Background 

What is the purpose of SFU’s Student Experience of Teaching and Courses (SETC) surveys? There is a lot of confusion about what the surveys can—and cannot—help us understand about student learning experiences. In Fall 2021 we are launching a project to:

• Re-examine the questions in the common core to ensure they are consistent with the purpose of understanding and improving the student learning experience
• Re-examine the utility of the cascading framework by engaging with Faculties and departments directly and, if we decide to keep the framework, ensure unit-level questions align with the purpose of the SETC program
• Engage explicitly with students about the purpose of the program to improve response rates and the tenor of responses, and consider other mechanisms to improve response rates
• Mount a communication/education campaign to help instructors, staff and students understand the purpose of the SETC system: to better understand—and to empower instructors, units and the university to improve—the student learning experience

Visit the SETC website to learn more about the current program.

Learn more about the SETC Improvement Project