Independent teacher ratings are now available online for student viewing.

Twenty-six year old computer science major Ryan McLaughlin recently finished his three-year venture: a Web site, educatorater.com, which allows students from all schools to complete a simple survey about their teachers and classes. The information is then available out on the World Wide Web for all to see.

The senior from Spanish Fork said he hopes students will use the site to both rate their teachers and as a resource when deciding what classes to register for each semester.

"BYU has started their own online rating, but unfortunately for us, we can't see what those ratings are" said Eric Larsen, 23, a junior majoring in electrical engineering from Pasadena Calif., who has visited the site.

Larsen said he sees the site potentially helping students have an easier time registering for classes.

Although there are similar sites that allow students to rate their teachers for all to see, educatorater.com is unique for several different reasons.

For one, the evaluation questions are eerily similar to those BYU students are encouraged to answer at the culmination of each semester.

The critiques, with several additional questions to BYU's ratings, have proved to be a little lengthy for some people's taste.

David Ward, 23, a junior majoring in electrical engineering, from Grover Beach, Calif., has checked out the site. He said he thinks McLaughlin should make the questionnaire a little more compact, only including those questions that are most important to students.

"It was a little long," he said. "I would just skip to the comment sections."

The site also includes an open forum. Anyone can access the teacher ratings, but in order to post a review or participate in the forum, an individual must register on the site, free of charge. This allows site visitors to see the screen names of people who post critiques and offers them the option to ask reviewers specific questions about the class, teacher or even just chitchat.

However, McLaughlin said he hopes the forum will be used for teacher-related purposes only.

"I don't really want people asking each other out on dates," McLaughlin joked.

In addition, McLaughlin said he has full control over the site, which allows him to censor outright lies and profanity, and format school-friendly questions. For example, for schools other than BYU, McLaughlin said he omitted gospel-related questions.

Even though McLaughlin has full editorial control, Larsen is still concerned about biased responses combined with lack of accountability.

"The only problem that I see with his Web site is that you're going to get bogus responses from people who don't like the teachers," he said. "You only get those who really like or those who really don't like them."

McLaughlin does have plans for site improvement.

"I plan on adding a section where the teacher can refute bad reviews if they feel someone has unfairly rated them," he said.

Joyce Adams, a part-time faculty member in the English department said she is concerned about the site because of the lack of administrative organization but is confident that McLaughlin does not have any evil intent in creating it.

"He's an excellent student and ... an excellent person," she said. "But anytime you don't have regulations in place, it can be abused by those who use it."

For those concerned about teacher revenge, students need not worry. McLaughlin promised that a rating could never be traced to the student who posted it.

"I'm big on being anonymous," McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin actually conceptualized educatorater.com as a medium to show off his skills.

"I wanted a viable example that I could potentially show potential employers of how I can develop a successful Web site," McLaughlin said. "In the meantime, if I'm able to help my fellow students, all the better."

McLaughlin said he does not plan to make any money off the site, but, in fact, has to pay operating costs and spends hours every day improving the site...for fun.

"Every time I get some extra free time, to the chagrin of my wife, I'm on the computer making little tweaks here and there," he said. "Instead of working on my car, I program. It's a hobby."

Because the site is so new, there are currently only eight posted ratings.

"The more people that do go out and rate teachers on it (educatorater.com), the more of a database the students will have to find out about their teachers," Ward said.



Copyright Brigham Young University 12 Dec 2002