Website offers ratings system for syllabuses

One website is taking rating a teacher or professor a step further by adding a class’s syllabus to its site.
Syllabus Rate is a website where students can judge professors based on their syllabuses.
There are a few academic rating sites already available for college students. One popular site is Rate My Professor, which allows students to rate teachers and professors based on their helpfulness, clarity, easiness and “hotness.”
Other similar websites include Rate My Teachers, MyEdu and Koofer, which rate teachers in a similar manner.
Students must first select a school and choose the teacher they are searching for. Once a student selects a teacher, he can download the PDF version of the syllabus. Next to the syllabus’s link is the course section, professor’s name, course term and rating.
Students are able to rate the class out of five stars and leave comments and feedback.
Numerous students found this website helpful, especially since it is the only teacher rating site that actually includes a course syllabus to view.
Ronaldi Evans II, a sophomore criminal justice student from Toronto, believes he would be an avid user of the site.
“Syllabus Rate would allow me to see what I’m getting myself into,” Evans said. “I can know a professor’s curriculum and assignments before enrolling in their class.”
Kalesia Boyd, a junior accountant student from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Syllabus Rate would be essential to her college experience.
“This website is helpful,” Boyd said. “I can see how I can [better] prepare for a course.”
Although students find these rating sites helpful, some professors are concerned about the fairness when it comes to rating a professor.
Andrea Gary, a public relations professor at FAMU, said until teachers can provide their own feedback, the websites are going to have a great deal of bias.
“There can be a lot of bias in websites like this, especially without set criteria for ratings,” Gary said. “Also, there are no points of comparison. I would be interested if teachers could provide their own feedback.”
Syllabus Rate is still a fairly new site with limited ability. There has yet to be any teacher ratings for FAMU on the website.