A recent email from the Office of the Registrar reminded me of the daunting task of registering for classes. In the upcoming weeks, many UW-Madison students will begin to enroll in classes for the Fall 2015 term.
Prior to course shopping, students consider an array of factors, from course difficulty to course start time, when creating their ideal schedule. While it is only my second semester at UW-Madison, I believe course enrollment is a tedious process that requires a lot of outside consultation, debate and strategic planning.
As my friends and I began to look into courses, we started discussing a topic that has been “out of sight, out of mind” since mid-December: course evaluations. At one point, our WiscMail inboxes were flooded with department-sponsored evaluations that were tailored to assess a particular course and its instruction. However, once these reviews left our hands, they were no longer of use to us.
Course evaluations are strictly reviewed under individual academic departments and are further analyzed by the Office of Testing and Evaluation Services. Thus, students’ ability to publicly access these evaluations remains non-existent. But what if we had a university-sponsored evaluation system that was made public to students? This solution would provide necessary transparency on courses, professors and teaching assistants here on campus.
This idea is not unique by any means. Graham Ambrose, a freshman at Yale University, said Yale makes its course evaluations publicly available to its students.
“With accessible student reviews, information reigns supreme,” Ambrose said. “Reviews offer information about the quality of the instruction, the quality of students who take the course, difficulty of grading and other relevant points vital in course shopping.”
A public evaluation system would provide students with more credible, formal and objective review resources than are currently offered online. For example, the review website RateMyProfessors.com has answered the inquiries of curious undergraduate students since its start-up in 1999.
“I review the ratings on RateMyProfessors.com before enrolling in any classes,” Jordyn Middleberg, a UW-Madison freshman, said. “More times than not, if a professor received a poor rating, it would likely discourage me from taking the class.”
While I admit that I have turned to the website for course advice, I am not an avid user or general fan of RateMyProfessors.com. The reviews listed on Rate My Professors are often outdated and appear strikingly polarized. When factors such as “Easiness” and even “Hotness” are taken into account, we must question the validity of such reviews.
If UW-Madison publicized the results of its course evaluations, the use of RateMyProfessors.com would become obsolete. Instead, students could turn to a university-sponsored public evaluation system to obtain objective results that are based upon reliable, statistical analysis.
This would propel students to come to their own conclusions on whether or not a course suits their personal, academic or professional needs. Departments could still possess the authority to control the content on their evaluations but should be held accountable for quantifying data in ways that are insightful to students.
There is something to be said about having course evaluations available to the masses. On one hand, these reviews could send enrollment rates for a particular course through the roof. At the same time, such reviews could equally tarnish the reputation of another course.
According to Ralph Grunewald, an assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Literature & Folklore studies and the Legal Studies Program, giving students the opportunity to see evaluations would provide needed transparency.
“Students should know what they sign up for,” Grunewald said. “At the same time, I would like to think about including some safeguards, so it doesn’t just become how popular a professor is. Instead, we need to focus on providing a broad education experience for our students.”
I agree with professor Grunewald in that a public-evaluation system could run the risk of a popularity contest between professors. This conversation led professor Grunewald and I to explore alternative ways that would provide students with insight about courses.
“Perhaps a 10-minute video clip from lecture would be an easy way to show students what a particular course is like,” Grunewald suggests.
Ultimately, I call upon the university to reform its current course evaluation procedures to maximize student utility. By no means is an online university-sponsored evaluation system, like Yale’s, the end-all-be-all for course transparency. As students of UW-Madison, we deserve to know more about classes and the way they are taught, outside of what the Course Guide vaguely provides. Ultimately, we should be able to feel confident and secure in our course enrollment decisions each semester.
Sam is a freshman writer for The Daily Cardinal and is majoring in political science. What’s youre view on students being allowed to access previous course evaluations? Do you see any drawbacks to this idea? We’d like to hear your view. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
