Planning & Self-Study Release Notes for June 7, 2022

Overview

  • Curriculum Maps can now be shared with external stakeholders!
  • We've included a loading indicator for course details to keep the user informed about the progress!
  • We’ve made some enhancements to improve the usability of the Mission Statement field.

Enhancements to Watermark Planning & Self-Study

Assessment Planning

Ability to Share A Curriculum Map 

Curriculum Maps can now be shared with external stakeholders via a web link. This allows leads to share curriculum maps with Deans, Provosts, or other faculty to facilitate discussions on the extent to which the courses that make up a degree program support the intended outcomes students that choose that program. Links can be posted to websites for reference or used in presentations during assessment retreats. Prior to this feature being developed, leads and administrators could only view Curriculum Maps by logging into a Planning & Self-Study account and sharing their screens or taking a screenshot.  Leads and Administrators can generate the link by clicking on the share button. The share button can be found on the Curriculum Map card as well as within the curriculum map.

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The above picture shows the Curriculum Map card with two widgets and the share button.

In addition, new widgets have been added to the Curriculum Map card for quick access to information. The first widget tells the ratio of courses available to the ratio to which they are mapped, and the second widget provides the number of outcomes available in the Curriculum Map.

 

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Users may also access the share online option by clicking the Edit button on the Curriculum Map Card, which will bring up the Curriculum Map. The Share Online button will be located in the upper right corner.

 

When you click the share button, a modal window appears with an enable public share link toggle button.

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The above picture shows the share online modal window with toggle button.

 

When a Lead enabled the toggle button, then the link of the Read only Curriculum Map would appear and a copy link button can be used to copy the link and share it.

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The above picture shows the toggle button enabled with a link and a copy link button beside it.

 

When an external user opens the curriculum map link, the view is read-only.

 

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View of the read-only Curriculum Map 

 

On the read-only version, external users can drill into the alignment and see measure details.

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View of the Read only Curriculum Map with the associated measure details to the right.

 

If any changes are made to the Curriculum map after the link has been shared with the stakeholders, the Curriculum map is updated real time.

 

When the toggle button is deactivated, the Curriculum map view access is revoked from the users who had access to it through the shared link. If they try to access the link, they will get an unauthorized view message.

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Unauthorized view to view curriculum Map when the user tries to access the link while the toggle is off in the share online modal window.

 

Edit Alignment Loader

We've included a loading indicator when course details are loading to keep the user informed about the progress. This is especially pertinent when updating a big list of courses in alignment, as it may require an extensive amount of time to load.

 

When a user clicks on the edit alignment as shown in the picture below then a loader would appear to let the user know.

 

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View of plan details, on clicking the Edit alignment a loader would appear.

 

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View of the loader on clicking Edit alignment.

 

Mission Statement Update

Mission Statements are tied to reporting years, annual assessment plans, and program reviews. It has been found that if there is no current reporting year in the system, editing a Mission Statement causes some technical issues in the Program Review functionality. This is because program reviews are tied to reporting years. If a mission statement is deleted after it was tied to a reporting year, this may cause a server error in the program review area. As a result, we’ve made some enhancements to improve the usability of this field. 

 

If you have a saved mission statement, you cannot delete that mission statement completely. Instead, you can edit the mission statement and put in a placeholder, such as “Mission to be added.”

 

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View of the Validation when a mission Statement field is empty.

 

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View of the error message when there is no current reporting year for that institute.

 

Watermark Help Center

The Planning and Self-Study product will be pointing to the new Watermark Help Center page. This new Watermark help center page is a one-stop-shop for all the things related to the Planning and Self-Study solution.

 

We have made improvements to our Help Center page so that it’s easier and quicker to find answers and locate features. The search functionality has been updated to include filters to help narrow results making it easier for users to locate what they are looking for.

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The new Watermark Help Center also has full chat support to utilize if a user can’t find the answers they are looking for within the Help Center. The chat support will help users skip the phone call queue and can get in touch with an online agent in real time.

 

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If a user needs a greater level of help or special attention with an issue or query, they will then be able to contact Watermark’s support team with a form where they can explain the details of their query. The web form submission will route automatically to an expert on that product so that the users get a reply more quickly. 

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Users will be able to switch between multiple Watermark products by using the Categories navigator. With the absence of role-based content in the Watermark Help Center, both the Administrator and Contributor will have the same view upon entry to the Help Center page.

 

Enhancements to Leader Insights

 

Based on your feedback, we have continued to enhance the usability of drilldowns while we work on some exciting new insights planned for release next month. 

 

As a reminder, institution-level leads can access this area by selecting “Enter Institution” in the My Leadership area on their Planning & Self-Study home page, and then clicking the “View Insights” button. Administrators can access this by clicking on the top Institution profile link within Organization Management. 

 

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Over time you can expect Leader Insights to grow in depth and breadth, and to expand to include insights from other Watermark products. As a Watermark Labs feature, you’ll also see us refine the user experience and features in this area rapidly, so please don’t be alarmed if things evolve or look a little different when you next log in.

 

Mission & Outcomes Definition Widget - an Improved Program Drilldown Experience 

The drilldown for the Mission & Outcomes Definition widget has been improved to filter out the programs based on the status. Please note that this only applies to programs in the Mission & Outcomes Definition widget. Similar improvements for organizations and all drilldowns are planned for the next few releases.

 

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Watermark Labs

As a reminder, the Watermark Labs designation is for functionality made available to everyone while we continue to improve upon it. It allows you to take advantage of these features today, provide feedback, with the asterisk that there may be some areas for improvement as we continue to develop the experience. The Watermark Labs status will only be applied for a limited time while we continue to actively update the work.

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