<p>Ignore the ratings and just read the text.</p>
<p>That’s how I learned, for example, that the professor of the Genetics course I intend to take next semester is “very demanding, but you’ll KNOW genetics when you’re done.” That’s far more useful to me than comparing one prof’s 3.4 stars vs another’s 3.6, because I know exactly what to expect from the class: both a high degree of challenge and a high quality of teaching (hooray!).</p>
<p>You can’t reduce teaching to a few averaged metrics and expect to learn anything meaningful about a professor. However, you can certainly learn something by reading about someone’s direct experience of a professor’s teaching.</p>