This bookbagging season, CourseRank may ease the sometimes overwhelming process of selecting next semester’s classes.
CourseRank, a software originally developed in Spring 2007 by Stanford University students Benjamin Bercovitz, Filip Kaliszan and Henry Liou, enables students to directly comment on classes offered at a university. The program allows students to write course reviews, rate classes using a five-star scale and post questions to other students about classes. Two weeks ago, junior Ben Getson, the undergraduate representative on Duke Student Government’s Academic Affairs committee, launched the course evaluation Web site at Duke.
“We took a very different approach from the most common rating sites,” said Kaliszan, a graduate student in computer science at Stanford. “We looked around at what was available and a lot of [the Web sites] were professor centered. We’re trying to help students decide which courses are the best and then bring the program down to the professor level.”
Just one week after DSG’s Oct. 28 blast e-mail, more than 2,000 students were registered on the Web site, Getson said. At its Oct. 21 meeting, DSG allotted $1,100 to promote the site, but DSG’s use of the Web site is free for the first year. DSG plans to reassess the site after its free one-year trial period ends.
“Until now, there’s been no organized way for students to talk with other students about courses they’ve taken,” Getson said. “Students need this option—it’s important to them.” Getson began searching for an alternative to Duke’s course evaluation system in Fall 2008 in response to student concerns. He first heard about CourseRank from Owen Astrachan, professor of the practice of computer science.
Prior to CourseRank, there was no lasting student evaluation system in place at Duke. Former DSG President Elliott Wolf, Trinity ’08, created a Duke-specific course evaluations Web site that was approved by the Arts and Sciences Council in 2006. But the site failed to attract sufficient student input.
Students still relied largely on word-of-mouth and other Web sites such as RateMyProfessors.com, Getson said. Although the administration provides students with course synopses and ratings on ACES, the synopses are not available for every class and are written by faculty members. On ACES, students rate courses based on a five-point scale, however, the ratings are not always released to the student body.
“The ratings are out of context because no written reviews are released with them,” Getson said. “This benefits University officials and not students, and does not address the need students have.” As of Tuesday night, about 5,200 reviews have been posted by more than 2,100 students. Although students initially encountered technical difficulties on the site, many have continued to use CourseRank for its accessibility and convenience.
“I really like it,” freshman Kerri Devine said. “I was able to see all the different times my courses were being offered, and which professors taught them.”
Some students, however, do not see equal value in the program. Senior Peng Shi, a double major in math and computer science does not believe CourseRank is effective in high-level courses, as the students who take these classes will probably not visit the Web Site, Shi said.
“There is no incentive to report anything,” he said.
Although CourseRank is currently geared toward undergraduates, some graduate courses are posted on the Web site. Getson noted that many of the reviews have come from recent Duke alumni. Faculty and administrators are also able to review courses, and those comments will be flagged to students in red, Getson said. He hopes the interaction between students and faculty will provide a workable solution to be permanently implemented at Duke.
“It’s important that as many students use CourseRank as possible,” Getson said. “That’s how we will determine to use CourseRank for the next few years, or to come up with a different solution.”
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