Earlier this month, RateMyProfessors.com ranked the university sixth in the nation with highest-rated professors.
Carlo DiMarco, vice president of university relations for mtvU, which owns RateMyProfessors.com, extended his congratulations to the university for ranking sixth.
“That’s awesome to be ranked sixth. The University of Delaware has a high number of professors that were ranked favorably,” DiMarco said. “It’s not about one star professor, it’s about a bunch of them being rated well.”
The ranking list is released each year to not only shine a light on quality and favorably-reviewed professors, but also to build additional awareness for the Web site, he said. Professors eligible for ranking must receive a minimum of 30 reviews on the site, which is entirely student-authored.
History professor Jonathan Russ, who has 120 reviews and an overall quality rating of 4.9 out of 5 on RateMyProfessors.com, said he was flattered by the positive comments on the site.
“I don’t really have any tricks or props. I really share what I know with my students and try to do so in an engaging manner,” Russ said. “I work very hard to make sure I know my students’ names, and I never really have any attendance issues.”
English professor Patrick White, who maintains a 4.9 out of 5 rating with 72 reviews on the site, said he teaches in an informal style that he hopes creates a relaxed atmosphere in his class.
“I take the job seriously and I take the material seriously, but I try not to take myself that seriously and I try to have some humor in the classroom,” White said. “I don’t want students on their way to my class thinking, ‘Oh God, now I have to look at White for 50 minutes.’ ”
Bahira Sherif Trask, a human development and family studies professor, said she was surprised to hear she received 72 reviews and rating of 4.8 on RateMyProfessors.com. Trask said she thinks students respond well to her style of teaching.
“I tell the students from day one that this is not a class where you can sit in the back and hide,” Trask said. “What makes the class interesting is to hear everybody’s voices and opinions. It’s not a pure lecture.”
She said she tries to personalize class assignments by adding a personal reflection component to every project. One former student met her husband while working on an assignment for Trask’s class.
“I had a student who was researching internet relationship sites for a Web-based paper and she met her future husband on one of the sites,” Trask said. “And one day out of the blue I received a letter from her saying, ‘I just want you to know that your assignment changed my life.’ ”
Judy Celli, a foreign language and literatures instructor, has garnered 80 reviews and a ranking of 4.8 on the site. She said while professors appreciate positive comments on the site, the reviews should be taken with a grain of salt.
“It’s nice that students take the time to do that and appreciate what you do in class, but you can’t let it go to your head because it isn’t official,” Celli said. “Students who really like you or really dislike you go to RateMyProfessors.com, and you have to keep that equilibrium there.”
She said she tries to listen to students’ feedback throughout the course instead of waiting for evaluations to see which teaching methods work best.
“I do try to explain things a lot of different ways to accommodate a lot of different learning styles,” Celli said. “I teach the required course for the Arts & Science requirement for foreign language and most kids could just stop after that, but we get a lot who say they want to continue, so that makes me happy.”
John Madsen, a geological sciences professor, said he tries to keep his course lectures from being too heavy, a technique that has garnered 90 reviews and a rating of 4.7 on the site.
“I try to be as organized as I can be and I don’t try to have any surprises in the course,” Madsen said. “I try to keep the style somewhat light yet moving through the material.”
Madsen has replied to several of the student reviews on the site through a video post on mtvU’s companion site ProfessorsStrikeBack.com. He said he hopes students who watch the video find it amusing.
“I thought it would be a fun thing to do,” he said. “It was hard to take some of the comments that they chose to have me respond to very seriously, like the marriage proposal.”
Gary Allison, a special education professor with 149 reviews and a 4.8 rating, said he believes his students respond positively to his tech-savvy teaching method.
“I kind of have a style that’s not mainstream,” Allison said. “It’s called edutainment. It’s like a whole multimedia explosion that students really seem to enjoy.”
He said he uses music, videos and Web sites that are both entertaining and educational in his courses.
“I just believe when people are laughing and in a good mood they’re more receptive to learning,” Allison said. “I’ve always thought that education doesn’t have to be like a field trip to the morgue.”
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