By Marc Parry
The Web site RateMyProfessors evokes skepticism among faculty members. Some view the anonymous evaluation site as a haven for rants and odd remarks (“He will crush you like an academic ninja!”), or a place where students go to grade instructors based on easiness or attractiveness (a chili-pepper icon distinguishes professors that are “hot” over those that are “not”).
But new research out of the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire suggests the popular service is a more useful barometer of instructor quality than you might think, at least in the aggregate. And the study, the latest of several indicating RateMyProfessors should not be dismissed, raises questions about how universities should deal with a site whose ratings have been factored into Forbes magazine’s college rankings and apparently even into some universities’ personnel evaluations.
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