Many students rely on Rate My Professor for reviews and testimonials on faculty members.
However, Rate My Professor is prone to reviews written by bots to inflate professors’ ratings, or fake reviews with low ratings to deter students from enrolling in a class with a sought-after professor.
In addition, reviews are more likely to be written by students who have had either an exceptionally good or catastrophic experience in the course, making it difficult for students to accurately gauge how well the professor teaches.
CUNY should consider an overhauled evaluation system for faculty members, including a standardized rating system with questions that let students reflect deeply on all aspects of the course, including assignments, materials and the professor’s strengths and weaknesses. The system could also allow each professor’s prospective students to send their own questions to the evaluation system for current students to answer. However, the system must prioritize the students’ identities, so questions and answers must be anonymized.
In the current Baruch evaluation system, reviews are not made accessible to professors until all final grades have been entered and are not made accessible to students.
The overhauled evaluation system should contain updated scores and reviews from students who recently took the course.
CUNY faculty course evaluations at the end of each semester should be accessible to students so that students can choose professors and classes that best fit their needs.
Evaluations should also be accessible to professors in a timely manner, so as to allow them enough time to implement new strategies in upcoming semesters and track changes in students’ overall class performance.
Reviews, questions and answers on the overhauled evaluation system should not be limited to 350 characters. Rate My Professor currently has a character limit, an obstacle to students who would prefer providing longer, in-depth reviews.
The overhauled evaluation system would benefit from moderation by Baruch administration to prevent students from uploading harmful or inappropriate reviews on professors as well as provide answers to other students’ questions. Students should also verify their CUNY credentials before entering the platform.
Professors can incentivize students to upload reviews and answers to the new evaluation system, just as they’ve done with the current evaluation system. This can greatly bolster student involvement and community.
Baruch should greatly consider adopting its own evaluation system to help its students enroll in classes with professors of their choice with accurate information and in-depth reviews.
