The Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) project aims to improve the quality of feedback to Cornell instructors while addressing long-standing concerns of bias and efficacy in the use of student evaluations for purposes of course development and faculty evaluation. Key elements of the project include:

• a research-based core question set (plus additional questions at the college, department, and potentially instructor level) that seeks to provide more consistent, meaningful and actionable feedback to instructors;
• guidance to chairs and deans on appropriate and inappropriate use of SETs data for purposes of faculty teaching evaluation, together with recommendations for alternative and more holistic teaching assessment practices;
• a proposed new early grade release strategy and other recommendations to improve response rates;
• a new common software platform designed to support more efficient and effective administration and reporting of teaching evaluation results.

The SETs project is coordinated by the Office of the Vice-Provost for Academic Innovation, and overseen by all-college representation on the SETs Advisory Council. Colleges will begin transitioning to the new SETs system in Spring 2025, with a goal of full campus adoption by Fall 2026.

Background

The SETs project began in 2019 as a joint project of the Vice-Provosts for Academic Innovation and Undergraduate Education designed to address several challenges in existing student course evaluations, from well-documented problems of bias, to low student response rates, to questionable utility in providing meaningful feedback to faculty, chairs and deans looking to improve teaching in their departments and colleges. Students also reported confusion in moving between the 200+ evaluation systems in use across the university, and skepticism about whether their feedback had an impact on future teaching and course development.

A committee of leading education and survey researchers from across the university was struck to examine the research literature on teaching evaluation in higher education, including well-documented problems of bias; existing evaluation mechanisms in use at the university; and approaches and best practice at leading peer institutions. (Some of these findings are summarized in Guidance to Chairs and Deans below). The committee also noted significant challenges of administration, as legacy software and paper-based systems were becoming more costly and time-intensive to maintain. The committee developed a draft initial question set that was piloted in 14 classes in Fall 2019, revised, and subsequently adopted for general use in the College of Human Ecology in Spring 2022.

In spring 2023, the Office of the Provost in conjunction with CIT initiated a search for a new general-purpose student evaluation software platform that would be centrally funded and used across all colleges; following a competitive and extensive tendering process with all-college participation, Explorance Blue was selected as our campus-wide platform.

In summer 2023, a revised core question committee with wide college representation was struck to further refine the core question set.  The initial question set was substantially revised with extensive feedback from faculty, chairs, and deans; field tested in cognitive interviews with students for clarity, consistent interpretation and general feedback; and reviewed by the Educational Policies Committee of the Faculty Senate in Fall 2024.  The committee also conducted additional best practice research on assessing course and teaching effectiveness, and prepared “Student Feedback on Teaching: Guidance for Chairs and Deans” on the use of student evaluations and alternative assessment mechanisms in faculty review, promotion and tenure.

Core Questions

The current list of Core Questions was developed by two separate committees working from 2019-2024, and draws from the survey and educational research literature, peer comparison and best practice, and cross-college faculty input, testing and consultation.

Guidance to Chairs and Deans

The SETs core question committee has also provided additional guidance to chairs and deans on the use and misuse of SETs data in evaluation of teaching for purposes of faculty review, and recommendations for additional and more holistic methods of teaching evaluation.

Implementation Phases

The transition from legacy evaluations to the new SETs system begins with three colleges in Phase One: School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP), and the College of Human Ecology (CHE). The project team will work with representatives in remaining colleges and schools on appropriate semesters for their transition.

Contact Us

For questions and comments, contact the project team by completing a Teaching Evaluation Support Request form via the support portal.