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It’s the end of the quarter and time for students to vent anger or praise their professors on www.uclaprofessors.com. For those of you who don’t know what this site is, wake up!

It’s where students can rate UCLA professors and comment on both negative and positive aspects of their classes. The system works well, and many students take advantage of it. I have used it every quarter and find the comments to be, for the most part, true. Unfortunately, the people who aren’t taking advantage of it are our professors.

I am currently finishing a class that was split between two professors – each taught for five weeks. The first five weeks of this class were terrible. I didn’t think it was the professor’s fault, because he was very enthusiastic. So, I wrongfully blamed the subject. I was always confused and dreaded going to class because I thought the material was boring. The second half of the class changed my whole outlook on the subject. Now I really like it, and it’s not because the material drastically changed; it was the professor who changed.

Too many professors are rated poorly online. Such ratings send a negative message to students: professors don’t care if they’re poor teachers.

In the past I have heard professors say that they don’t like the idea of students rating them and, as a result, refuse to look at the Web site. Oddly enough, these are the same professors with the bad ratings – the ones who don’t want to look and would rather stay in denial. That way they don’t have to put in the effort to change.

On the other hand, some professors mention seeing their scores, but don’t agree with them. Instead they claim that the raters were all spiteful students. That may be true and it may not be. Regardless, professors should take constructive criticism to heart.

So, what should professors do with the scores? Well, if a professor has a wonderful score and many great comments, then he or she should keep up the good work.

If, on the other hand, a professor’s scores are low or mediocre, he or she should read the comments and then look for professors who are highly rated. A good source for this is a link that takes you to the top 10 professors. And visiting classes taught by these highly rated professors would also help poorly rated professors’ teaching skills. The teaching methods of the most highly rated professors should be learned and implemented by lower-rated professors.

Professors should not neglect the fact that they are getting to use great facilities for their research on the agreement that they will share their knowledge with students. In order to share knowledge with students, professors must make sure that their students understand the material. UCLA requires that its professors be qualified, motivated and good at taking on challenges. So professors ought to think of illuminating and enlightening their students as another sort of challenge.

The more popular professors make their students happier and that happiness reflects back onto the professors. There’s just no doubt about it: being a good teacher who connects with students should be a worthy goal among UCLA professors.

Shasha is a fourth-year psychology student. E-mail her at rshasha@media.ucla.edu.