HoosierWeb online ranks IU professors

Every IU student has been here before: trying to choose from a mystery list of last names come course registration time, never knowing which professor will be the one who changes the way you look at life forever or which has the personality equivalent to their power point presentation.\nJunior Chris Shemmer always thought this was a problem and finally decided to take action. By creating the new student Web site www.thehoosierweb.com last semester, Shemmer has provided students with a professor rating system on everything from work load to personality to classroom atmosphere.\n"We wanted to go based off of workload, average GPA, how they teach the class and just the basic parts of the class that most students generally look at," Shemmer said. "I know if I am looking into a class and the average GPA is a 2.3, I am not going to take the professor."\nNearly 200 professors have already made their way onto the list as the Web site's popularity has skyrocketed. The site has been growing by roughly 100 users a day, Shemmer said. \nStudents are able to do more than simply vote, they can also post comments about the selected professor. The rating each professor receives in a given category is averaged to create a net score, which is averaged with the other tallies from different students to create an overall score on a one to 10 scale.\n"It's really cool to see what other people have thought about professors that I have and had in the past," sophomore Matt Sperling said. "I'm in a class right now with a professor in the top 25."\nNot everyone, however, feels the rankings are beneficial. \nDespite helping students in selecting a course, the faculty will certainly take the ratings with a grain of salt. \n"(The rankings) really depend on the content," Bloomington Faculty Council President Dave Dalecke said. "Voting doesn't mean much if there isn't some type of substantive feedback. The faculty still puts more weight in the faculty evaluations that we already have."\nIf nothing else, the rankings can provide for nothing more than a source of flattery for those who rank near the top of the list. It provides certain professors the opportunity to see their passion and love for teaching is properly picked up by students. \nFor Psychology Professor Robert Weiskopf, finding out he was among the top 10 professors on the list gave him a terrific feeling. Weiskopf said he just tries to enjoy himself in the classroom and grab his audience. Despite the positive feelings of being highly regarded by students, Weiskopf still recognizes the rankings can be slightly jaded. \n"I think that professors can enjoy it, but the problem can be that really brilliant professors might not have the entertainment value that others have," he said. "In some ways, it's good, but in some ways, I'm not sure it captures everything in teaching."\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.