From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:08:21 -0500

But if you are going to be making some decision based on such
assessments--such as deciding whether to subscribe to or recommend a
journal to one's clientele (or whether to promote or give tenure to a
professor)--you need to have some basis for evaluating the
trustworthiness of the assessors. This is entirely lacking in the case
of student evaluators. Who is to say one student's opinion is more
trustworthy than another's? It is often lacking in general comments in
places like The Chronicle and InsideHigherEd also, not to mention
blogs.  That is why the service performed by publications like the
THES when it reviewed journals is so valuable.  Reviewers are chosen,
like the reviewers for articles, on the basis of proven expertise in
the subject area. One may choose to disagree with the assessment, but
at least one knows that the opinion expressed is an informed opinion.
Open reviews of journals would be as useful as book reviews on Amazon
where one usually has no idea what qualifies the reviewer to express
an opinion.  Even popular TV shows like "The Voice" or "Dancing with
the Stars" have panels of experts who are passing judgments on the
performances, even though winners are chosen in large part by majority
vote.

Sandy Thatcher



At 3:25 AM -0400 6/11/13, LIBLICENSE wrote:
>
> From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:14:48 +0000
>
>> Anyone who has taken a look at Rate My Professors knows that opinions
>> vary all over the map. One will often read assessments of the same
>> professors that are miles apart. So, which students are we to
>> trust--or administrators or other students should trust? Does majority
>> rule here apply?
>
>
> One could register the same concern and ask the same question about book
> reviews. And the answer is not that "majority rule" applies, but that
> seeing the range of responses to an offering (whether it be a book, a
> movie, a professor's class, or the services offered to authors by a
> journal) can be tremendously helpful and informative to someone who is
> trying to decide whether or not to take up the offer. Will all the reviews
> be equally intelligent and reasonable? Of course not. Will they be
> subjective? Of course. But if you're going to make a value proposition in
> a competitive marketplace (which is what every author, publisher,
> filmmaker, and professor is doing) the subjectivity of your potential
> buyers is a given. People who wish to succeed in a competitive marketplace
> will pull up their big-boy pants and deal with it.
>
> ---
> Rick Anderson
> Interim Dean, J. Willard Marriott Library
> University of Utah
> [log in to unmask]