Most students avoid doing more work than they absolutely need to do.

Although it's debatable how much "work" filling out teacher evaluations surveys is, Penn State student participation will likely plummet if the forms are distributed online rather than in the classroom.

The university is testing a pilot program to put Student Rating of Teacher Effectiveness (SRTE) surveys on the Web.

Officials say this could increase accuracy as well as participation rates.

SRTE participation is not mandatory, but significantly fewer students would complete them if they no longer directly receive the forms and have a few minutes of class time to complete them.

This doesn't mean students are lazy; a definite time and place to complete them simply helps get them all in, and urges participation in the survey.

Also, the type of feedback would change. If students are not confronted with SRTEs in class, the option of completing them online appears more voluntary.

And typically, people who feel strongly enough to speak up about something are not happy.

They have complaints. They have problems. They want to vent to anyone who will listen.

Fewer of the people satisfied with their professors and classes would feel compelled to participate.

The SRTE results would end up lopsided, with a greater number of students giving teachers low scores.

The teachers' overall feedback would appear more negative, even if their performance would ordinarily receive a neutral or positive rating when the surveys are completed in person.

This positive feedback, which may be lost, is just as important as the negative feedback.

There is a stronger feeling of anonymity online, as many people have documented. SRTE surveys are already anonymous, but students have to physically hand them to a teaching assistant or another person in the room.

Students may take online SRTEs less seriously because they would know that no one saw who wrote what they just typed.

SRTE survey results seem to be taken seriously by administrators and the professors -- or at least, as students, we hope they are.

The surveys are used for tenure tracking and curriculum improvements. Putting SRTE surveys online could risk getting accurate, realistic results.

The system would then end up defeating its purpose, and both students and professors would suffer.