Overview
Importing final grades into System Administration unlocks Term Completion and D, F, or Withdrawal (DFW) metrics, laying the groundwork for institutional insights.
Term Success Metrics give institutional teams an at-a-glance read of health for any term, located on the Insights page under the Strategy tab. Enrollments appear from enrollment data alone; Term Completion and Average Course DFW Rate display once final grades are imported into System Administration.
What these metrics tell you
- Enrollments — the total distinct students enrolled for the term (commonly called headcount), counted once each regardless of course load — the institution’s primary measure of total term enrollment.
- Term Completion — measured across distinct student enrollments: of the students enrolled that term, how many finished — earning a final grade rather than withdrawing or leaving work incomplete. An early, term-by-term pulse on persistence, well before end-of-year reporting.
- Average Course DFW Rate — among course enrollments with a final outcome, the share that ended in a D, F, or withdrawal. It is counted per enrollment rather than per student, so a student in several courses is reflected in each — which makes it a course-level signal, pointing to the gateway courses and modalities where students struggle.
Read together they connect cause and effect: DFW shows where students struggle at the course level, while Term Completion shows the institution-level result. Comparing them year over year turns raw grade data into a signal for provosts or program reviews.
Step 1 — Gather and prepare final grades for a term
Build a grades.csv file with three specific columns matching the schema and formatting requirements below.
| section_id | user_id | final_grade |
|---|---|---|
| 2026_FALL_BIO_101_A | 987654321 | A |
| 2026_FALL_BIO_101_A | 876543210 | W |
| 2026_FALL_MAT_220_B | 765432109 | F |
Step 2 — Import final grades into System Admin
In System Administration, navigate to Courses & Sections, select Import Data, choose Import Grades, and upload the completed grades.csv file.
Step 3 — (Optional) Import a prior year to compare year over year
Import a grades.csv for the prior year using the same upload path. This action powers the 'Compare To' toggle, enabling metrics to display real-time year-over-year operational shifts.
How grades are counted today
A standard scale applies across institutions: A, B, and C count as passing; D and F count in the DFW group; W and I do not count as completing. Institution-specific configuration through the Grades & Scales tab in System Administration is on the near-term roadmap to accommodate custom grading conventions.
What’s next: grade data powers Watermark Currents
Importing grades builds the foundation for Watermark Currents, an upcoming conversational intelligence tool for Institutional Research & Effectiveness. Currents allows teams to query data using plain language to receive synthesized, cited answers. Every term of grades imported now enhances future insights.
To learn more about these capabilities, please read the Watermark Currents Webinar Registration Page for the upcoming event on August 6th.