Read this: Rate My Professor is an obnoxious website students use to help decide which instructor to avoid, trash, or lust over.
Now, read this: students can use Rate My Professor to determine if their learning style will mesh with that of an instructor’s. Patience is required to sift for useful information through rants and mystifying hotness rankings.
The first paragraph is an example of criticism. The second is evaluating. Many students make serious career and social mistakes thinking they are one and the same.
Criticism, like teasing or other aggressive verbalizing, requires no skill and is simple venting.
In contrast, evaluating is feedback and is a skill that can only be acquired. Good evaluating is also a key factor in becoming a good communicator.
Toastmaster’s Effective Evaluations manual states, “If you truly want to improve your leadership skills, you must learn how to give and receive helpful evaluations.”
More Camosun students should use Rate My Professor as a tool for evaluation, not criticism.