RE: course evaluations

[Rick Adams]

Diana wrote:

Hypothetically, if faculty members developed an unmonitored website and allowed instructors to anonymously evaluate students (suspected of cheating on exams, buying term papers, or having an aunt that dies several times a semester) - would it pass as an "instructor's resource"?    No!!  The "Campus Enquirer" version of course/instructor evals isn't a true resource for students either.     Posting evaluations of instructors in such a "free for all" fashion has tremendous potential to harm instructors more than help students.   I agree with Linda's excellent comments.
My venting is over now....

 

    But this misses a rather important point.

    A faculty member suffers no potential loss by having a poor student in a class. The instructor will be paid regardless of the quality of his or her students. The student, however, is a consumer who is paying for his/her classes and who has an absolute _right_ to know whether his or her money will be wasted. In addition, by taking a class from a poor instructor a student may suffer either an underserved low grade (which can affect his/her future, including Grad school admissions) or lack of adequate training or preparation in a subject that may be essential to the student's future career.

    Consider the anology between a class (which, ultimately, is a product marketed to the student body) and a retail product. In this model, the instructor (who provides the class content) becomes the actual product itself and the student the purchaser. Given a retail operation, would you think it fair for the consumer to have the opportunity to post his/her opinions of the service/product received? Would it be _equally_ fair for the firm to post opinions of the customers? Even more to the point of my original message, would it be reasonable for the firm to post false product reviews from imaginary "customers" in order to destroy the credibility of the review process and "protect" it's products from harsh reviews? I don't think so, do you?

    Think about it.

    Rick

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Rick Adams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Social Sciences
Jackson Community College, Jackson, MI

"... and the only measure of your worth and your deeds
will be the love you leave behind when you're gone."

Fred Small, J.D., "Everything Possible"