Ramsurveys offers chance to read prof evaluations
When senior political science major Jennifer Greany hands in her
student course survey at the end of the semester, she takes her
time filling out the little bubbles.
“I’m usually the one who takes a while and writes down
comments,” she said.
Most students fill out the class and professor evaluation and
never see the piece of paper again.
A new Web site designed by Jesse Courchaine, a junior computer
information systems major, offers students the opportunity to view
a summary of these evaluations.
At www.ramsurveys.com, students are able to view the surveys and
make an educated choice based on classes and professors when
registering for the following semester.
Currently the surveys are available on the Associated Students
of CSU Web site, but Courchaine thought he could create a site that
presents the information more clearly.
“It’s a resource I use myself,” Courchaine said. “Students can
use it to register for classes and see how other people have rated
professors.”
The CSU faculty/staff manual states that professors “shall”
distribute the surveys to students in all courses they teach.
Although not all professors administer the surveys at the end of
the semester, a majority of them do, said Thomas Maher, director of
the Office of Instructional Services.
Maher said he and his staff process at least 175,000 surveys
each semester. A summary of the surveys is then sent to each
professor and ASCSU. Professors use the surveys to evaluate their
teaching, and if they choose to they can submit the surveys for
consideration of tenure and promotion.
ASCSU posts the surveys on its Web site for students to access
information on professors.
Courchaine downloaded the information from the ASCSU Web site
and broke it into categories to make surveys searchable by either
class or professor.
“You can actually see where your surveys are going,” Courchaine
said.
However, Kevin Schafer, senior mechanical engineer major, is
skeptical of other students’ opinions.
“I don’t take people’s advice on movies,” he said. “It’s the
same way with professors. Some of my favorite professors are ones
other people hate.”
Ramsurveys is unaffliated with CSU.
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