What does ratemyprofessors.com actually rate?

Abstract

This research looks closely at claims that ratemyprofessors.com creates a valid measure of teaching effectiveness because student responses are consistent with a learning model. While some evidence for this contention was found in three datasets taken from the site, the majority of the evidence indicates that the instrument is biassed by a halo effect, and creates what most accurately could be called a ‘likeability’ scale.

Keywords:

• student evaluation of teaching
• online evaluations
• construct validation