Teacher evaluations could be better utilized

As the semester winds down, students spend at least a few minutes in each class completing professor evaluations.

Professors usually stress the importance of filling out these forms to help them know what students liked or disliked about the course so they can make adjustments for subsequent semesters.

Candid evaluations like these could be a valuable resource to students when deciding their schedules — but we are not given access to the results.

The website ratemyprofessors.com can be a helpful tool in determining whether or not to take a class with a particular professor. Unfortunately, many professors have only a few reviews, making it difficult to accurately judge them. Sometimes there are no reviews of the professor pertaining to the class in consideration. Other educators are not listed at all.

Administrative staff should take measures to make the results of these evaluations available to students. Evaluation forms might be incorporated into the Banner system by requiring that students log in to Banner and complete an evaluation for each course before they are allowed to see their grades, ensuring the surveys will be completed. The information from the evaluations would be synthesized and connected to the course descriptions within Banner for students to look at when registering. An icon next to the professor's name could provide a link to see previous semesters' course evaluations.

We think this action would help rectify the shortcomings of teacher evaluation websites and make students even more informed about what they're signing up for when they choose to take a class with a particular professor here.