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Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) SET
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How To Evaluate

Your Feedback Counts

Students play an important role in providing feedback about their learning experiences in their courses. Sharing experiences with Instructors can help them understand what worked well in their courses and discover effective and meaningful opportunities to enrich student experiences and the learning environment1,2. Whether your feedback is supportive or constructive, Instructors need your feedback just as much as you might need theirs.

To foster the best possible working and learning environment, UC San Diego strives to maintain a climate of fairness, cooperation, and professionalism. Remember that your comments will be read by course instructors; while it is great to provide constructive feedback and specific suggestions for improvement, it’s not okay to leave responses that are intentionally hurtful, disrespectful, or abusive. The UC San Diego principles of community are vital to the success of the University and the well-being of its constituents. Please practice these basic principles as you provide your evaluations.

Where to start

Think back over the quarter. Think about your course, what you learned, and how you might share your course reflections with your instructor. Your feedback has the most impact when it is specific, actionable, and focused on course content and teaching methods. Here is a helpful table taken from our Students Helping Students guide. This guide was created by UC San Diego students and the Teaching and Learning Commons. 

SET Prompt

Highly Useful Feedback

Unhelpful Feedback

 Please describe any specific aspects of the course and/or teaching practices that your instructor used that…
  • Clear, specific, and respectful
  • Offers specific examples with actionable solutions
  • Focused on observable behaviors
  • Vague or unclear
  • Disrespectful
  • Driven by emotions

--Examples--
Created or interfered with a welcoming and supportive learning environment “The instructor started the class with short check-in questions that everyone can respond to by using a poll. It made me feel like I belong in this class and that the instructor cares for the students.”
  • “I love my instructor!”
  • “He was nice.”
  • “I don’t like my instructor’s hair-style.”
Were less helpful for your learning.  “I felt lost reading the paper for Writing Assignment 2 because I didn’t know what to focus on. I think having some guidance on reading or seeing an example of a student paper can help students from other majors like me.”
  • “I don’t understand why we had Assignment 2.”
  • “The paper for Assignment 2 was too long.”
Particularly helped you to learn the material and/or develop your own critical perspectives on the material. “The low-key weekly quizzes became my checkpoints on understanding what I didn’t know well about the course content before the exams. It was helpful that the instructor went over the common mistakes from the quizzes at the beginning of the class.”
  • “I liked having bonus questions on the exams.”
  • “The weekly quizzes were good.”

 

Submit Evaluations

On Monday of Week 9 each student will be notified that they can now submit their SET forms via the Evaluations site. The evaluation window will close for students at 8am on Saturday of Week 10 (the first day of finals).

Start Here

References:
  1. "Course Evaluations: Providing Helpful Feedback to Your Instructors.” University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT).  https://crlt.umich.edu/sites/default/files/resource_files/Course%20Evaluation%20Guidance.pdf
  2. “Course Evaluations: Student FAQ,” California State University San Marcos.   https://www.csusm.edu/course-evals/studentfaq.html