It’s time to evaluate the evaluations
Dear Editor:
As we neared the end of the first semester, one thing was universal across all my classes: the professors begged and pleaded with us to submit evaluations. I was more than happy to oblige. It takes a short amount of time and helps students, right? Well, at least the first part is true. Unfortunately, I don’t really believe the evaluations help students.
There are several flaws with the system. For starters, the Course Section Requirements section is a large mass of “N/A”s. I would like to know how much work I should expect to recieve and what kind of work it is. There are no comments anywhere – why shouldn’t I turn to the tried and true ratemyprofessors.com? How can five students feel the professor was not at all available outside of class and five students feel the exact opposite? Can the questions asked in the evals be any more vague?
I see a few possible solutions. First, like the Intro. to Psychology class does, grant students one point upon completing the online course evals so they are more representative. The evals are of no help to anyone when only the students that really loved or really hated the class fill them out. Also, would it really be that much of a burden to make comments a part of the evals so I could get a true sense of what other students feel? Anyone agree? Disagree?
Dave Shapiro
Class of 2009