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Student Evaluation of Teaching Faculty & Staff Resources and FAQs

OIRA administers all SET surveys and provides standard reports. Faculty can adjust the timing and add one custom personalized question to their surveys. Instructors may follow AU recommended actions to ensure high student response rates. Please see our Faculty and Staff FAQs below. If you have further questions, email the SET team at Faculty_SET@american.edu.

 

LOGGING IN

SET ADMINISTRATION

By default, SET surveys are scheduled according to the number of days between the first and last class meeting date. Survey schedules may be altered from the default dates and times through the Subject Management (SM) action for instructors, within Blue.

The SM action allows for a SET survey open days to be shortened, lengthened, or readjusted altogether, although all surveys must be open for at least three days. Instructors may customize the time of day the survey opens or closes. Instructors may wish to adjust the timing of their SET survey dates to open the survey at the start of a class session for in-class completion. Instructors may also wish to extend the survey if the response rate is low, or if a student requests an extension. 

Follow these instructions to update the SET survey dates at any point in the survey life cycle.

By default, most SET surveys will close on the last reading day of the semester, one day before final exams begin. Instructors may extend the window for their SET surveys; however, surveys must be closed before final grades are submitted.

The SET survey consists of 12 closed-ended common instructor and course specific questions, and two open-ended instructor questions. Please click here to preview the 14 common SET questions. These questions cannot be modified.

Instructors have the option to add their own question to the SET survey through an action called Question Personalization. No more than one closed-ended question may be added to a survey. Please add your personalized question up to two days before the default survey open date. All closed-ended questions have the same answer scale: 1 – strongly disagree, 2, 3, 4, 5 – strongly agree, and N/A.

Departments and programs may also add four closed-ended questions to the survey.

You may preview the SET survey for your course, including reviewing any department/program or personalized (if added) question on the survey.

Click here for directions to preview the SET survey and instructions to add your own personalized question.

The results of common SET closed-ended questions are made available to the AU community, while results for a personalized question and open-ended questions are available only to the faculty member.

To learn more about adding department or program questions, please contact OIRA.

No – all cross-listed course sections are treated as individual sections in Blue. All changes or updates must be completed for each course section individually.

Team taught courses will have a set of instructor questions for each instructor assigned to the course section for individual feedback. Each instructor may add their own Personalized Questions to the survey. Surveys include only one set of course questions, with the results shared among those instructors teaching the course. 

The survey timing adjustment tools are available for all instructors of a course section. If a default survey open and close date need adjusted, only one instructor should complete the action.

Subject Management is available approximately 14 days prior to the default SET survey open date, and seven days beyond the default survey closing date. All SET surveys must remain open for students a minimum of three days.   

Question Personalization is available approximately 14 days prior to the default SET survey open date and up to two days BEFORE the default survey open date.

Please note: A personalized question added or edited while a survey is open and responses are recorded will remove the collected responses for the changed question. Students can reaccess an open survey to reanswer that question. 

Access instructions for Subject Management and Question Personalization here. 

If no SET activities are present in your Blue account, no activities are open at that time. 

The dates associated with your Subject Management and Personalized Questions activities are the end date of that specific action for you. SET survey dates that apply to students are found on your Subject Management dashboard by clicking the Subject Management icon found next to "My Home" in your Blue account.

Following are locations of the specific activity close date.

Subject Management

The expiration date for the subject management activity is located on the front bottom of the course section task card.

Question Personalization

The expiration date for the Question Personalization activity is “inside” the course section task card.

In legacy landing page

SET activity expiration dates are reported below each entry on the legacy landing page

 

No! If you are satisfied with your SET survey(s) as they are, you do not need to do anything. However, if you would like to stop reminder emails from Blue for the current term, navigate to set.american.edu to Subject Management. In the course section card, click the box next to, "I have finished all my tasks, please stop sending me reminders."

AU recognizes some types of courses, such as internships and student teaching, don't fit the traditional teaching model SETs are designed to address. Those courses do not receive a survey. In addition, a course section must have at least six students to receive a survey. Course sections that meet concurrently will receive a SET survey if combined enrollment is six or more.

Contact the Dean of your respective school to:

  • Request an exemption from a SET survey for a course section.
  • Request an exception to receive a SET survey due to low enrollment. Please note: No exceptions will be made for fewer than four enrolled students. 

Coming soon: SET exempt course list.

Departments may add four questions to the SET survey. The questions must fit a 5-point answer scale (1-Strongly Disagree to 5- Strongly Agree). A full department question audit is conducted every three years to ensure current questions are still appropriate. Stand alone department question reports are available upon request. Department question results are displayed in Private Instructor-Course reports. 

SETS AND STUDENTS

Students receive an automated invitation email from Blue with a personal link to their SET survey. In the email, they are encouraged to complete the survey and are given information about confidentiality and how SET data is used. Alternately, students may access any open SET surveys at the url: set.american.edu or if applicable, through the Student Evaluation of Teaching tool available within Canvas. Canvas offers Instructors access to their SET actions in addition to reports.

Click here to find Canvas instructions for students.

Click here to find Canvas instructions for faculty.

Please communicate your individual expectations to students and consider taking time (15 to 20 minutes) during class meeting time for completion. Studies show response rates are higher overall for instructors who dedicate time in class for SET surveys.

Students receive their email from Blue shortly after the survey opens, but not immediately. If the time of the SET survey is adjusted to open during a specific class meeting, it is possible some or all students will receive the email after the designated SET completion window during the class. During class time, please direct them to set.american.edu or Canvas as outlined in the first paragraph above.

Some instructors offer students incentives for completing their SET surveys. If proof of survey completion is necessary, please direct students to their Blue dashboard at set.american.edu to take a screenshot of the course entry with the completed indicator engaged. The indicator is available in their accounts for 15 days after the survey close date.

If you chose to adjust your survey timing, it is advised students complete the survey during the last few class meetings, and not during finals week. Please refer to these instructions on how to alter the survey open and close dates and times. The Subject Management task is available 14 days before the default survey open date. 

  • SET results are confidential, but not anonymous.
  • Public facing SET reports include summarized student responses.
  • Private Instructor-Course reports include the same data as the public-facing reports, with student open-ended comments and personalized question results included.
  • Students may be identifiable if they include personal information in the open-ended comment section.

Instructors, and only instructors, have the discretion to extend their survey. Adjusting the timing of the survey close date / time may be completed on the Subject Management page. How long to extend your survey is a personal choice, however surveys must be closed before final grades are submitted and cannot extend beyond the last day of finals. Use the directions for the Subject Management activity here to extend your survey.

Checking response rates throughout the life of the survey allows you to determine if additional communication with students regarding SETs is warranted. This is especially important if your survey is open a limited number of days or hours.

By navigating to the Subject Management dashboard through your Blue email, or set.american.edu, course section cards reflect the current response rate. 

 From the Blue legacy page, click on the click on this icon in the Blue legacy dashboard to access your course section cards.icon to access course cards. 

If you wish to check or update the timing of the survey, please click on “Manage….” in each course card where adjustments are desired.

Alternatively, the MyAU portal has a continuously updated Response Rate Report for each term. All course sections scheduled to receive a SET survey are listed and response rates are updated throughout the semester.

Survey feedback is most effective when the response rate is high. As a learning community, diverse student voices reflecting on academic experiences are instrumental to understanding if university, professional, and student goals are met. While students receive an automated email when the survey opens, in-class administration helps increase response rates and provides space for mindful feedback. 

Students have a lot of distractions. It is highly encouraged to provide class time prior to finals for SET survey completion. Research confirms response rates increase with dedicated time in-class for SETs.

Please reference the SET in-class instructions for important information about SET administration, found here. 

A SET in-class administration why and how presentation may be found here.

You may also wish to share this video resource with students prior to SET survey completion. Produced by UC Merced, in 3 minutes students and instructors discuss the importance of SETs and best practices for completion.

Coming soon: Additional resources for raising response rates.

SET REPORTING

Standard SET reports are published at the end of each semester, after final grades are submitted. SET survey results are confidential. Results of closed-ended questions are made available to the AU community, while results for personalized questions and open-ended questions are available only to the faculty member. Please visit set.american.edu to view private Instructor-Course reports including student comments. 

The SET office publishes a variety of reports summarizing SET responses to all questions presented.

Standard Semester Reports

Instructor-Course SET Report Public – This report summarizes a minimum of six responses and includes results for all closed-ended SET common questions. If you see your course report has an inactive link on the MyAU portal and the right side of the window says, "Not met," fewer than six students responded to the survey.

Instructor-Course SET Report Private – This report summarizes results for all closed-ended SET common questions, includes student comments, and the addition of Personalized and/or Department questions if included in the survey. This report generates with a minimum of one reponse. 

Department Report – This report summarizes common questions by Department. No minimum response threshold is applied.

Instructor Semester Summary Report - This report aggregates response data by the term, then broken out by course section. All common question responses are reported. Cross-listed course results are reported together. The response threshold for this report is six at the report, course and question level. 

Longitudinal Reports - These reports include all SET data across a defined time frame to see trends. The reports may be used for any purpose, but were designed for tenure, promotion, and reappointments. Two standing longitudinal reports can be found in faculty Blue accounts at all times. One is a rolling 3-year report, the other is a 6-year report that currently displays four years of data. Updated each term, in Summer 2026 full six years of data will be reflected in the report. 

Administrative Reports:

Department Semester Summary Report - This report includes Department and corresponding results by individual instructor in aggregate for the term for all closed-ended SET questions. Report statistics match those on standard semester reports (see image above). Created exclusively for annual Merit reviews, these reports are published each semester and provided to Departments.

General report statistics are illustrated here: 

Metrics on SET reports include response counts, frequency counts, percent 4 and 5, 25th and 75th percentile, and medians.

Public Instructor-Course and Department reports are published on the MyAU portal. These reports summarize the results of the common-closed ended questions. View a typical public Instructor-Course report here.

Private reports can be found on the Blue dashboard at set.american.edu. They include the common-closed ended questions, but also open-ended student comments, instructor personalized questions, and department questions if applicable. View a typical private Instructor-Course report here.

Both the public and private Instructor-Course reports will be released within three weeks after the final grades are due. An email will alert faculty when the private SET report is available. All other standard SET reports will be distributed according to the schedule outlined below. 

You will receive an email from Blue once the private reports are available with a live link to the specific report. All standard SET reports are available after final grades are due and may be found in the following locations:

 

 

Standard SET reports

 

 

Administrative SET reports
On AU Intranet In Blue accounts
  1. Public Instructor-Course 
  2. Department 
  1. Private Instructor-Course 
  2. Instructor Semester Summary
  3. 4 and 3-year longitudinal reports
  1. Department Semester Summary Report (Merit)
  2. 4-year Department longitudinal report
  

MyAU portal>Provost>Academics>Student Evaluation of Teaching

set.american.edu in legacy dashboard OR through Canvas

Provided directly to Faculty Coordinators or school-specific equivalent 

 

Still not able to find your report? Please contact the SET office at Faculty_SET@american.edu.

 

At AU, SET data is analyzed and used in a variety of ways. The SET office reports to AU administration following guidelines codified by the Faculty Senate for merit, reappointment, promotion, and tenure decisions. SET data is used by students as they determine which courses to register for. Departments and schools also use SET data to find areas of celebration or refinement. Most importantly, instructors use their SET data to reflect on their practice and make instructional decisions. SET result analysis support for instructional improvement may be found through CTRL, found here.

Faculty and staff may request an ad hoc SET report by contacting the SET office at Faculty_SET@american.edu or OIRA_SET@american.edu. 

Ad hoc report requests are evaluated and approved on a case-by-case basis. Please note that statistical means will never be provided for any reason. 

When requesting an ad hoc report, please include the following information: 

1. Who will be using the data. 

2. How the data will be used. 

3. What metrics are desired (i.e. Medians, Percent 4 and 5, School/Dept medians, etc)

4. What terms should be included. 

5. What format works best - a pdf report or an excel file.

6. Time frame for completion. 

Please reach out to the SET office at OIRA_SET@american.edu for questions about ad hoc report requests. A brief meeting to review the request will take place before work begins. 

We highly encourage faculty to download their SET reports prior to losing access to University systems. SET reports are retained when faculty leave American University, and may contact Facutly_SET@american.edu to request copies of their reports after separation.