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[post_functional]

That's exactly what it is.  It's graffiti written on the bathroom walls of academic cyberspace.

[tolerantly]

That's exactly what it is.  It's graffiti written on the bathroom walls of academic cyberspace.

Yeah, except the thing is, sometimes Cindy really is a slut.

[bread_pirate_naan]

Half of what RMP ratings measure is the combination of course easiness and instructor hotness (Felton 2004).

Alhija and Resko (2009) found that a little less than half of students wrote comments; comment-writing students gave the extreme ratings, the highest and lowest for that instructor; and that comment content was consistent with quantitative ratings.

<10% of the ratings among those I reviewed lacked comments.  10% of those RMPs viewed had chili peppers.  Whatever the investment in invalidating opinion in the social sphere, it's telling.  In fact, if RMP is not a useful space, those who are posting to their own RMPs to change perception or to communicate teaching expectations to students in a context described as quantifying "non-teaching quality variables" raises more questions about pedagogy than it answers.

I gave myself a negative rating on RMP to alert students that they need to do the reading.

That tends to support:

RMP is a reliable source of information about professors.  If you are poorly reviewed, bummer.  You're like that. 

***

I've never really considered RMP to be much above the level of graffiti, and seeing a "professor" listed and evaluated for teaching in my home department who is actually a graduate student working and teaching in another department has not improved that assessment.

Commonly, the instructor of record in a US college or university is appropriately addressed as "professor", whether or not they hold a doctorate.

If you're being negatively assessed, with regularity, get the message.  Don't fight the feeling. 

If you're sending that message yourself... 


Okaaay, got the message.  Loud and clear.

[duchess_of_malfi]

I wanted to let students know they have to do the reading because most of them are surprised by the requirement, indicating it is unusual, and it is the only way I can do that before I meet them on the first day.  Students have few sources of information about faculty, valid or invalid, and at my school, they can not course-shop for reasons I described earlier.  I gave myself a negative rating because it seemed more fair than inflating or repeating my scores, and my ratings there have no impact on my salary, so there was no reason not to.  I'm not sure how well-used RMP is anymore, though;  only about 1 or 2 students a year post anything out of about 700 I teach.  It seems to have reached its peak a couple of years ago.

The point about the research is that both RMP and official evaluations measure a great deal of non-teaching-quality variables, in other words variables that reflect something other than the quality of teaching (such as how easy is the course).  RMP is less valid than official evaluations because of how ratings are collected--students have to be motivated to do it and are not rewarded for it, so the ratings are in most cases a much smaller and usually more extreme version of official evaluations.

Official evaluations should be openly available to students, and I don't know why they aren't.  They do not measure teaching quality, for the most part, but they do measure things that are of interest to students--and the closer the match between student expectations and instructor performance, the higher the ratings, so it would be a win-win situation for all but the really bad teachers.

[neutralname]

I can think for at least two reasons why official evaluations are not made public to students:

Faculty are often dead set against the idea.  Generally their given rationale is that teaching should not be about popularity.  I suspect it is also motivated in some cases by fear about what their peers will think.

Administration may be reluctant to publish the information because people will see it, and it will become clear how many faculty are unpopular -- and if comments are published, how many of their students cannot spell and have the vocabulary of 7 year olds. 

[duchess_of_malfi]

I'm sure you're right, Neutralname.  I am probably idealistic, thinking of the place I adjuncted.  The first time a student lied on an evaluation, claiming I was never available, I mentioned it to the chair when he asked how the semester had gone.  He said, "Well, they all lie!"  It's not true, but it made me feel that there was an esprit de corps, a shared struggle rather than a completely individual one.  The more realistic outcome is probably the super-competitive view of Breadpiratenaan.

Also, if pressured to be reflective, I would have to admit that if my evaluations were not good and the negative comments were not so weird, I might not be in favor of making them public.  I can understand the emotional risk involved, even if they do not affect job security.  Whatever they measure, they feel very personal.

[egilson]

I've never really considered RMP to be much above the level of graffiti, and seeing a "professor" listed and evaluated for teaching in my home department who is actually a graduate student working and teaching in another department has not improved that assessment.

Commonly, the instructor of record in a US college or university is appropriately addressed as "professor", whether or not they hold a doctorate.

Sorry, I wasn't clear about the main point, which I've bolded above. This person does teach, just not in my department and not in my discipline. Apparently the first student to post this person's information to RMP and evaluate him didn't realize what class he was teaching (or what class he the evaluator was taking), and none of the others who have rated him since have noticed the error.

I've seen a few RMP ratings I'd agree with, but I'm not convinced that there's much value beyond that.

re: neutralname's subsequent post, evaluations scores for instructors at my university are available in the course registration system, though not for graduate instructors and T.A.s because our evaluation scores are considered to be protected by FERPA.

[post_functional]

That's exactly what it is.  It's graffiti written on the bathroom walls of academic cyberspace.

Yeah, except the thing is, sometimes Cindy really is a slut.

I agree.  That was my earlier point.  I find RMP remarkably accurate regarding profs I actually know.

[neutralname]

re: neutralname's subsequent post, evaluations scores for instructors at my university are available in the course registration system, though not for graduate instructors and T.A.s because our evaluation scores are considered to be protected by FERPA.

I wonder how widespread that interpretation of FERPA is.  It seems a stretch to me, at first glance.  Student evaluations are not like grades.

I also wonder how useful the evaluation scores are for students.  I suppose it would alert you to extremely unpopular and extremely popular professors. 

When I am booking a hotel, I often use tripadvisor.com as a guide, and the average ratings are a bit helpful.  But it's the comments that really give you a sense of what to expect. 

[bread_pirate_naan]

The more realistic outcome is probably the super-competitive view of Breadpiratenaan.

???  Does not compute.

I can understand the emotional risk involved, even if they do not affect job security.  Whatever they measure, they feel very personal.

One more time.

Nothing is a bigger red flag than negative personality trends on RMP.  If it comes to talking about your personality in the classroom (and I don't mean 'boring'), wow.  You're like that, and it's well worth some self-examination.

[feelinfunky]

I've not had that type of email, but actually the opposite. I've had students say - even right in class - oh, your RMP ratings were so good, I had to take your class! Now, I have a few negative ones on there, so we'll see. My RMP is odd - about three quarters say I'm a really good instructor and easy, about a quarter say I'm too hard, and a few (yes, I know, greater than 100%) say I must be rating myself. I tell students to take RMP with a grain of salt and go by friends' recommendations or other professors' recommendations first.