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Very Creepy: MyEdu Website

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Clarissa

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Has anybody heard of the website myedu.com? A colleague just mailed us a link to it and I’m completely creeped out by it. The website claims to provide grade averages for courses at pretty much every university in existence. How does it get access to grades, exactly? Does anybody know?

The colleague who sent out the link says that the grades in his courses are reflected correctly. I looked at my courses and the grades don’t look like my grades. It’s hard to say, though, because the website doesn’t specify which semesters of instruction are included. I also have no idea why some of my courses as opposed to others got on the list. The frequency with which I offer the course or the number of students that enroll in it don’t seem to be the decisive factors.

Does anybody have any idea how this website works and where it is supposed to be getting the grades? The U of Texas apparently just hands over the grades to that website (well, it’s Texas, what do you expect?). Do all universities now do that?

I’m a tough grader and I hand out Fs like candy. I’m not worried that students will stop taking my courses after consulting this stupid website but I’m wondering why universities would want to hand over the data about the grades to some shady organizations that can’t be trusted to be even marginally decent about what they do with that information.

20 responses to “Very Creepy: MyEdu Website”

  1. SnarkyWriter Avatar
    SnarkyWriter

    My grade data isn’t available. Phew!

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  2. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Uhm its most likely public records. Oftentimes on transcripts next to a grade you received in a class the median grade is next to it to reflect how you did compared to the other students.

    That means of course the school is recording and keeping median grades for each class. In that case the records may or may not be public. Keep in mind public might mean very difficult to find/ not on the internet but available upon request. Cornell just made the decision to keep its median grades private, but it still prints records them and prints them on transcripts so they may get leaked.

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  3. Sarah Brodsky (@sarahbrodsky) Avatar
    Sarah Brodsky (@sarahbrodsky)

    It looks like maybe students self-report grades, and the site averages them? So the average on the site would not be the same as the overall average you give.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      So they are basing this entire thing on what just a few folks who have nothing better to do reported?

      Weird.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. Sarah Brodsky (@sarahbrodsky) Avatar
        Sarah Brodsky (@sarahbrodsky)

        I looked around some more and while they do ask students to enter their grades, it says they get the averages from universities.

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          Why would a university want to participate in something like that?? Especially, a state university like mine.

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          1. Hugh Laurie Avatar
            Hugh Laurie

            To: ClarissaExplainsItAll

            I don’t normally respond to silly people but man did your comment offend me as a real professor and so I say:

            What’s creepier is the fact that a teacher hands out F’s like “candy”? I support MyEdu for individuals such as yourself wasting students valuable time, FAFSA funds, and fearing for all the F’s they pathetically handed out. The socioeconomic ramifications of your ill actions, among the many others of your genre, is why we haven’t gone back to the moon.

            Were you bullied as a student? Obviously, you’re not doing your JOB as an educator, someone who should value a forthcoming/encouraging learning environment and for that, I despise your chosen career as a “teacher” who has awful taste in candy. Now, I’m not so surprised why the majority of teachers don’t earn so much, causing them to create silly blogs no one reads and creating fake names, with the dismal quality of education going down in this country. Karma can either be a blessing or a nightmare, advice you should carry on with you in your endeavors.

            Just listen to an Aerospace Engineer for once, because you won’t even get an F in my theoretical quantum dynamics courses. I do hand out REAL candy among a plethora of other junk food items and coffee all for my learners though.

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            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              Have you tried seeking help for your mental health issues? You might do yourself harm if you continue this way.

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            2. Hugh Laurie Avatar
              Hugh Laurie

              Oh I must say that you do look like a rather depressed individual in your self-acclaimed “intelligent” photo lol. I do feel very sorry for you though.

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              1. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                It’s ok, you can go now. Nobody will do you any harm here.

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    2. Avatar
      Anonymous

      I’ve very certain they wouldn’t do that because they know its inaccurate.

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  4. B. Hrebec Avatar
    B. Hrebec

    My old university actually implemented something like this on their own during my senior year; I think the student government lobbied for it. They’re not giving any data to myedu.com, though (in fact, they keep sending out warnings about spam from them.) It was actually rather nice from the discerning student’s point of view, since one could avoid lazy professors who only gave out A’s and B’s. It was still super-creepy, though, especially since under certain circumstances it would have been possible to match grades to individual students if you knew who had taken a class.

    By the way, I’ve been reading for a while but never commented here before, so hi and thanks for all the interesting writing!

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      It’s nice to have you here, B. Hrebec!

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  5. David Bellamy Avatar
    David Bellamy

    What is the Pepsi ad video here for?

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      I have no idea where it came from and why! I’m actually extremely annoyed. Nobody warned me they were going to put ads in my posts all of a sudden.

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  6. Avatar
    Anonymous

    It’s public record. Don’t be an idiot. Blame FOIA if you don’t like it.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      It always surprises me when people get so unhinged about such a trivial topic.

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  7. David Gendron Avatar
    David Gendron

    Generally, GPAs from different courses/programs/universities/professors aren’t really comparable.

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  8. David Bellamy Avatar
    David Bellamy

    Very curious. http://MyEdu.com won’t let me register.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      I registered with a fake name and it worked. 🙂

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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