You are here: American University Provost Institutional Research and Assessment SET Student Resources

Contact Us

oira@american.edu

Contact:
Robin Beads
Assistant Vice Provost, Institutional Research & Assessment

Leonard, Room 1st floor on a map

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

Back to top

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 a vital task at AU, providing faculty and university administration the student perspective about the academic experience at AU. SETs are the primary forum your instructor has to formally collect student feedback for this purpose.
Instructors:  Completing SET surveys is very important to your instructors. SET results have implications for tenure, promotions, and other decision-making. Most importantly, student feedback on instructionial 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 by students across the AU 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.

 

Student names or individual responses outside of comments, are not included in any report. Deidentified student comments are reported on the private instructor report, but may be provided to other university officials for planning and assessment purposes. Student comments are not reviewed by AU administration. 

Reports are available to Instructors only 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.

Second, if you have not received an invitation email and believe you should have, it is possible that the instructor changed the survey dates. Please reach out to your instructor to inquire about survey timing.   

Additionally, SETs may not be available for 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.

If neither of the above scenarios applies to your situation, please contact Student_SET@american.edu. 

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

Generally, when a SET survey opens depends on the number of days between the first class meeting day and the last class meeting day of the course section. The information below reflects the survey default windows. Individual faculty may change these parameters at their discretion. 

For short course sections (fewer than seven days between the first meeting day and the last meeting day), surveys open the first class meeting day and close two days after the last class meeting day. 

SETs for course sections scheduled at least seven days (except full-term course sections*) surveys open seven days prior to the last class meeting day and close two days after the last class meeting day. 

The official AU Academic calendar determines SET survey default dates for full-term course sections. SET surveys for full-term course sections open nine days prior the LAST scheduled study day of the current semester. By default, SET surveys are not available during finals week, unless changes are made by the professor. 

SET surveys are not generated for course sections with fewer than six enrollments.  

If your SET survey is not available according to this schedule, please contact your instructor to inquire about SET date changes. 

Instructions to find your open surveys and survey end dates in Canvas can be found here. 

*Full-term course sections are those that begin within +-5 days of the AU academic calendar "Classes begin" date AND end within +- 5 days of the "Classes end" date according to the AU official academic calendar. 

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 Blue Home before the survey opens, they are available in Blue Home 30 days after the survey closes.

Please use the url set.american.edu to access your Blue Home account.

The SET survey in your account will have a completion indicator. Please take a screenshot of your survey completion indicator to submit to your instructor.