How to find good classes and professors

Recently a student asked me what resources are available to him to find good classes and good professors. I asked my advisors, who in turn asked some students, and got a variety of answers. I have combined what I know with what they told me and this is what I have come up with.

• Public sites. Students said that they are careful to note how many people rated the professor (obviously not much impact with just a few ratings). Also, remember that students who go to these sites tend to have strong feelings one way or the other.
  • RateMyProfessors.com
  • RateYourProf.com
• UM sites.
  • Course evaluation forms: The Michigan Student Assembly has a form (for current UM students) that allows you to search through the data collected on the official course evaluation forms that professors hand out at the end of the semester.
  • Course evaluations: If you’re a Ross student and are interested in Ross professors, then use this site that is provided by the school to get course evaluation data.
• Word of mouth: This is what students mostly rely on. (They should at least use the Ross advisors.)
• Ross Student Advisors: If you are a Ross student, then you should definitely check in with an advisor when you are choosing your classes. They have sat in on many classes, have gotten feedback from many previous students, and understand how different courses relate to each other. They also have a broad and fairly deep understanding of the LS&A and engineering curriculums.

This seems to be the range of resources that students use to find good classes and good professors. I will update this list if I learn of other resources.

What classes you should take

Students frequently ask what classes they should take. “What are the best classes?” This is a both an easy and difficult question to answer.

• Take as many classes as you can that you are interested in. The more you are interested in them, the better you will do (all else being equal). Why would you take a class that you’re not interested in? I would hope that you would be taking classes to prepare you for the world, and possibly for your work life. And if you think it’s fun to have a job when you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, then you need to talk to more people who have jobs.
• Take as many classes as you can from professors who are extremely passionate about their class. Even if you’re not completely enamored with the material, it’s almost always fun to take a class from someone who really loves the material and passes on that love to you. Those were some of my best classes (when I was sitting in a room as a student).

Yes, sometimes you will have to take “required” classes, and these aren’t always the most fun. But look for a professor who really loves the class (if you have a choice), and hop on for the ride. Might as well make the most of it.

A new class on web-based information resources

I spent much of the end of January and beginning of February designing a new class that I am going to teach in Fall 2007. This course is BIT330, Web-based information resources. All of what I currently know about this course is available on this Web site. On this set of pages I list the assignments, schedule, books and other information about this course. I will continue updating these pages over the next several months, but they are quite close to the form they will have next September.

I think this course would be useful for nearly any undergrad (and, actually, any master student, PhD student, or professor) who is going to use the Web over the next several years to look for information or keep up with current events. Here's the beginning description on the course Web page:

Do you want to learn about how to use Google and Yahoo to a more in-depth level than the average student? Do you want to know where and how to find interesting blogs, images, and podcasts? How about RSS feeds and email alerts? Do you want to know how to use software to monitor Web pages without programming? Finally, do you want to learn how to stay current on developments in all of these areas after you leave UM? (After all, technology is going to continue to change after you leave school.)

Any rising junior or senior at Ross is eligible for this course and would benefit from taking it. Let me know if you have any questions by posting a comment here or, if you would rather not, by emailing me.

Speaking up in class

I’m in the enviable position this year of being BBA Program Director while also teaching a BBA class. This allows me to hear more about what’s going on than in previous years. And that’s a very good thing.

A consistent theme that I am hearing from students is that they are having communication issues (not speaking loudly enough, speaking too quickly, or whatever) with their professor in a class. Professors aren’t perfect (did you know that we know that?) so this is to be expected sometimes. Because I use a fast feedback form in every class, it is easy for students to tell me about problems they are having. And because I’m Program Director, they also tell me about issues they are having in classes other than mine. If I hear a common theme in these comments, then I take them to the appropriate party.

This process adds unnecessary and confusing steps to the process. It should be the students who go to the professor directly either during (the best option) or immediately after (second best option) class. Professors generally would like to think that they are teaching you something during class. If they aren’t, and it can easily be fixed, then they almost certainly would appreciate hearing about it so that they can fix it quickly. If students address this in a calm and constructive manner, then this would work out better for all concerned. The best thing about it is that addressing it the first time makes it easy to begin a semester-long dialog about this with the professor so that he or she can find out if the situation is improving. If, for some reason, the faculty member does not respond well to such comments, then you should consider taking your comments to the chair of the department to get another viewpoint on your concerns.

I encourage all BBAs to take responsibility for their education. If you can help improve the educational process for yourself or your classmates, then you should take the steps necessary to bring about this change. It’s another way that you can leave Ross in better condition than you found it.