rate this.

In brief: this article brings up Ratemyprofessor.com and Rateyourstudents.blogspot.com, which is essentially a backlash blog.

I've hated the idea of Ratemyprofessor since I heard about it when I was teaching. I understand its use, but I also understands its abuse. Luckily, I've never made the site, but some of my former colleagues have. Surfing through those reviews, I found them to be relatively accurate--even a few that were insightful.

I have stumbled upon one review of my teaching elsewhere, and found it flattering. Chris, an old student of mine, was in another English class in which he had to write and post a wiki. That wiki has since been taken down, but he had this to say to elucidate his attitude towards his current class by referencing mine (parenthetical initials/names are my replacements, for minor identity protection purposes):

I consider the 'u' arrangement to be a case of coping with inadequacy. The type of class that we seem to be attempting towards is a discussion, rather than lecture-based learning environment. In the past I've had some amazing classes, and this class certainly has the potential to be one of them. Those amazing classes were both conducted in the discussion style, and always in-the-round (thanks to copious and daily rearrangement of available seating, similar to what we deal with now. In particular they were engl 202b (go figure, I was dreading taking it) and cmlit 401, and actually rlst 83 now that I think way back. The instructors maintained a presence and directed the functioning of the classroom, but were otherwise on the same level and same position as the rest of us. In fact in cmlit, (S. U.) made a point of changing where he sat every day. In engl (A.) only gave input or prompted us when necessary, or she had something particularly worth mentioning. Otherwise the students enlightened and inspired each other very nicely without any help. It's amazing what you can learn from MANY peers, questioning, illuminating, and conversing WITH you, rather than someONE lecturing AT you. My point (or something like it): when I come to our class, I see a roomful of very bright, contemplative, and engaging people, who all have something worth sharing (whether or not they share it). Our particular classroom will unfortunately not allow for such versatility, but in my personal experience, the learning CIRCLE can be infinitely beneficial to all participants, and conducive to the atmosphere I'm trying to describe. When everyone can look into each other's eyes, without strain or even intent, there is a sort of forced involvement that no other seating possibility can duplicate. We feel obliged to participate. Aside from the three mentioned above, I've had other discussion courses conducted in the not-so-round. They were fine, but nothing close to their potential. The 'u' could be worse, however we are still, by precisely 2 right angles, only coping with inadequacy...

While I'm flattered by what he had to say about me, the review of the class he was currently in made me somewhat uncomfortable. Inadequacy? Why didn't he clarify, to explain his position?

This mini-review wasn't really my original point, though. My point was that faculty and instructors are generally worked hard, with far too many sections for the amount of other work they have to do (or just far too many sections in the first place). It's difficult to see yourself rated this way, name in full view, and commentary attached, when you probably believe that you did the best job that you possibly could have. While Ratemyprofessor.com may have encouraged at least one instructor to change their teaching style, my suspicion is that it discouraged far more of them. And a disheartened and uninspired instructor is far worse than one that is earnest, if misguided.