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oira@american.edu

Contact:
Robin Beads
Associate Director, Institutional Research

Leonard, Room 1st floor on a map

Institutional Rsch / Assessmt 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016-8059 United States

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Student Evaluation of Teaching Student Resources and FAQs

Make your voice heard!

Thank you for visiting the Student Evaluation of Teaching student resources page for a comprehensive look at SETs.

American University collects student feedback regarding their academic experience through Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) surveys available at the end of most AU courses. See the Frequently Asked Questions below for in-depth answers to all of your Student Evaluation of Teaching questions. 

If you believe your SET survey is missing, please reach out to the instructor to determine if changes were made to the default survey open or close dates.

CLOSED SET SURVEYS MAY ONLY BE REOPENED BY THE SET OFFICE WITH EXPRESS PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE INSTRUCTOR. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR INSTRUCTOR DIRECTLY TO REQUEST SET SURVEY REOPENING.

 

LOGGING IN

There are several ways to access open SET surveys. The most straightforward is using the link in the invitation or reminder emails from Blue. Alternatively, you may navigate to your Blue account at set.american.edu. If applicable, SET surveys are also accessible in the Canvas course module by clicking on the Student Evaluation of Teaching tool. Click here to view directions for accessing SET surveys in Canvas.

COMPLETING SETS

Students: Completing a SET survey is an important responsibility. This is a primary forum your instructor has to collect student feedback. Completing your SET surveys supports your fellow students today, and in the future. Students may use public SET reports to research instructors and courses before registration. The greater the number of responses, SET survey results have greater validity.
Instructors:  Completing SET surveys is very important for your instructors. Instructors SET results have implications for granting Tenure and promotions, in addition to other human resource decision-making. Most importantly, student feedback on instruction style, course design, and course materials provide frameworks for course improvement.
AU: SETs provide important information for the University regarding how courses and instructors are perceived across the community. Several offices utilize SET feedback for things as varied as identifying possible mentor relationships between instructors to focusing on department specific questions to determine if department-wide goals are met.

 

SET survey responses are confidential, but not anonymous.

Student names or individual responses outside of comments, are not included in any report. Student comments are only available to the instructor. 

Reports are available to Instructors after final grades are submitted. 

Find information about how to provide actionable feedback on SETs here. 

If you have feedback to provide beyond the SET questions, please consider reaching out to the instructor or the Department Chair directly. 

Most courses receive a SET survey.

For courses that run the length of the semester, the default open date is nine days prior to the last reading day and the default close date is the last reading day for the Fall and Spring terms.

If you've logged into Blue via the hyperlink in your invitation email, or through set.american.edu, and you don't see your course surveys in your account, there could be a variety of reasons.

First, SET surveys do not populate a student account until the survey is live. When you receive the invitation email, the survey is available to you in Blue. If you log in prior to the survey start date, no course information will be available.

Additionally, SET are not available for a variety of other reasons, such as low enrollment, defined as fewer than 6 registered students. Courses such as seminars, student teaching, and internships do not receive SET surveys.

Coming soon: SET survey logic to determine default dates and length of your SET survey(s).

 

 

Each SET survey takes approximately 5-10 minutes to complete. If necessary, you can save your responses and return to it any time for submission before the survey close date. The SUBMIT button must be clicked to finalize the survey. Saved survey responses will preserve choices but will not submit them for reporting.

SET SURVEY TIMING AND TROUBLESHOOTING

Your default SET survey closing date is two days after the last class instruction day or the last Reading Day, depending on the length and timing of your course. 

For example, a short course may have the last class instruction day of April 28, the SET survey will close April 30.

Full term courses follow the same schedule. These SET surveys close two days after the last class instruction day, coinciding with the final reading day published in the AU academic calendar. SET surveys are generally not available during finals week.

Click here to view how to find your open surveys and survey end dates in Canvas. 

Click here to calculate the open and close dates of your surveys using SET survey logic.

Your instructor, and only your instructor, has the option to change the timing of the survey including extending the survey or reopening a closed survey.

If your survey has expired, please reach out to your instructor. Instructors may reopen a survey at their discretion; however, timing of the request makes a difference. Instructors may not reopen a survey if final grades are submitted. The SET office cannot reopen a survey for students without the express permission of the instructor.

If you have feedback to share, and the SET survey is closed permanently, please consider providing the feedback directly to your instructor or the Department Chair.

 

While SET surveys are not visible in your Blue dashboard before the survey opens, they are available in your Blue dashboard 15 days after the survey closes. Please use the url set.american.edu to access your Blue dashboard. The SET survey in your account will have a completion indicator on the right hand side. Please take a screenshot of your survey entry to submit to your instructor.