Course Evaluations & Surveys

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Watermark Support

Overview

The article is a step-by-step guide for institution administrators on how to align Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) results with measures in Planning & Self-Study (P&SS).

Aligning Course Evaluations & Surveys Results in Planning & Self-Study

Institution administrators have the option to incorporate course evaluation and survey results directly from CES into measures in Planning & Self-Study (P&SS).

Requirements for the Integration

Before results can be pulled in from CES, ensure the following requirements are met:

  • Active Account: The user must be an administrator with an active account in both P&SS and CES.
  • Integration Activation: The integration must be turned on by a member of the Watermark Support Team.
  • Permissions: Only top-level administrators can pull in survey results from CES. This is because the integration provides access to data across all departments and organizations at the institution. Data can be pulled in from any main surveys and general surveys. It does not currently support target or custom questions.

To enable the integration, click Submit a Request at the top of this page to reach out to the support team.

Aligning Results from CES

The administrator can align results from CES to a new or existing measure.

  • Navigate to the measure where results will be added and click Align Results.

    A Results Collection area with an Align Results button highlighted and a Target field for entering criteria of success for the measure.

  • Choose I want to collect results myself and click Next.

    A panel showing options for selecting how results will be collected, with choices to collect results personally or to send a request to faculty, along with Cancel and Next buttons.

  • Select Watermark Course Evaluations & General Surveys and click Next.

    A selection panel showing a required Source field with options including Outcomes Assessment Projects, Student Learning & Licensure, and Watermark Course Evaluations & General Surveys, along with Back and Next buttons.

  • Select the project to pull results from. Once selected, the available question types and titles will appear (Single Selection, Matrix, Linked, Numeric).

  • Check the boxes next to the questions you want to include, then click Next.

    An Align Results page with fields for selecting a project and survey questions. The project dropdown is set to Course Evaluation Project, and the survey questions list includes options such as What is the name of your class?, What is your score in SAFe?, How would you rate your class syllabus?, and Communicated course content in ways you understood with back and next button.

  • Filter the CES data by course or a set of courses.

    A Filter by Course page with options to filter results by course or get results for all courses, showing required fields and the selected program and outcome.

  • Select the courses to include. Any number of courses can be selected within a survey.

    A Filter by Course page with a search field, a list of selectable courses, and options to filter results by course or get results for all courses. The list shows multiple ACCT courses with checkboxes and a Select All option.
    A confirmation message asking whether to get results for all courses and discard existing selections, with options to cancel or discard selections.
    An Add Measure page with fields for entering a measure title and viewing results collection details. The results collection section shows the source as Watermark Course Evaluations & General Surveys, the project as 2020 Course Evaluations, and the courses set to All Courses, with an aligned status indicator.

  • Define a met threshold for all the selected questions and click Align.

    An Align Results page with fields for specifying met thresholds for survey questions. The first question shows response options with numeric weighting and checkboxes to mark thresholds as met. The second question includes a score field for setting the threshold. The third question displays a prompt for rating the class syllabus and a Back and Align buttons.

  • A status update notification will be sent via email when the results are ready to be viewed.

    A Results page showing the evaluation of the measure activity with the project set to CES Asynchronous and an aligned status indicator. A message states that the results are on the way and will be available by email when ready, with an option to include result files and a summary of results.
    A confirmation message stating that refreshing results may take a while and that an email will be sent when the results are ready to view, with options to cancel or continue.

  • An email notification will be sent to the admin to let them know that results are ready.

    A notification page stating that measure results are ready, showing details including the plan title Assessment Plan 2022‑2023, the outcome Information Literacy, the measure CES Measure, and the survey project CES Asynchronous, with an option to view results.

  • If results are unable to be retrieved, an email notification will also display a message.

    A notification page stating that measure results were unable to be retrieved, showing details including the plan title 2020‑2021 Assessment Plan, the outcome Speaking Skills, the measure listed as Measure with error, and the survey project EDCH‑LDT Mid‑semester 16 Wk Project 10/5‑10/11, with an option to view results.

  • The filtered results from CES will be displayed on the result card in the measure. When no responses are available for the selected question, a "No results found for this question" message will be displayed.

    A Course Evaluation Results page for 2021 August showing the evaluation of the measure activity with the project set to Course Evaluation Project and an aligned status indicator. A chart displays 100% for the first question about class name, and the second question shows no results found. Additional questions are listed with their prompts, along with an option to refresh results and a save and close button.
    A Course Evaluation Results page for 2021 August showing Question 3 on rating the class syllabus, with a matrix‑type result bar indicating 20% and 80%. A link is provided to show results by matrix question, along with an option to include result files and a summary of results.

  • After clicking to Show Results of all Matrix Questions, a hierarchical display of graphs for matrix questions will be shown on the screen.

    A Course Evaluation Results page for 2021 August showing Question 3 on rating the class syllabus, with matrix‑type results expanded to display multiple matrix questions including Poor class, Fair class, and Average class. A save and close option is available.

Note: The integration currently supports data from main surveys and general surveys only. It does not support data from target or custom questions.

Viewing and Permissions

Once an administrator aligns survey questions to a measure, any user with access to that plan, such as department-level Leads, will be able to see the results.

  • Department-Level Leads: Leads can view the results for the specific questions that have been aligned to a measure. They will not automatically see all survey questions from the project.
  • Institutional-Level Measures: If survey questions are added to an institutional-level (ILO) measure, they can be viewed by all users who have access to that plan, including institution leads and administrators.

Contributors and lower-level administrators will be limited to viewing and refreshing results in measures.

A Course Evaluation Results page for 2021 August showing the evaluation of the measure activity with the project set to Course Evaluation Project and an aligned status indicator. The results section includes three questions, with the first showing available results and the second indicating no results found. Options to refresh results and save and close are available.

Viewing CES Data in Leader Insights

If an institution uses this integration, an additional widget will be available on the Leader Insights dashboard.

This widget provides:

  • Response Rates: View the response rates of course evaluation projects.
  • Response Rate Trends: Highlight response rate trends by referencing the average response rate across all previous course evaluation projects that use the same main survey.
  • Response Rate Difference: View the difference in response rate for a previous course evaluation that used the same main survey.
A Course Evaluations Response Rates page showing the selected academic year and course evaluation term, with Spring 2023 Course Evaluations marked as in progress. The page displays the overall response rate, remaining days in the evaluation period, and response rate trends compared to previous evaluations.
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