2.94 on a scale of 1 to 5 is not the same as 1.94 on a scale of 0 to 5.

2.94 on a scale of 1 to 5 is the same as 1.94 on a scale of 0 to 4, or 2.425 on a scale of 0 to 5. That’s damn near in the middle, where you’d expect it to be.

http://eamb-ydrohoos.blogspot.com/2012/02/germany-disgrace-of-europe.html

Thus, students take rate my professors seriously even if professors don’t. There’s over 13 million ratings on it- it’s not just the outliers that you speak of. Students would be foolish to not check RMP before paying $3000 in tuition for a class. That being said easy professors get higher ratings and there are some great professors that are not in the top 10 because they have not been here long enough to accumulate the amount of ratings necessary to make the list/surpass a tenured professor who has been here a while. Also asking for the article to be removed just because your favorites are/are not on the list is silly and a violation of students’ freedom of speech.

The comment above, that I’m sure many others will make, about the ratings being based solely on those who either hate or love the professor is also untrue. If you look at the site you will see there are MANY professors who have neither an extremely bad nor an extremely good review, but an average rating. I for instance took the time to write a review on the site of almost every professor I had at Bryant. Like many others, I tried to give a objective review regardless of personal feelings. For example, there is a difference between a bad review that says “stupid professor, don’t take him doesn’t teach anything and the tests are ridiculously hard. Guy sucks” and a review that says “The professor expects a lot from the students but also relates class material to real world examples. The class is heavily based on tests that require in-depth thinking. Sometimes the professor can be unclear with the material, but is willing to explain the concepts more in depth if needed in office hours.” Clearly the first one is just a pissed off student that probably didn’t do the work, and the second is giving an opinion based on their experiences that the class was difficult for several reasons relating to the professor. If professors hate their ratings, they should take an in-depth look at what the students are saying instead of brushing it off because the site is not “valid” enough.

As a side note I did a review with my students at the end of the course I taught. Many told me that the class was difficult because I expected a great deal in terms of writing ability (it was a psyc class), and although some received grades in the 70′s they still enjoyed the fact that I was difficult but they learned a lot. It is possible to be a tough grader/ professor AND have the respect of your students.

Sorry Professors, you get paid to work at Bryant. Students pay to go to Bryant.

I agree with Ms. Larrabee who wanted to see the results of the surveys students fill out each semester. I would go one step further and call on the University to publish these results online for any student to access (perhaps on the new Bryant Portal). More transparency is needed in the educational system, especially at the collegiate level, and professors need to be held accountable for their actions (or inaction, as the case may be). Professors with tenure should be under special scrutiny to ensure that they are able to be effective teachers, in spite of their protected status. In my experience, some professors see tenure status as a time to rest on their laurels and not give students what they deserve – the professor’s full effort to imparting the knowledge in a course. Students at Bryant are not paying a tuition so professors can have job security; students are paying professors to teach them the skills and impart upon them the knowledge that is necessary for graduates of Bryant to be successful in the “real world.” By releasing to the Bryant community the results of the surveys students take each semester, professors would finally be publicly held accountable for their teaching abilities. Some may deride this as an insult to professors, because “why should professors be accountable to the mass opinion of students?” The answer is simple: if professors are truly doing their job to the best of their ability, even if they are hard graders, they should have nothing to hide – they are just doing their job. Why should their job performance be a secret that only department heads see when the consequences of failure are unprepared graduates who will be representing Bryant for the rest of their professional lives?