Concerning your article by Ali Bart about RateMyProfessor.com: Allow me to add to Irene Mulvey’s concern about the reliability of this site. I just went online and wrote a glowing comment on one of my courses. I then went to another computer and wrote a complete trashing of myself. Both posts appeared. While you apparently can’t post two comments from the same computer (even if you are commenting on two different courses), a dedicated student out to attack a professor will have no difficulty doing so.
As you know, every semester the school does a Course Teacher Evaluation. The results are given to your professors, and most of them keep these records as they may play a role in rehiring or promotion. If you are concerned to have an evaluation of a professor, ask to see her or his past evals. I know I would provide such information if asked. This is from a professor whose evaluations have been extremely positive throughout his career, but who also, inevitably, pushes certain students’ buttons by challenging them to think critically and question their taken-for-granted assumptions. You won’t know that by reading the few comments, including the two of my own, that appear on this site.
Philip Bennett
Visiting Associate Professor
Graduate School of Education and Applied Ethics
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