Slackerplanner allows students to select classes by difficulty, ratings, distribution

By Maha Aziz     11/5/14 6:45am

Brown College senior David Nichol has created a website that allows students to browse courses using data from Esther course evaluations.

“The website lets people search for courses based on course evaluations,” Nichol said. “What this means is that you can ask, ‘What are the easiest distribution classes?’ or ‘Which FWIS is the best?’ You can use this information to then choose which classes you should take next semester.”

The website is available at www.slackerplanner.com and has course evaluations from fall 2012 to spring 2014, not including summers. Nichol said he created Slackerplanner to see which courses are better than others. 

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“I created the website over winter break when I was incredibly bored,” Nichol said. “I remember when registering for courses wishing I knew which classes were the best ones to take, and then being all like, ‘Oh wait, I’m a comp sci major, I know how to make this thing a thing.’ So then I did.”

The website allows students to narrow their search by semester, distribution group, subject and either workload or quality. According to the website, courses with lower numbers are easier or better. Nichol said he hopes the website will make it easier for students to pick classes.

“I’ve spent a long time on the website just looking at different courses just to see how classes compare against each other,” Nichol said. “Hopefully people can use it to decide which classes they plan on taking in future semesters.”

Peer Academic Advisor Magen Eissenstat said she will not shut out the possibility that students can use a tool like Slackerplanner for good, but she worries it could also fuel a negative mindset when engaging with academics. 

“I think the most important question to ask yourself when using a tool like this is: Why?,” Eissenstat, a McMurtry College sophomore, said. “We are all here to get an education and to grow in our knowledge and understanding of the world. The distribution program, in particular, is designed to give us the freedom to challenge ourselves to think in new, unfamiliar and therefore sometimes uncomfortable ways.” 

Eissenstat said students looking for easy distributions for the sake of not working hard or learning may want to think about the opportunities and values associated with academic challenges. 

“When we think about our academic experiences at Rice, I believe it is more valuable to think about our classes in terms of what we want to gain from them, rather than as an arbitrary list of requirements that we want to ‘get through’ as easily as possible,” Eissenstat said. 

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