructor does office hours much, etc.” said Caronome.
RMP is still very popular among American college students. Although there are few downsizes that has been pointed out previously, RMP is still reinforce its crucial role in college students, not only in America but also Canada and the UK. “Kids nowadays are upgraded, as I should say. Kids rate me very high on this site, and I am very thankful for their words,” said Professor Renee DeHeck, a Communication and Media studies instructor at North Seattle College.
DeHeck is rated 5.0 on RMP at North Seattle College with many positive comments. “She is really good, and easy to get good grade.” or “Take, take, take. Renee is an amazing teacher and connects well with the students; “very easy as far as work, fair grader, and fun class.” said anonymous person.
At other school, for example, California State University Stanilaus at Turlock, she is rated average. “Boring, but easy”. “Nice person and a really easy class. Tests are super easy because you’re allowed to bring a notecard. Classes can be pretty boring. She takes roll too which sucks cause you really don’t need to go to the classes. One group presentation at the end of the year which is really easy because you only need to talk for about 2 minutes total. Easy class.”
“I don’t have much experience with the site. I’ve only looked at it a couple times, and don’t really have an opinion on it either way,” said Dr. Megan McFarlane, Communication Faculty member at Marymount. “I think this site can be a good place for students to start if they are interested in learning about a professor. Today, people go online for reviews of products and services on a regular basis, so it isn’t surprising that students would also go online to see reviews of professors,” said McFarlane.
RMP users also reveal some annoying moment and major cons that associated with this rating site. “The downside of sites like this is that, because it relies on students to post content (and I’m not sure how people are able to do that-whether they have to create an account, or if anyone can just post), what often happens is that two types of people post comments: those who LOVE the professor and those who HATE the professor. Therefore, the reviews are only showing extreme responses. As such, those who had an average experience and/or do not have an emotional response to the professor do not respond,” said McFarlane. “Additionally, I believe that the site loses some of its credibility because it ranks the “hotness” of a professor. What does a professor’s looks have to do with how well they teach? Why do they feel this is necessary information for people to have when choosing which classes to take,” said McFarlane.
Students nowadays prefer online communication over face to face. It is very understandable since this is 21st century. “I would probably tell people that they are free to get an initial understandings from the site, but that word of mouth-from various students-is likely going to be much more helpful than this site.’ said McFarlane.
Students still love RMP no matter what. There always been two sides of the argument. Either love or hate. There is no in between. The only thing to take away from the get-go: Always research for multiple sources before evaluating something. Remember that RMP is not the only site out there for you to have an idea about the schools, courses or professors. Research well before making any decision!
Students want now have RMP as the tool for them to view and evaluate their professors, but how about instructors and teachers? They will need something similar. Someone will come up with the new Rate My Students in the future. Is that a possible decision? We will wait and see.
Bibliography
Heffernan, Virginia. “The Prof Stuff.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Mar. 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/magazine/14FOB-medium-t.html?mcubz=0
Manning, Michelle. “Rate My Professor: The Pros and Cons.” The Odyssey Online, The Odyssey Online, 24 Aug. 2017, www.theodysseyonline.com/rate-my-professor-pros-cons.
