From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2013 03:30:35 +0000

>Let me ask Kevin, in return, how useful he thinks student evaluations
>of teachers are, as at the "Rate Your Professors" site where
>professors are, among other things, rated for their "hotness."

I won't presume to speak for Kevin, but I'll throw out my own answer to
this question, for what it's worth:

Student reviews of professors' "hotness" are, of course, not academically
useful at all. However, student reviews that assess such things as a
professor's tendency to be adequately prepared for class, to show up on
time, to explain difficult principles clearly and accurately, to foster
useful and productive in-class discussion, to speak intelligibly, to
evaluate student work fairly and helpfully, to return graded work within a
reasonable period of time, to communicate class expectations clearly, and
to deliver the promised content of the course in a disciplined and
effective way -- these would all be extremely useful to other students who
are trying to decide which section of a class to sign up for.

Similarly, I think a forum in which authors share their experiences with
journals along analogous lines (and I think it's pretty clear what those
lines might be) would be extremely helpful as well.

One in which authors rate the hotness of editors would be much less
useful, of course.

---
Rick Anderson
Interim Dean, J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah
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