Natalie McEwan, Opinions and Humor Editor 

My true feelings about course evaluations popped into my head the last time I went to Walmart for groceries. After I paid, the card screen showed a little pop-up with five stars. How was I supposed to rate a checkout? Why did it matter? Apparently, it was directly tied to the cashier’s job. This felt unfair, strange. I’m not alone in that feeling, according to an article by Business Insider. 

On a surface level, course evaluations seem like a great idea. They are an anonymous way to give professors feedback, and most of my professors have said they really value that feedback and use it to improve their teaching. Course evaluations help students feel like their voices are heard in a low-pressure, anonymous environment. 

I believe feedback is important. But VCU’s current course evaluation system creates a strange dynamic, one where I feel more like a customer than a student. 

At the end of a course, VCU presents statements on the course and professor’s syllabus, class structure and behavior and asks students to rank whether they agree or disagree with the statement on a scale of five, from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” 

Some of these metric statements have little to do with the overall quality of the course, like the statement, “I knew my progress and/or grade throughout the semester,” a statement with little relevance to the quality of a course or how much I learned. 

College-level courses have many complex factors at play — ones that can’t all be summed up in metric ratings. While the open-ended parts of the course evaluations could create interesting moments for dialogue and change, I don’t see how ratings  help the professors change their teaching styles. 

In a way, the model of these course evaluations mimics Rate My Professor, a public website designed for college students to reference when signing up for classes. While course evaluations are private, the types of questions asked and ratings feel similar. However, these are designed for completely different purposes. 

What I find most disturbing is that I’m treated like a consumer, the professor someone performing a service instead of teaching me. I haven’t liked every professor I’ve taken, or every class at VCU. But I’ve still learned very valuable information. I don’t think my feedback to professors can be summed up through a student satisfaction survey.

I believe VCU should still emphasize student feedback, but should instead only include the open-ended questions in course evaluations. This provides students a place to voice their opinions without ranking and rating different professors. 

That being said, you absolutely should still complete your course evaluations, especially if you have professors without tenure. These course evaluations directly impact the professor’s job performance. While I can hope for a better way to give my feedback in the future, for now, I will use the system we have, flaws and all.