Web site gives report cards on professors

For years, students have been able to plan their schedules by viewing grade distributions and professor reviews on www.pickaprof.com. Now the site is beginning to branch out and cater to professors, as it allows them to receive course evaluations from their students throughout the semester through the Student Feedback System.\nAccording to the Web site, the Student Feedback System allows professors to receive feedback from students at any point during the semester. The system does not require the professor to spend class time administering feedback forms. All feedback is kept anonymous and is statistically compiled for the professor's review.\nKaren Bragg, director of university relations for the Web site said these evaluations save time for professors, as the evaluations are completed outside of class.\nPolitical Science Professor Gerald Wright said www.pickaprof.com's mid-semester evaluations would be helpful. In the past, Wright has distributed evaluations during class, which often took a large chunk of time out of the course.\nBragg said students are more likely to provide feedback through the online evaluations rather than in the end-of-semester ones. Typically, she said, only students who either really love or really hate the professor will take the time to evaluate the course at the semester's end. \nWhen students assess the course mid-semester, they provide better answers because they know their feedback can affect them. \nSenior Emily Davis agrees that students are more polarized at the end of the year and admits that she evaluates a class if she has strong opinions either way.\nDavis said if the mid-semester evaluations were posted on the Web, students too shy to talk to their classmates could get a sense of the class consensus by comparing opinions online.\nBragg said www.pickaprof.com allows professors to choose whether or not the results are displayed.\nAlthough junior Alexander Baum would like IU to post the end-of-semester evaluations so he can determine which professors to take, he doesn't think mid-semester evaluations would help.\n"Usually they have their set ways, and I don't think they change them easily, especially mid-semester," he said. "I believe that end-of-semester evaluations are supposed to help the professor evaluate their performance so they can make changes."\nBaum thinks the more helpful features of Web sites like www.pickaprof.com are the student reviews for a professor. He takes these into account when registering for classes and uses them to prepare himself for instructors he has no choice in taking.\n"(But) these Web sites can only be more effective with more information submitted to them. I think you will see what I mean if you take a look at them. With only two comments on a professor, one can't get a good feeling about him or her," Baum said.\nBragg said when the Web site launched 4-1/2 years ago, it was mainly to help students review professors, but professors started to use it to look at their reviews. So, www.pickaprof.com created the course evaluations as a feature for professors.\nTo use this feature, all a professor has to do is complete the free registration. \n"He or she can create an evaluation once Pick-a-Prof confirms that they aren't a student passing himself off as a professor," Bragg said.\nBragg said professors form the evaluations by choosing from a list of questions provided by the site or by asking their own. Next, the professors enter their students' e-mail addresses, schedule the date they want the results and the surveys are sent to the students. \nStudents don't need to be registered members to complete the evaluation, Bragg said.\n"Before a professor sees the results, Pick-a-Prof gathers the responses and statistically compiles them," she said. "All answers are anonymous."\nBragg said www.pickaprof.com also lets professors post information like course descriptions, offices hours, contact information and personal biographies to share with students.\n-- Contact staff writer Ashley \nRhodebeck at arhodebe@indiana.edu.