One of my professors is offering extra credit if we leave him a RateMyProfessor rating. He requested that we make it positive, if we think it justified, and write as much as we can. To get extra credit, we only need to show the screenshot of the page that shows you completed the rating, not the rating itself.
The odd thing is that this professor is the already the most popular one in the college’s RateMyProfessor. He already has hundreds of reviews and a perfect 5.0 rating. People LOVE his class, they rave about it. Why would he want more ratings?
Since he posted that extra credit opportunity, a whole influx of lame one-line reviews have come in, mostly from his online classes, as opposed to the full-bodied, genuine, truly moved reviews that filled his page previously. It’s really obvious which ones are leaving reviews for extra credit, and honestly it takes away from his page’s appeal. I used to enjoy leafing through his amazing ratings, but now his page is filled with BLEGH.
Questions…
Is this ethical? I am seriously disappointed. I really respected him.
Secondly, WHY would he want more reviews, when he’s already so darn popular on RateMyProf??
You know that former VP of Facebook who talked this week about the little rush people get when someone likes their post? It is like that. He’s probably addicted to it. I don’t see any harm as long as people don’t get in trouble for negative reviews.
Our new dentist asked for an online review too, and sent us the link after our first appointment. I’ve reviewed professors (and it later became clear the process wasn’t so anonymous.) Middle school kids are given forms to rate their teachers.
–I’ve had new friends ask me to read their Facebook posts and join, which is along the same lines. (Once they know you agree with their politics and will “Like” their political posts.)
It’s ok in some ways: Disappointed people can work off steam harmlessly; happy customers can encourage others. I personally read Amazon customer reviews very carefully, and very often base my decisions on them.
Rating a professor can be helpful to other students, if they can read between the lines too.
Our new dentist was excellent on that first visit, subsequently only ok to disappointing. That’s probably the risk: Once showtime for the rating is over it’s back to reality.
However I believe it is ethically wrong to give academic extra-credit for the review–or free/discounted products, as Amazon began doing. The whole point is having a forum for democratic and un-bought opinion.
I’m wondering if this is going to somehow become a sociology lesson next semester or something.
I think it’s a bit offbeat, but I’m not sure I see any harm. For starters “extra credit” is so vague a term that I’m not sure it would actually make a difference. And he doesn’t need you to show him the rating, merely that you left one. So your rating could be a whole rant against the request, and you would still receive the credit.
“it later became clear the process wasn’t so anonymous”
IvyGrad09, what do you mean? I’ve always wished my professors knew which review was mine… but do can they really sense it?
It sounds weird, but I could see, if I were in his position, how the (anonymous) feedback could be valuable to me without having the potential downside it’d have if my employer collected it. Especially if I tweaked the material or assignments from term to term.
57special, FIST BUMP!
gardenstategal, good point. However, many professors have their students write a reflection paper, or something similar, submitted privately. RateMyProfessor is more of a publicity platform. Doesn’t that sound fishy to you?
I don’t see anything wrong with that. The professor can’t tell what you wrote/who wrote what, so there’s no issue there. I’ve had professors offer incentives for students to complete end of course evaluations before or other similar things. Not really a big deal.
Many colleges have formal feedback processes/evaluations. Can’t see how Rate My Professor serves that purpose. I’d be curious as to what other professors/college administrators think.
It is one thing for a professor to ask for a review, QUITE ANOTHER for him to pay you with marks for a review. I find this highly unethical. In my line of work, if I found out someone in our company was trading something of value for a review, he’d be in hot water!
This is highly unethical, and yet not the first time I’ve heard of this practice. My first thought was that this prof is an adjunct trying to get a full-time job, or someone going up for tenure. While search committees at my school are forbidden from looking at ratemyprof while scoring candidates, I’ve sat on enough search committees to know that some people still do it.
I had a professor send us an email after we finished his class to encourage to rate him on rate my professor. Of course he was a really good professor and we all loved him, but he did not offer extra credit or ask us to show him the ratings. He said that he wanted students to know about the class and that he liked feedback on how he was doing if we thought it was a good class. I don’t think it is necessarily negative, but I have very mixed feelings about offering extra credit for it.
I think it’s fine to ask students to post a comment on Rate my Professor. For better or worse, judgements are made that way. I don’t think it’s fine to ask for it before a final grade and then also hint of extra credit.
I agree with the above poster; I think it’s unethical to ask for good ratings or provide extra credit. I think it’s perfectly fine to ask for feedback though; otherwise, how else can the professor improve?