Ohlone's red pen is in the other hand
Students grade teachers on Web site
February 10, 2002
By Rob Dennis
STAFF WRITER
FREMONT -- When Bennett Oppenheim attended the University of California,
Berkeley, more than 30 years ago, he took advantage of a student-generated
pamphlet outlining the pluses and minuses of various instructors.
"I found it to be quite a valuable reference," said Oppenheim, now a
sociology professor at Ohlone College. "Not a reference that I would rely
on solely, but one that I would use in conjunction with other sources."
Today, such informal surveys have made their way to the Internet, and
Ohlone professors have joined those in the spotlight.
The college recently was added to http://www.reviewum.com/, a professor-review
Web site set up by two students at California State University, Hayward.
Business students Rob Ludlow and Sean Conklin created the site to give
their fellow collegians an opportunity to check out prospective teachers
before signing up for classes.
Reviews include a grade, level of difficulty and other comments, and
can be browsed by name or subject.
"I think it's a good thing, but it's definitely going to be abused by
students," said Paul Duarte, editor of Ohlone's weekly student newspaper,
The Monitor. "I think basically you have to be smart about it and not
just believe everything you see on the site. I mean, that's how you have
to do everything on the Internet."
Oppenheim said the reviews will be most useful if they don't focus solely
on whether an instructor is "easy or hard," but also include information
about the substance of the course, teaching style
and other details.
"Then I think you have a very good resource from which to make decisions
about who you want to take for a particular course," he said.
Psychology professor Tom McMahon said he hasn't seen the Web site yet,
but his initial response "without even having looked at it is, 'Good for
them,'" he said.
"They're the consumer, and students have a good idea what makes a good
teacher," McMahon said.
Grudge fest?
The only downside, he said, is the site could be influenced by students
who may hold a grudge against an instructor because they received a well-deserved
D.
"Sometimes students get a poor grade because they've earned a poor grade,"
he said. "A teacher can get slammed for ... doing their job."
Ohlone junior Alan Ocampo agreed.
"(The Web site) gives a chance for students to actually assess their
teacher, but it's not really a logical thing," he said. "A student who
says, 'I have a good teacher' usually means, 'I have an easy teacher.'"
So far, Ohlone makes up only 48 of the site's 1,804 reviews, with students
tackling 33 of their favorite -- and not so favorite -- professors.
Many of the reviews are glowing, and most of the rest offer constructive,
if occasionally harsh, advice. A handful, however, pile on the insults.
"Incompetent, inadequate and offensive are the words used to describe
a man whom we have the misfortune of calling a teacher," was one student's
opinion of his professor, to whom he granted a D-minus.
Another budding critic, upset at a professor's insistence on punctuality,
gave her an F and future students a warning:
"Don't take this class unless you enjoy being taught by one of Hitler's
children."
That review was yanked from the Web site during the past week. The site's
creators could not be reached for comment on why it was removed.
But the uncensored -- and, its opponents argue, unscientific -- nature
of reviewum.com has drawn criticism.
"Many of the comments on the Web site border on being slanderous," a
Chabot College administrator wrote in a letter to the Hayward Daily Review.
"The site's architects must be responsible to our students by providing
accurate depictions of professors. Anything less is irresponsible."
An open forum
Oppenheim, however, said the site should not be censored, and students
will be able to weed out legitimate from vengeful criticism.
"I think that's the price you pay for an open forum," he said. "I think
that some of that type of commentary might be present, but would be offset
if there were a host of other reviews alongside it."
Duarte agreed that the amount of positive or negative comments should
influence a student's decision to take a class.
"If it's just one bad review, you can overlook it," he said. "But if
it's five, then that's saying something."
Rob Dennis covers Ohlone College for The Argus. He can be reached at
(510) 353-7002 or at rdennis@angnewspapers.com
