Watermark Course Evaluations for Administrators
An administrator in Watermark Course Evaluations is defined as anyone who has access to reports for a given group of courses. Administrators are typically department chairs, program directors, deans, and representatives from the Provost's Office.
The reports that administrators have access to only include student responses to objective questions, either likert scale or multiple choice question types. Open-ended student comments are only shared with the instructor of the course and are not available to administrators.
Administrators may choose to encourage their faculty to remind students of the value of the course evaluation process and the importance of a personalized message from the faculty to this effect, as this method of encouragement has been shown to increase quality and quantity of responses from students when they believe their faculty truly values their feedback on the course experience.
Tasks of Administrators
Managing Courses Prior to Evaluation Period
Early in each semester all of the courses offered will be added to the appropriate course evaluation projects, depending on the academic calendar in which they are offered. Administrators are responsible to view the list of courses under their oversight and ensure that any courses that are not appropriate to receive an end of course evaluation, such as internship or independent study courses, are removed from the system. You will receive a notification each semester when the system is ready for your review and the date in which this step must be completed. Please review the Managing Courses Tutorial or review the detailed instructions below.
Steps to Remove Courses From Evaluation List
- Log in to Blackboard and locate the Watermark Course Evaluations Module. Click the link labeled: “Click here to access your Administrative Watermark Course Evaluations dashboard.”
- On the Watermark Course Evaluations dashboard you will see a box labeled "Manage Courses." Only department chairs/program directors will see this box and this is where you can remove any courses that should not receive an evaluation.
- Click on one of the evaluation project titles, for example: Campus Course Evaluations – Summer 2015 7a.
- On the next page you will see the project title again. You must click "View" to access the courses within this project.
- Next you will see the list of the courses. Review all courses and check off any courses that should be removed. Once you have selected all the courses you would like to remove, click "Delete Selected Courses." This step will be auto-saved as you go.
- Please repeat steps 2-5 for all of the projects listed in which you have courses running.
Accessing Reports
Approximately two weeks after final grades are due for a given semester, the course evaluation results will be available to both instructors and administrators. An automated email will be sent when the results are available. You may click on the link in the email or access reports through the Watermark Course Evaluations module on the Blackboard homepage. Administrators will have two levels of access to reports, one as an instructor of their own courses and as an administrator for other courses that they oversee. In order to view both sets of reports, you will need to switch your view of Watermark Course Evaluations. Please watch the Accessing Reports for Administrators tutorial for the steps to view both your own instructor reports and administrator reports.