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Abstract
This study analyses the popular teaching evaluation site RateMyProfessors.com as a social, technological and cultural form of the digital reputation society. The site's socioeconomic context shows the process of media integration and commodification, while its technological aspect reveals the salience of certain pedagogic features, such as easiness, clarity, standard and entertainment. In comparison, the site's reviewer postings show how rating subjects may negotiate its socioeconomic and technological features. The empirical analysis addresses the limitations and possibilities of the participatory culture that emerges in the digital reputation society.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the University of British Columbia Okanagan under an Individual Research Grant (F12-04040).
Notes
1. While RMP is currently owned by mtvU, MTV's cable network targeting American university students, it was an independent review site launched by a software engineer in 1999 (originally titled TeacherRatings.com) (Miles and Sparks Citation2013, 513; See also Arden Citation2011).
2. In contrast with ‘surface learning’ in which students ‘merely remember something long enough to pass the examination’, ‘deep learning’ means transformative educational experiences that often challenge students intellectually (Bain Citation2004, 27–28).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kyong Yoon
Dr Kyong Yoon is Assistant Professor in the Department of Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, Canada. His research interests include transnational mobility, digital mobile communication, new media audience and Asian popular culture.