Spring Break
Web site grades SJSU teachers
Kris Anderson
Issue date: 10/17/06 Section: News
SOTEs offer the same amount of invisibility as Ratemyprofessors.com, while giving a more comprehensive and accurate professor evaluation, said Shannon Bros, chair of the professional standards committee in the Academic Senate.
"The SOTEs offer a 75 percent response rate," Bros said.
Abraham Guizar, a graduate student in computer engineering, said he thought the SOTEs were powerful as well because almost every student fills them out.
"(The SOTE grades) are not just people with something really good or really bad things to say," Guizar said.
An effort is being made currently, Bros said, to take SOTEs online, giving students the opportunity to grade their teachers mid-semester.
"It would be an in-flight check, if you will," Bros said.
She said that although the online SOTE is still in the testing phases, students would be able to enter the ID numbers, possibly through my.sjsu.edu, and rate the courses as they are in progress.
"I am a member of (Ratemyprofessors.com)," Bros said. "At first, it was because I was curious."
She said she liked the idea that students could view peer opinion of professors, but said the SOTEs are a better way of rating professors.
"The written student responses (at the end of the SOTEs) are of extreme value," she said.
Because personnel decisions are made based on the student evaluation form scores, the information becomes confidential, Bros said.
Sigurd Meldal summed up his thoughts of the site, saying students use it either for amusement or outrage, as opposed to the opinions expressed in the written response boxes in the SOTEs.
"There is a broad participation in SOTEs," Meldal said. "Whereas, there is a bi-polar constituency with Ratemyprofessors.com."
Abraham Guizar thought a generic preview of a given professors teaching style would be a tool students could rely on for picking classes.
"The SOTEs offer a 75 percent response rate," Bros said.
Abraham Guizar, a graduate student in computer engineering, said he thought the SOTEs were powerful as well because almost every student fills them out.
"(The SOTE grades) are not just people with something really good or really bad things to say," Guizar said.
An effort is being made currently, Bros said, to take SOTEs online, giving students the opportunity to grade their teachers mid-semester.
"It would be an in-flight check, if you will," Bros said.
She said that although the online SOTE is still in the testing phases, students would be able to enter the ID numbers, possibly through my.sjsu.edu, and rate the courses as they are in progress.
"I am a member of (Ratemyprofessors.com)," Bros said. "At first, it was because I was curious."
She said she liked the idea that students could view peer opinion of professors, but said the SOTEs are a better way of rating professors.
"The written student responses (at the end of the SOTEs) are of extreme value," she said.
Because personnel decisions are made based on the student evaluation form scores, the information becomes confidential, Bros said.
Sigurd Meldal summed up his thoughts of the site, saying students use it either for amusement or outrage, as opposed to the opinions expressed in the written response boxes in the SOTEs.
"There is a broad participation in SOTEs," Meldal said. "Whereas, there is a bi-polar constituency with Ratemyprofessors.com."
Abraham Guizar thought a generic preview of a given professors teaching style would be a tool students could rely on for picking classes.
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