In active control of structures, the parameters of controllers used application must be perfectly tuned. In that case, a good vibration reduction performance can be obtained without a stability problem. During the tuning process, the limit of control force and time delay of controller system must be considered for applicable design. In the study, the optimum parameters of Proportional-Derivative-Integral (PID) type controllers that are proportional gain (K), integral time (Ti) and derivative time (Td) were optimized by using teaching learning-based optimization (TLBO). TLBO is a metaheuristic algorithm imitating the teaching and learning phases of education in classroom. The optimization was done according to the responses of the structure under a directivity pulse of near fault ground motions. In the study, time delay was considered as 20 ms and the optimum parameters of PID controller for a single degree of freedom (SDOF) structural model was found for different control force limits. The performances and feasibility of the method were evaluated by using sets of near fault earthquake records.