Since early September the Associated Student Government has been at work discussing the possibility of introducing CourseRank, a program similar to Northwestern’s CTEC and CAESAR systems, to either take the place of or work with the existing programs.
Former ASG President Neal Sales-Griffin, SESP ’09, contacted current ASG President Mike McGee about the program during the summer. Developed by students at Stanford University, CourseRank offers course descriptions and evaluations, syllabi, workload details and the ability to compare various features of up to four classes at once.
“(CourseRank) would help students search through the hundreds of classes offered each quarter so they can make informed decisions and feel comfortable with the classes they’re taking,” said McGee, a Communication senior.
The program was created by three Stanford undergraduates in 2007 for a computer science class that required students to create a working technological product.
“We considered the question, ‘What problems are not resolved?'” program co-creator Filip Kaliszan said.
Faced with inefficient systems for choosing classes, the group decided to create a self-sustainable program that would streamline the process. For instance, all users are required to comment on three classes when they log in.
Muhammad Safdari, ASG academic director, said CourseRank offers students more features than the existing systems.
“CourseRank is like CTEC meets ‘Rate My Professor,'” the Weinberg senior said. “It has more opportunities to mold toward students’ needs.”
Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley, and Duke and Cornell universities are already running the system, and other top 50 schools are also considering it. The program is currently available free of charge, but the creators are considering charging universities an annual licensing fee, Kaliszan said.
McGee said discussions surrounding CourseRank are just beginning at NU.ASG will consider within the academic committee how to implement it once the newly elected senators begin their terms.
This doesn’t necessarily mean replacing CAESAR and CTEC with CourseRank. Members of ASG are discussing how CourseRank could work in conjunction with our current system. However, the “best possible situation would be to fully incorporate it so there is only one system,” McGee said.
While McGee said they have been in contact with the creators to plan a test of the software and have brought up the topic with administrators, the institution of this type of program is “not something that happens overnight.”
CourseRank is “much more organized” and easier to use than CAESAR, said Communication sophomore Greg Porper. He also said it took “a full quarter or two to get used to CAESAR,” but CourseRank seems like it would have a shorter learning process. So far, CourseRank has received positive feedback, but ASG members said they are hoping to disperse it more widely across the University in the coming weeks.
Members are discussing and testing the software and looking for what’s “best for students, faculty and Northwestern,” Safdari said.
