Cortez is a graduate student in mathematics.
By Albert J Cortez
I’ve been a student at UCLA for some time now, and
I’ve seen the implementation of some really bad ideas.
I’ve seen a few good ones, but in the tradition of students
everywhere, I am going to complain about the bad ones.
The first thing that I heard about UCLAprofessors.com was that
the Department of Mathematics at UCLA managed to capture two of the
spots on the “Worst Professors” list. The people at the
Web site have since decided to re-word “Worst” to
“Least Recommended” or “Least Effectiveness
Rating,” a good move. There are still some fundamental flaws
with a Web site of this sort.
For those of you who are not aware, UCLAprofessors.com is a new
Web site sponsored by UCLA Student Media. The intent is to allow
students to share their experiences with professors at UCLA by
assigning a number between one and 10 in each of the following
categories: teaching effectiveness, course difficulty, concern
about students, availability, and overall recommendation. There is
also a mechanism for students to write comments about their
specific experiences with a professor and post them online.
The most blatant flaw is the site’s absolute anonymity.
Anyone can go to the site and say whatever they like, fact or
fiction. There is no system in place to ensure that the rater has
actually had the professor for one whole quarter.
I know that many students think they are expert judges of
teaching ability. As a mathematician who knows a little about
statistics, however, I know that a few hours of lecture are hardly
enough to evaluate a professor’s effectiveness.
As I snooped around various professors’ pages, I noticed
that many of the raters have written comments like, “I went
to the first two lectures, and then didn’t show up again
until the midterm,” or “After the first week I dropped
the class.” Opinions written by such people must be
completely disregarded. As it stands, they are given as much
importance as a comment like “I was in lecture every day on
time, always participated in class discussions, did every homework
problem, was consistently in office hours, because Dr. Doe is a
lousy professor.”
I recommend that Student Media require raters to leave their
names and ID numbers so that each evaluation can be checked for
validity. Name and major should be posted along with the
student’s opinion. If students are unwilling to put their
name beside their review, then their opinion must be
disregarded.
In argument for this policy, I offer the fact that the Student
Media-run Daily Bruin requires submissions be marked with name,
phone number, ID number, year and major. Any responsible media
source should provide this information.
The next fundamental flaw in such a rating system is the bias of
the raters. Each student taking a class at UCLA is somehow
evaluated (usually with a grade). I sense that many of the opinions
expressed on the Web site are influenced by these evaluations. It
would be contrary to human nature that they not be. I recommend
that Student Media require that raters give permission for GPA,
their major GPA and grade earned in the relevant class to be posted
along with the opinion.
Just as the professor rates the student with a grade, the
student should have a chance to rate the professor. Unfortunately,
giving professors letter grades would not be helpful because much
of the point of reviewing professors is to help them improve their
teaching, and letter grades are too ambiguous. But the same thing
is true for students with regard to their learning.
Since Student Media has seen fit to have professors rated and
quantified in such a public way, I think that some faculty
organization should arrange to have a similar Web site in order to
rate students. Students could be rated in categories like ability
to understand abstract concepts, ability to memorize basic facts
and definitions, desire and enthusiasm for learning, attendance at
lecture, section and office hours and “would you recommend
this student to another professor?”
This Web site could be made available to future employers and
graduate/professional programs, or just posted on the open web so
everyone can see the quality of the students at UCLA.
The rest of this submission consists of advice to faculty to
help them to get the most out of this Web site, given the
attributes that students seem to find most important in
professors.
“¢bull; Give easy tests. Write the test before you give the
lecture so that you can cover every minute detail of every test
question in lecture. Don’t discuss things that are not on the
test, especially things that are not specifically listed on the
course outline for the course that you are teaching, even if you
have dedicated your life to them.
“¢bull; If you can give out a copy of the test disguised as a
“review” or “sample midterm,” then by all
means do it. Giving the same tests for the same courses year after
year also helps the athlete tutors and dorm tutors to maintain a
database of questions that students should expect.
“¢bull; DO NOT require the student to perform any measure of
original thought or logical reasoning. Ask only questions that
require reiteration of lecture material. Then give only open
note/open book tests.
“¢bull; Give only multiple-choice tests. But allow partial
credit. Four points for a correct answer but three points for
trying is a winning formula. Do not curve using a normal
distribution, and give an “A” to anyone who scores more
than 75 percent.
The result will be that you are proclaimed to be
“fair,” “organized” and
“compassionate.” Your “Course Difficulty”
rating may decrease, but your “Effectiveness” and
“Concern” ratings will skyrocket since you are no
longer asking students to perform the tasks in which they need the
most practice. You may consider your final assignment of grades a
sort of “first pass,” after which the students get one
more chance to do extra credit or beg for more points.
“¢bull; Move your family into your office at UCLA. If you ever
need to run down the hall to make copies or get coffee, send one of
your kids or your spouse. In the absence of family, you can get one
of your graduate students to perform these tasks for a small
monthly stipend.
The result will be that your “Availability” rating
will increase. University students pay premium tuition to have
access to you and you must be there whenever they need you.
No, it is not enough that you announce office hours at the start
of each quarter, and offer yourself by appointment. Hire a
secretary to answer your e-mail and tend to your virtual office
hours. Hire someone to do your research and committee work,
too.
“¢bull; You owe it to your students, especially the ones who
need you to repeat the lecture because they had a big paper due and
had to miss class. Look into cloning yourself, so that when 1000
percent more students show up to your office before a midterm or
10th week, you can give them all the same attention that you have
to the one student who’s consistently there every day.
“¢bull; Use jokes and humor to make the students comfortable. I
can recommend several Web sites where you can get material.
“¢bull; Wear clean, crisply ironed, clothes everyday, especially
those of you who work with toxic chemicals and teach with chalk.
The result will be that the students will find you less
“eccentric” and more “approachable.” Your
“Recommendability” rating will increase since everybody
likes an entertainer.
If you are attractive, do not wear clothes that are tight or
stylish. Someone will notice and write an embarrassing comment
about it. If you are unattractive, please do wear stylish,
expensive clothes so students can better relate to you. If you
don’t, then someone will write that you need to “get
with it.”
The moral of the story is this: this Web site is more misleading
than helpful. Some students are too irresponsible to be given this
much un-checked power. Too much information is left out in order
for the evaluations to be considered useful.
Some students are too mean, others not thoughtful enough, to be
allowed this kind of freedom. Students who themselves do not try
hard to learn have no place evaluating a professor who may or may
not try hard to teach.