A faculty member just emailed me to let me know about RateMyProfessor (http://ratemyprofessors.com), a site where students can post ratings and comments about their professors to help other students decide which courses/faculty to take. (The most notorious aspect of this site is that students can also assign faculty "chili peppers," which means they are hot--although I have spoken to some students who interpret that as more like cool/hip rather than physically attractive.)
I personally always checked my ratings when I was teaching at Loudoun (my favorite comment was the student who complained that I was not aware that my class was an ELECTIVE, "not BIO or something!"). I also know deans and provosts who use the site to check up on their faculty. Although many of us are a bit leery of student comments, especially on a site like this, I find that the general trend of the comments is usually pretty accurate, both about one's strengths and one's weaknesses.
At any rate, I'm passing it along, since if one person wasn't aware of the site, she was probably not the only one! You might enjoy checking out your comments (and if you want to be devilish, those of your colleagues...).
Enjoy!
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I actually found myself on Rate my Professor when I googled my name some time ago. It is quite a shock to see what students were saying about you behind your back!
It can be devistating to read some of these scathing comments. At least now they have an option for professor "rebuttals". I have signed up to be able to respond to some of these comments but have to wait until they "verify" me as a professor (you enter your .edu e-mail and college phone number). They also allow you to "flag" a rating to have the "screeners" remove it (if you find it "libelous or erroneous"). I don't think I would go that far but I would like the opportunity to respond to some of these comments. One ironic thing is when you find entirely opposite ratings: one student says the course and professor is "easy" another says "way too hard". One has to wonder what's going on here with such contrasting ratings. If I were a student and saw such a mix of opinions, I would likely have to consider the ratings to be of no value. It is obvious how the individual student perceptions are showing through here more than the reality of the professor being rated.
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