Collin Beck | Reevaluating class evaluations

Are you reading this in a class that was so full on the first day you couldn't get a seat, but now it's as empty as your brain watching a Rock of Love Marathon?

All those empty seats - I know you're thinking the same thing I am - who added all those extra chairs?

Apparently, no one did. A lot of those seats are empty because their former occupants stopped showing up for the class - probably because it sucks.

This is all fine and good. Professors make Penn proud in all sorts of ways besides teaching, like doing award-winning research or trying to tie up all the unresolved issues of the first Van Wilder movie.

But this whole situation really presents a problem when it comes to course evaluations. The irony was impossible to ignore when one professor lectured on sample bias, then proceeded to hand out course evaluations to a bare classroom.

I gave the professor low marks, as it was easily one of the worst classes I'd taken at Penn.

But as I looked at the kids sitting near me, they were bubbling in fours and fives. I leaned over to see if they were trying to make a picture out of the dots - maybe a dragon, or a pony or . a bigger dragon.

They weren't.

They were actually giving good reviews.

For a moment I was shocked, but then I realized that these were the kids who made it through the semester. The rest of the students realized going to class was pointless or just couldn't take it anymore. In the end, the opinions of those who felt strongest about the class simply weren't counted.

Now, I realize there are other reasons students skip besides the class being bad.

Maybe the class was at a ridiculous time - like before noon, or it was simply held in a place that's impossible to get to - like Fisher Bennett (I'd need a sherpa to drag myself that far). In addition, this is the "social ivy," so a lot Penn students need time to recover from a crazy night of hooking up . their Xboxes to their plasma TV's . that their dads bought them. I'm so lonely!

Putting my own insecurities aside, the obvious solution is to have course evaluations available to fill out online for all classes.

It would allow the whole class to provide data. It could even be a Facebook application! That'd solve two problems at the same time - the missing data in course evaluations and our pressing need for more Facebook applications.

The good news is that this change may take place sooner than you think. When I asked about a plan to take course evaluations online, Zachary Fuchs, chairman of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, replied: "It's in the works."

He also noted that while SCUE works on redesigning the format of course evaluations, "students will have a voice in the process of designing it."

So take note, those of you who care about stuff like this but more likely want to pad your resumes - you may soon have the chance to change the face of course evaluations forever! Fuchs himself hopes the incarnations will have more written comments available to students.

But to me, that seems so 1990s.

This is the YouTube age! When a professor is truly awful, I should be able to warn students via video clips.

Regardless of whether or not students are ever able to rate a class from one to "video of an adorable sneezing panda," I think we all realize it's time to reevaluate evaluations (which I think means some tri-evaluating is in order).

While some may think it's unfair to include the opinions of students who miss class, finding out why they started skipping in the first place is the reason course evaluations exist.

Otherwise, we're just asking the choir how the preacher is doing.

Collin Beck is a College senior from Minot, ND. His e-mail is beck@dailypennsylvanian.com. The Dakota Kid appears alternating Thursdays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.