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the day a bitter rating appears often yields a couple of prime suspects. Teaching writingclasses, I am fortunate to have the additional benefit of being well aware of each of mystudent’s writing stylistics, that tend to be as identifiable as fingerprints.Besides addressing the issue, proactive management tends to elicit multiple additionalratings, as other students seem to become motivated to express contrary, and generallypositive, opinions.Additionally, this technique has a possible tangible benefit that impacts educationbeyond the artificial confines of the RateMyProfessor arena as I believe that addressingthe issue of wrathful ratings tends to boost actual university-administered studentevaluation scores. My basis for this is that it allows irate students to feel that their issueshave been addressed, while moving the non-whining majority of students to redress theperceived injustice via more favorable evaluations. This, of course, is just a working and,given the variables, ultimately un-provable, theory. But I like it.FINAL THOUGHTSRateMyProfessor tends to be viral in its nature. This is to say that usage spreads fromcampus to campus, during which time it rapidly ramps up in popularity as studentsdiscover and spread word of the site to their friends, and then, like a flashy Christmastoy that has lost its allure, slows down to a trickle of users. One of the most strikingexamples I found of this phenomena took place on March 2nd 2005, when theUniversity of Wisconsin Washington County campus received the site’s “most rated”award for the day with 40 ratings. Prior to this the campus’s last (and singular) entrieshad occurred on three days in 2004; December 29th, December 6th, April 13th 2004,and May 11th 2003.Having tracked site statistics of number of ratings added and most-rated schools forthe past year (see Appendix A for 40 day usage statistics compiled at the midpoint ofthe Fall 2004 and Spring 2005 semesters 1) it is my feeling that RateMyProfessor, as aquasi-assessment tool, is facing a national decline in popularity. This decline, however,does not signal the end of the problem as it is possible that another similar evaluationsite, such as Pickaprof.com or the acrimoniously entitled MyProfessorSucks.com, couldsupersede RateMyProfessor as the preeminent source of student evaluations of theirprofessorate.Regardless of the outcome, given the indefinite shelf life of Internet information,wise instructors will consider and enact management methods to counter the impact oftoday’s evaluation will have on their classrooms, campuses, and reputations for years tocome.1 The midterm point was chosen as this tends to be the most active time for the siteas students prepare scheduling for the upcoming semester.10<strong>Feedback</strong> March 2005 (Vol. 46, No. 3)
APPENDIX A: FORTY DAY RATEMYPROFESSOR USAGE STATISTICSFALL 2004 SEMESTER (N=40)Date No. of Ratings Most-rated SchoolSept. 30 3,314 Auburn University(Auburn, AL)Oct. 1 2,193 Auburn University (Auburn, AL)Oct. 2 1,530 St. John’s University (Jamaica,NY)Oct. 3 2,082 Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware, OH)Oct. 4 2,977 Nicholls State University (Thibodaux, LA)Oct. 5 3,354 Miami Dade College (Miami, FL)Oct. 6 3,768 Miami Dade College (Miami, FL)Oct. 7-8 Data lostOct. 9 1,602 DePaul University (Chicago, IL)Oct. 10 1,782 Auburn University (Auburn, AL)Oct. 11 3,003 University of Wisconsin - EauClaire (Eau Claire, WI)Oct. 12 3,419 DePaul University (Chicago, IL)Oct. 13 4,143 DePaul University (Chicago, IL)Oct. 14 4,268 DePaul University (Chicago, IL)Oct. 15 3,207 Georgia Perimeter College(Lawrenceville, GA)Oct. 16 1,981 Temple University (Philadelphia,PA)Oct. 17 2,174 Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, MI) (36)Oct. 18 4,123 Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, MI) (52)Oct. 19 4,708 DePaul University (Chicago, IL)Oct. 20 5,401 Central Michigan University(Mount Pleasant, MI) (71)Oct. 21 5,480 DePaul University (Chicago, IL)Oct. 22 3,935 DePaul University (Chicago, IL)Oct. 23 2,187 Rutgers-The State University ofNew Jersey(New Brunswick, NJ)Oct. 24 2,882 Hope College (Holland, MI)Oct. 25 5,969 James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA)Oct. 26 6,109 Georgia Perimeter College (Lawrenceville, GA)Oct. 27 6,972 Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Indiana, PA)Oct. 28 6,989 East Carolina University (Greenville, NC)Oct. 29 4,642 Gwynedd-Mercy College (GwyneddValley, PA)Oct. 30 2,555 Virginia Commonwealth University(Richmond, VA)Oct. 31 3,583 University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL)Nov. 1 7,492 James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA)Nov. 2 7,010 James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA)Nov. 3 8,097 James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA)Nov. 4 8,736 East Carolina University (Greenville, NC)Nov. 5 6,284 University of Central Florida(Orlando, FL)Nov. 6 3,570 Boston University (Boston, MA)Nov. 7 4,976 Boston University (Boston, MA)Nov. 8 9,911 James Madison University( Harrisonburg, VA)Nov. 9 10,939 East Carolina University (Greenville, NC)Nov. 10 12,376 James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA)Total comments = 189,705 Mean = 4,743 comments per dayBEA—Educating tomorrow’s electronic media professionals 11
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Page 36 and 37: CALL FOR PAPERSSpecial theme issue
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Page 40 and 41: operators.December 1, 1997: Westing
Page 42 and 43: NAB AWARDS BROADCAST RESEARCH GRANT
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Page 52 and 53: StaffLouisa A. NielsenExecutive Dir
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