It was recently announced that OU has made an agreement with Pick-A-Prof, a company that provides an online instructor evaluation system. The site is already available to all OU students who go to www.pickaprof.com and register. Not much information is posted right now, but that should change in the coming weeks.
The information that will be available at this site includes grade histories and reviews. Grade histories and ratings based on the evaluations that we fill out every semester were made available to OU students in printed format until a few years ago. Soon after this practice was stopped, student government leaders began efforts to bring it back as an online system. These efforts met with a few obstacles along the way, but the hard work of many student government leaders over the past several years finally paid off earlier this year when the use of Pick-A-Prof was approved.
The grade histories are probably the most controversial aspect of the Pick-A-Prof service. This feature will allow students to see just how many A's, B's, C's, D's, and F's are given by a professor in a particular class. It is likely that some students will use this service simply to look for the professors who give the most A's and B's, but such information can be misleading. I have personally taken a class where almost every student wound up with an A or B but which was extremely challenging. The grades reflected not the ease of the class but rather the quality of the instructor and the caliber of the students who enrolled in the class.
I have also taken classes that seemed extraordinarily difficult and in which even the top students struggled for A's and B's, and I have heard of classes where a huge portion of the students received D's and F's. As we all know, some classes are much more difficult than others, and it will be helpful for students to have some idea of the grades that are given when they are making enrollment decisions. Many students are required to take very specific courses for their degree requirements and would not have the option to not take a class just based on the grades that are given out. However, the grade histories will be beneficial to these students as well, since they will give the students an idea of what to expect before the class begins and also allow them to be sure not to schedule too many difficult classes in the same semester.
While the grade histories will certainly receive a lot of attention, the ratings and comments that students post about professors might actually be the most beneficial source of information available with the system. The reviews will be moderated by Pick-A-Prof, so students will not be able to post just anything that they want. Profanity and personal attacks on professors are specifically prohibited and will never make it onto the site.
Reviews are ranked by Pick-A-Prof according to a number of criteria, with the most informative reviews placed first and less informative reviews placed farther down the list. Reviews that will receive a higher placement are those that describe a professor's teaching style (lecture, discussion, etc.), the type and number of examinations (essay, multiple choice, true-false, etc.), the amount of homework, and other specific information about the way that the course and professor operate. This information will be extremely helpful to students who strongly prefer a particular class format or a particular type of exam. As with the grade histories, it will also be helpful to students who have to take a certain class anyway since it will allow them to know something about the course before it starts and help them make decisions about which courses to take at a particular time.
While I'm sure that most of you are still concerned with your finals right now, try to remember to head over to www.pickaprof.com after you have recovered and check out the system. Definitely try to do so before enrollment for the spring 2004 semester begins this fall. Also keep in mind that this is an excellent example of what can be accomplished by student government, especially when leaders work together and when efforts are continued over the course of several years. Student government often receives a lot of criticism in these pages, so it is good to be able to end the year on a very positive note.
-- Matt Cox is a letters senior. He can be reached at dailyopinion@ou.edu.
hello there & you too