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CTLA SET Question Bank

CTLA Question Bank for SETs

About Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs)

SETs are university-administered, anonymous questionnaires designed to capture student perceptions of the learning experience. They are administered electronically via the Blue platform (unless otherwise determined by an academic unit) and apply to all undergraduate and graduate credit-bearing courses. SETs are administered at the end of a course and are only one of multiple measures of teaching effectiveness. Their role is to reflect student voice, enhance teaching quality and ensure institutional accountability.

The CTLA supports SETs in several ways:

  • By serving as a consultant to working groups and instructional technology units.
  • By assisting colleges, programs, departments and faculty in selecting optional questions based on disciplinary and teaching-specific contexts.
  • By consulting with faculty teams and individual faculty on strategies for improving instruction based on student feedback.

The CTLA does not administer or collect data from SETs, and it is not involved in evaluation of faculty using SETs.

Required Questions: Ohio Department of Higher Education

The Advance Ohio Higher Education Act (Section 3345.451) requires public institutions in Ohio to establish a written system of faculty evaluations completed by students focusing on teaching effectiveness and student learning (i.e., student evaluations of teaching, SETs). Each state institution's SETs must include the minimum set of standard questions required by the chancellor of higher education. The following questions appear on all SETs:

Instructions: Please answer the following question using a scale from 1-10, where 1 indicates “not effective at all” and 10 indicates “extremely effective.” If not applicable or don’t know, please answer with “Not Applicable.”

  1. How effective are the teaching methods of this faculty member?

Instructions: Please answer the following two questions using the response options provided.

  1. Does the faculty member create a classroom atmosphere free of political, racial, gender, and religious bias? [Yes or No]
  2. Are students encouraged to discuss varying opinions and viewpoints in class? [Yes or No or Not Applicable]

OHIO AOHEA Work Group Guidelines

In summer 2025, the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) Guidelines were developed by the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act work group.

The guidelines introduce two tiers of SET instruments: the core SET for most course formats and the expanded SET for lectures, seminars, and discussions. Both include standardized items that the state requires, including questions on teaching effectiveness, classroom climate free of bias, and openness to diverse viewpoints. Academic units may supplement these with optional items from a central question bank.

While SETs provide valuable feedback for instructional improvement, the guidelines acknowledge their limitations. To mitigate these issues, SET results must be interpreted within the specific instructional context and should never be the sole measure of teaching performance.

The document outlines strict protocols to protect student anonymity and emphasizes the formative use of SET data for faculty development. SETs are released only after final grades are submitted and should be used alongside peer reviews, self-assessments, and other documentation of teaching effectiveness. 

Oversight of the SET process is shared among departments, colleges and central offices. 

Read the report

CTLA Question Bank

To support development of effective SETs, the CTLA has curated recommended SET questions that align with OHIO's Teaching Excellence criteria. This bank has been shared with the Office of Instructional Technology, which manages the Blue platform. The questions are also shared here to facilitate discussions colleges, programs and departments may be having related to SETs composition. 

About the Question Bank

The CTLA question bank has been under review since early fall 2024 when a working group of faculty and SET administrators supported by CTLA Associate Director for Assessment Wendy Adams examined current SET questions populating the Blue system. This included over 600 individual questions.
 
Duplicates were removed, and the questions were compared to those in other published question banks. The goal of the review was to support simplification of the SET administration process and promote the use of questions that are reliable and valid, as much as that is possible. The CTLA Question Bank comprises:
 
  • 5 questions related to the Teaching Excellence Criterion: Preparation
  • 5 questions related to the Teaching Excellence Criterion: Engagement
  • 5 questions related to the Teaching Excellence Criterion: Inclusion
  • 5 questions related to the Teaching Excellence Criterion: Subject Expertise
  • 5 questions related to the Teaching Excellence Criterion: Pedagogical Competence
  • 10 questions related to the Teaching Excellence Criterion: Outcomes
  • 4 questions related to the Teaching Excellence Criterion: Improvement
  • 4 questions related to the Teaching Excellence Criterion: Innovation
  • 6 TA specific questions
  • 5 team teaching specific questions
  • 7 clinical teaching specific questions
  • 7 internship specific questions
  • 11 lab specific questions
  • 7 recitation specific questions
  • 11 studio specific questions
  • 11 online specific questions
 
In addition, over 20 of these questions address experiential learning in a course.
 
CTLA will curate additional questions and/or replace questions in the recommended bank based on department recommendations and the same review criteria. This process is designed for refinement as opposed to expansion of the number of questions.
 
While this question bank is provided to assist in supplementing the ODHE required questions, CTLA recommends keeping the SETs as short as possible (between 10 and 15 questions maximum).
 
CTLA also recommends selecting questions with language and phrasing that is as student friendly as possible. 
 
Finally, the CTLA reminds those exploring information related to SETs to refer to the OHIO Faculty Handbook and the current status of the AOHEA working group report.
 
View the question bank