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Discrimination Based on Nationality, Race, and Ethnicity on Web-Based Consumer Review Platforms

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Rating Professors Online

Part of the book series: Marketing and Communication in Higher Education ((MCHE))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the racial biases in student evaluations of college faculty on RateMyProfessors.com, both in terms of the quantitative scores and in terms of trends in the posted comments.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Because of the small sample size of the following groups, the regression analysis did not consider faculty who were Middle Eastern, biracial/multiracial, other, or unknown in racial category.

  2. 2.

    Caution must be made in the interpretation here, however, due to the small sample size (N = 8) of black faculty subject to racial comments.

  3. 3.

    In spite of the recognized biases of the evaluations, institutions continue to cling to them as a primary teaching evaluation tool because of the ease with which to differentiate effective teachers and ineffective ones using a 1–5 scale (Flaherty 2018).

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  1. Sociology, Salem State University, Salem, MA, USA

    Pamela Leong

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  1. Pamela Leong
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Correspondence to Pamela Leong .

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Leong, P. (2020). Discrimination Based on Nationality, Race, and Ethnicity on Web-Based Consumer Review Platforms. In: Rating Professors Online. Marketing and Communication in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35936-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35936-2_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-35935-5

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