Use of RateMyProfessors.com Data as a Supplemental Tool for the Assessment of General Chemistry Instruction

Commercial online instructor evaluations have gained traction in influencing students' decisions on professor and course selections at universities. RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is the most popular of such evaluation tools and houses a wealth of information from the students' viewpoint. The purpose of this study was to determine whether RMP data could be used to analyze and inform general chemistry instruction at a particular institution. The entire RMP database for the general chemistry program was sampled to produce a subset of 60 random RMP entries from six instructors. Each entry was composed of ratings in several areas and open-ended comments. The quantitative RMP data were consistent with measures from the institutional Student Evaluation of Instruction forms corresponding to the same instructors. In addition, a survey investigating RMP use patterns demonstrated that general chemistry students who contributed to RMP were not significantly different from the rest of the cohort across seven academic and demographic comparison criteria. The RMP qualitative information was analyzed using an inductive approach from which seven categories emerged as important to students' learning environment. This analytical model allows for categorizing students' statements in a systematic and meaningful manner to extract valuable supplemental information usable for program evaluation. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)