Ergun Caner: Too Easy??

I enjoy visiting the website ratemyprofessors.com to see what students are saying about professors and instructors I have worked with in the past and in the present. I also like to see what fellow students are saying about professors I have had in the past.

Tonight I visited the page where Liberty University professors are rated. I looked up Ergun Caner and what I found was very interesting. There was a common theme in the comments and that was that Ergun Caner is an easy professor. I did not count how many times it was repeated but it was repeated often.

As a college instructor, and as one who has been through plenty of college as a student, I am not sure that a good professor is an "easy" professor. In fact the hardest professors I ever had were the ones I learned the most from. Easy professors maybe good if all you are looking for is an easy grade but if you are looking for an education you want a professor who will challenge you and force you to dig into the issues.

This goes back to a concern I have raised on this board before about Ergun Caner. I believe Dr. Caner is a good Christian man, I know he is a powerful speaker, and I also know he can be a entertaining teacher. However I just don't believe he should be the president of a seminary. He does not seem to have the spiritual and academic weight needed for such an important position. The fact that many of his students say his classes are "easy" only serves to back that up.

Maybe Liberty University needs to require more academic accountability from thier professors. The college I teach at requires that we turn in a copy of our syllabi to our department chairs, the academic dean, and the dean of distance learning and night school. In the history department, we make sure that our classes generally require the same amount of work (etc). So while we each may have different teaching styles (etc) all of our classes generally require the same amount of work. I find it interesting that nobody ever says that any of us are "easy" (nor do any of us seek that title).

Egun Caner on ratemyprofessors.com

 

==I think he was appointed by Dr. Falwell and not elected (but I could be wrong). Why do I think he got that job? He brings a level of popularity to the classroom and I can see how undergraduate students would think his style is fun. He is certainly one of the most popular professors at Liberty right now.

 

==Maybe, but other students said he told a lot of stories (etc). While working on my masters I took Dr. Caner for Baptist History through Liberty's online program. The course work was typical seminary stuff. His lectures were interesting but often filled with his opinions and his various rants. I don't know what his assignments are like in face-to-face classes but I can't imagine that his style is much different. His style is certainly why he is so popular but if his courses are easy how good can they be? I fear that he is busy creating a bunch of little Caners (o, the thought :laugh: ).

 

==I had not considered that point. Personally I cannot imagine having that many students and I agree with you that such a situation makes learning harder. I liked my professors to know my name and I like to know my students names.

==Dr. Caner is a great presenter, as you have pointed out, but I was just wondering about his academics.

 

==If Dr. Caner was a colleague of mine then I would not have written the op. As it is, Dr. Caner is not a colleague of mine.

 

==With popular professors like Dr. Caner it is certainly possible that some of the people posting have never taken a class under Dr. Caner. I guess that is just the nature of website like ratemyprofessors.

==True, but sometimes it happens.