Ratemyprofessors.com is a go-to website for many college students when it comes time to register for classes. However, the ratings may not represent what they would expect.
"There's a volunteer response bias because typically people who respond to online surveys are very motivated by some sense of 'I really like this, so I want to be supportive and respond,' or 'I really hate this,'" Jamie Perrett, a statistics professor, said.
Perrett said the volunteer response bias can cause the ratings to only include strongly positive or negative opinions, since those who just thought the course was just "ok" do not feel as motivated to respond.
"I taught STAT 121 last semester to 377 students in the JSB auditorium and the student survey at the end of the semester was completed by 92%, so 347," Perrett said. "Whereas rate my professor for that same period of time I got five."
Joshua Price, an economics professor, experienced a similar phenomenon.
"From the winter semester, I have nine evaluations on my Rate My Professor and I taught over 300 students," Price said. "If we think of just the response rate, that is incredibly low."
Price explained Rate My Professors can have an impact on student choice by giving them information. The ratings at the top of a Rate My Professors page summarize the information simply, and simpler information can lead to quicker decisions.
Price said the comments often are more informative than the ratings, but they can also be derogatory towards professors.
"It gives you a picture, but it may not be a full picture of what the experience is really like," Price said. "A lot of colleagues of mine … actually don't read this at all because it tends to be that non-representative sample."
For some professors, however, the ratings are crucial.
"I think that the student ratings weigh heavily on, especially, a newer professor's chances of staying at the university," Perrett said. He explained new professors are often vigilant about their ratings in order to build successful careers.
Unfortunately, bias can creep into Rate My Professor ratings and impact some professors' success.
"Rate My Professor reviews, or just reviews of teaching in general, are not just measures of teaching quality," Olga Stoddard, an economics professor who has studied bias, said. "They're measures of student perceptions, expectations and also biases."
Stoddard explained implicit biases can cause students to leave worse reviews for women and people from diverse backgrounds, even when the teaching quality is held constant.
The impact of bias on student ratings can have a real effect on professors' careers.
"Student evaluations do play a really important role in career progression," Stoddard said.
Bias is not the only ethical concern with rating systems like Rate My Professors. Stoddard explained the pressure to get good ratings can influence grade inflation, where professors give out too many good grades and cause the value of an A to decrease.
"Students love the course when they get an A. Students don't love a course when they don't get an A," Stoddard said.
Ratemyprofessors.com can be a useful website for getting information on professors, but it can also include biases and real-world implications for both students and professors.