• Course Structure & Curriculum
  • This module examines how instructional staff structure their courses for students’ learning and development. Items explore instructional staff inclusion of teaching clarity practices, community-based projects, reading and writing assignments, and active learning activities.
• Effective Educational Practice
  • This module examines challenging intellectual and creative work that is central to student learning and collegiate quality. Items explore how important it is to instructional staff that students’ coursework emphasizes challenging cognitive tasks, how much instructional staff encourage students to collaborate with peers, and how much opportunity instructional staff provide for students to interact across difference.
• Instructional Staff Workload
  • This module examines the workload of instructional staff via the time they spend on various teaching activities, their involvement in select high-impact practices, the nature and frequency of interactions with students, and the number of students and courses they taught during the current school year.
• Perceptions of the Student Experience
  • This module examines instructional staff values for student participation in high-impact practices, increasing the institutional emphasis on a variety of student supports as well as instructional staff perceptions of the quality of interactions with others at the institution and how much time they spend on a variety of academic and non-academic activities.
• Course Based Characteristics
  
  • This module examines the characteristics of one particular undergraduate course section that instructional staff are teaching or have taught during the current school year. FSSE staff  will add this item set to a FSSE administration if any of the chosen content modules contain course-based questions for no additional charge.

• Academic Advising
  • FSSE staff updated this module in 2025. These items examine advising practices that reflect NACADA core values, the extent to which advisors have assisted students in their academic progress, and instructional staff perceptions of the advising process.
• Career and Workforce Preparation
  • This module examines how much instructional staff encourage and advise students to participate in career and workforce development activities, whether course-related or not.
• Civic Engagement
  • This content module asks faculty to assess institutional emphasis on conflict resolution skills and examines how often instructional staff encourage students to engage with local or campus and state/national/global issues.
• Experiences with Writing
  • FSSE staff updated this module in 2025. These items explore how often instructional staff encourage and assign students to participate in various aspects of good writing assignments—interactivity, meaning-making, and clarity—including questions about the use of generative AI, the use of writing portfolios, and courses on writing.
• Inclusiveness and Engagement with Cultural Diversity
  • This module examines environments, processes, and activities that engage and validate cultural diversity and promote greater understanding of societal differences. Questions explore instructional staff use of inclusive teaching practices and intercultural learning; perceptions of institutional values and commitment regarding diversity; and opportunities for diversity-related programming and coursework.
• Teaching Professional Development
  • This module asks about aspects of professional development for teaching such as how important it is for instructional staff to receive assistance in various areas, and how often instructional staff participate in different professional development activities and practices.
• Transferable Skills
  • This module examines how much instructional staff encourage students to participate in activities that develop useful and transferable skills for the workplace and beyond.
• Scholarship of Teaching & Learning
  • This module asks about both institution-supported and instructional-staff-driven assessment efforts such as surveys and other tools (e.g., portfolios) that are used to gather information about student educational experiences and learning.

For institutions participating as part of registered consortia, these items sets are now included as part of the content module package. See consortia information on our FSSE Consortium Questions page.

• Processes + Policies: Balance
  • This module examines important aspects of instructional staff environments that relate to important outcomes such as persistence and motivation to do their best work. Considerations of balance, whether work-related or related to life outside of work, can be critical for the success of diverse instructional staff.
• Hiring, Tenure, + Promotion
  • This module examines policies and processes that focus on the evaluation, performance, and hiring of instructional staff. Items explore instructional staff perceptions of review processes (merit, tenure, promotion) and the hiring process including awareness of inappropriate discrimination in either of these processes.
• Professional Relationships + Networks
  • This module examines the people that shape what aspects of instructional staff work are valued and how professional relationships, mentors, and networks can encourage and support instructional staff. Collegial relationships and support networks are important for the success of diverse instructional staff.
• Climate for Diversity, Personal
  • This module examines instructional staff values for creating a positive climate for diversity within their courses. Items additionally explore instructional staff perceptions of their institution’s support for diversity personal experiences with offensive behavior, discrimination, isolation, or harassment.
• Climate for Diversity, Institutional
  • This module examines instructional staff perceptions of how committed institutional actors are to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Items explore perceptions of structural diversity and institutional commitment to creating a positive climate for diversity.
• Instructional Staff Wellbeing
  • This module examines aspects of wellbeing such as how much the work of instructional staff reflects their identity and core values as a person, how much mental health has interfered with their ability to succeed in their work, sources of stress, and whether they have a sense of belonging in their department and at their institution.