Lower Columbia College student Jonathan Mintz will never forget a past instructor who required the class to copy notes from an overhead projector while she lectured.

“I was writing so fast that I couldn’t hear what she was saying,” said the 18-year-old from Castle Rock. “Most of the instructors here are really good, but there’s been a few that didn’t match my learning style."

That’s why Mintz checks ratemyprofessors.com before selecting classes. The Web site, established in 1999, allows students to see how past students rate college faculty members.

There has been a proliferation of such Web sites in recent years, and a growing number of students view them as a consumer tool — to make sure they’re signing up for solid classes and instructors.

“You’re paying for it, so you need to get the stuff you want out of it,” said LCC student James West, 16, of Castle Rock.

Although such sites can help students make informed choices, they’re ripe for abuse, critics and some LCC faculty members warn.

Faculty rating sites are tantamount to having a job performance evaluation posted worldwide for anyone to see, and the anonymity of the process gives disgruntled students a chance to rant without being held accountable. And, in the case of older evaluations, ratings don’t account for changes in the teacher or the course.

The danger in such Web sites, says LCC Nursing instructor Sue Yarbrough, is that student comments might just “be responding to a bad grade” in an unfavorable online post, she said.

It can’t be flattering, for example, for a faculty member to appear on myprofessorsucks.com, just one of the other online opportunities to rate, or in some cases berate, college faculty members.

Ratemyprofessors.com gives students the opportunity to rank faculty in three basic categories: clarity, helpfulness and easiness. Then there’s the curious fourth category — “hotness.” A teacher ranked consistently hot is noted with a tamale.

The owner of ratemyprofessors.com, mtvU, recently told The Vancouver Columbian that hotness is in fact relevant.

“The students told us what are the core characteristics they look for when selecting a course. Attractiveness was right at the top with helpfulness and clarity,” Carlo DiMarco, mtvU’s vice president of university relations told the Columbian.

Such playfulness might make it tempting to dismiss the rankings, but researchers have found a correlation between the results of formal university faculty evaluations and those on ratemyprofessors.com.

Many LCC students interviewed for this story were not familiar with ratemyprofessors.com. Those who were give it mixed reviews.

First-year LCC student Belinda Marohl, 26, of Castle Rock said postings give readers an incomplete picture. “Every person has a different experience,” she said, and it’s easy for comments to be taken out of context.

Brittany Alton, 19, of Longview said she can see how the Web site could help first-year LCC students, such as herself, who don’t know other students to seek recommendations on teachers. But Alton, too, sees flaws in the system.

“It’s like watching a movie. Some people like it and some people don’t,” she said. “Some people like an instructor because they’re strict and on top of you, and some people are like, ‘Whoa.’”

Another first-year student, Robert Ebeling, 30, of Longview said he’s enrolled in general-requirement classes for now, but he wants to use the Web site when signing up for higher level courses. He’s doesn’t consider easiness as a virtue, though.

“I will look for teachers who will push me so I can get the most out of the class,” Ebeling said.

First-year student Alina Nestjorkina, 19, of Longview, said she doesn’t “feel comfortable going around asking” for faculty recommendations. So ratemyprofessors.com is useful to her.

LCC instructors who knew about the site said student comments can be beneficial, but cautioned about anonymous, personal attacks found online.

Psychology Instructor Michael Strayer said Web sites such as these can provide valuable insight but comments are “certainly not to be taken wholeheartedly.”

Law instructor Jerry Zimmerman said he’s checked the site, but has grown to rely more on comments students provide him in an end-of-the-year essay about his course. Either way, Zimmerman said, he’s looking for one thing: “Does there seem to be a theme in what we’re doing right and how we can improve? That’s what I look for.”

Strayer and Zimmerman both joke about the red tamales students have given them for “hotness.” They agree some comments on the site can be useful.

“I think there’s some value to having this information available to students,” Strayer said. “Does this faculty member do only lectures? … If a student likes that, (he or she) might select that instructor.”

Students and LCC faculty members on the value and faults of faculty online evaluations:

“A lot of times our instructors really have to (work) with a student and hold the student accountable … and that isn’t always popular with the student.”

— Lenore Vest, LCC math instructor

“I usually go for whoever has the best (online) rating.”

— Jonathan Mintz, 18, LCC student from Castle Rock

“Personally I don’t think (an online evaluation) would be beneficial … As long as they’re trying to teach. I’ll be there trying to learn.”

— Belinda Marohl, 26, LCC student from Castle Rock

“I would think most people would want to know what students are saying (about instructors).”

— Sue Yarbrough, LCC nursing instructor

“We feel that there’s always room for improvement.”

— Jerry Zimmerman, LCC law instructor