End of course evaluations are a huge part in providing current and future students with the best academic experience. This experience is possible when current students are open and honest about their experiences inside of the classroom, which will translate to faculty being held responsible for how the overall course is taught. In this effort, the UHCL is following through with the appropriate protocol in order to make course evaluation results publically available.

This change is far overdue and is definitely a step in the right direction. Across the board feedback from the majority of students will provide a more reliable source of information than has been available previously.

Current students at UHCL must understand the importance of course evaluations for their own education as well as for future students. Publicly accessible UHCL course evaluations will help point students in the right direction to the teachers and courses that best fits their needs at that time.

In order for public course evaluations to be successful, students must do their part. Processing the outcome will look different for every student. Because of that, students’ honesty will drive and produce a diverse and collective narrative for these evaluations. This narrative becoming publically available will produce a better overall experience for students by leaving all of the cards out on the table.

Most college students are aware of Rate My Professor, a website that allows students to rate and browse college professors using a description and a one through a five-star rating system. The website also provides for optional grade posting and a brief section for comments. The website then provides visitors with a multitude of ratings on the professor depending on how many previous students have submitted a review.

While marginally helpful, the website is outdated and unregulated. Unfortunately, the majority of ratings either come from extremely happy students or unhappy students. The middle ground ratings are slim, which does not make for a true indication.

However, something Rate My Professor offers that UHCL won’t is the student comments section in which students can offer specific likes and dislikes to accompany numerical rating. The comments, however, will remain private for UHCL faculty evaluations.

Since any individual can post a review on a professor, even if they have never seen nor taken a class from that professor, Rate My Professor leaves room for error. To add to that, the majority of professor reviews are laid across a 10 plus year range, therefore, they most likely do not provide an accurate representation of the course and professor at that time. This is because the majority of the professor’s outline for the course and style of teaching may be different than it was 10 years ago.

any individual can post a review on a professor, even if they have never seen nor taken a class from that professor, Rate My Professor leaves room for error. To add to that, the majority of professor reviews are laid across a 10 plus year range, therefore, they most likely do not provide an accurate representation of the course and professor at that time. This is because the majority of the professor’s outline for the course and style of teaching may be different than it was 10 years ago.

Public online course evaluations through the University will without a doubt, fix many of the problems students find with using Rate My Professor. The first problem it would fix is accuracy.

Immediately, a potential or current student would know or have the opportunity to validate that a review of a UHCL professor’s coming from someone who actually took the course. Another pro is that it would keep professors accountable.

Because Rate My Professor is geared toward students all around the world, it is sometimes difficult to find an excessive amount of information about a specific professor. This gap can cause student voices going unheard by both professors and administration.

The new changes at UHCL will localize and condense the information and provide context current and future students need in order to make an informed and educated decision on who their professors should be. And, by the way, even though students’ written comments will not be made public, students should still take the time to complete this section of the evaluations as they do provide important information to administration.