GradeBack lets students grade their university professors anonymously

Over the past year or so, “Tinder for [insert app name]” has become the core pitch for countless digital services  — ones that let you rate things by swiping.

Now, Israel-based social studying platform Cloudents has launched a new app that can perhaps be best described as “Tinder for university professors.” But this isn’t a dating app for those working in the education realm — this is for students to grade their teachers and help those in future years decide what courses they wish to take.

Available for Android and iOS, GradeBack essentially turns the tables on lecturers, with students able to swipe through professors and anonymously grade them using a set of key criteria, such as “attendance strictness.” GradeBack then provides an average score for each teacher.

The app also uses a matching algorithm based on your Facebook relationships, which can identify the establishment you attend, and pull in the professors’ details automatically, while promising to detect the most relevant teachers for your particular field of study.

In terms of the use cases for this, prospective students could use GradeBack to see who the best teachers are when deciding which classes to enroll in.

Signing up through Facebook is optional for iPhone users, who can also use a good old-fashioned email address to register. But for launch, Android users can only sign up using their Facebook credentials — we’re told that an imminent update will remove this limitation.

But where does GradeBack get all the data from in the first place? Well, given that the app is an extension of Cloudents, a global social studying platform for students to collaborate on assignments, students from across the globe have already mapped their classes and teachers. And based on this data, Cloudents has built a database that powers GradeBack.

While it likely won’t be 100 percent comprehensive for now, it does contain 1.5 million lecturers, professors, and teachers from “most of the universities and colleges” in the U.S. and the U.K., as well as Israel. Crucially, students can add new institutes from any country too.

However, only a few thousand professors have ratings at the time of launch, garnered during the development of the app. So ratings will need to be ramped up significantly for this to be of much use to students.

All in all, the general idea behind GradeBack is actually quite decent. While many will decide to do a particular class regardless of the teacher, this at least lets students get an idea of what to expect. And if they’re 50/50 on choosing between two courses — well, this could help swing it.

Other applications promise a similar offering, but GradeBack’s focus on anonymity is key here, as it means people will be able to grade their teachers without fear of retribution.

Cloudents has received $1 million in funding to date from Benson Oak Capital.