With Spring registration beginning this week, students will have the chance to test out MyEdu.com, a free program that allows them to research courses, view course grades and read reviews on faculty.
“Students (can) use MyEdu during registration to build the best class schedule by comparing professor reviews and grade records from past semesters,” said Chris Chilek, one of the company’s founders, in a press release introducing MyEdu to educational institutions in California.
Unlike RateMyProfessor.com, MyEdu offers more objective overviews of professors and the classes they teach. Students can not only search through student reviews of professors, but can also see grade disbursements from previous semesters. This is made possible because for each course MyEdu compiles official grade records from previous semesters. These records are then displayed visually through a bar graph students can scroll over to see percentages for grades A through F.
“It takes a certain person to post their opinions about their professor online. It’s very subjective,” said Candace Foote, a sociology major, about sites like RateMyProfessor. “Though it’s interesting to see the grades professors give.”
In addition to accurate grade readings, students can also build schedules using a specialized “Schedule Planner.” This planner creates schedules that work with what professors students want, their work schedules and other commitments. MyEdu also links up with Facebook, so students can share their schedules through the social networking site.
“I think a site (like MyEdu) would be helpful to students because they can see how professors graded their students,” said Arav Kahanna, a finance major. “As long as the grades are shown anonymously I would use a site like this.”
Initially, the program required a small fee to use, but has since changed its policies to allow students to gain “100 percent free access.”
“Anyone could write whatever they want on sites like RateMyProfessor,” said Alanah Krueger, a sociology major. “(MyEdu) seems more accurate because a lot of students use those kind of sites to write bad things about professors who gave them bad grades.”
According to a press release from MyEdu, the company was founded in 2008 and houses the largest warehouse of course, professor, degree and college information in the United States. The resources that the site provides have helped over 2 million students graduate for college. To enroll in the services and learn more, visit MyEdu.com.
Originally published in the Daily Titan on October 28, 2010.
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