Author: Sandra Ranney

On Dec. 22, emails were sent from WSU Evaluations to instructors informing them of the CES course evaluation results for the fall 2023 semester. Instructors can find instructions on how they can retrieve their CES results, along with additional information, on the course evaluations webpage. Click on “section menu” for the various topics.

For questions, contact Sandy Ranney at sandra.ranney@wichita.edu.

Watermark’s Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) tool is Wichita State’s new course evaluation tool.

Today’s focus is on CES results:

• Results will only be available at the end of the completed semester. It does not matter when your course took place during the semester. Holding results until the end of the semester complies with KBOR policy and allows for accurate norming.
• Results will become available the Friday after grades are due.
• The electronic results can be found through the Instructor Dashboard under “Project Results.”
• There are restrictions on results. If the response rate is 0% or if the number of respondents is lower than five, then there will be no results.
• Results will include the mean, standard deviation and median for the course. It will also show these statistics by university and division benchmarks. This benchmark data will be from the same semester as the evaluation and will not include any other data.
• There is a dedicated CES website that includes additional information.

For questions, contact Sandy Ranney at evaluations@ces.wichita.edu.

Watermark’s Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) tool is Wichita State’s new course evaluation tool. Find more information over the coming weeks in WSU Today about CES.

Today’s focus is on response rate:

• A “Response Rate” widget will appear on the instructor’s dashboard when the semester’s project starts. However, data for a course may not appear until that course evaluation is available to the students.
• In the list below, there are some suggestions to potentially increase response rates and receive useful and constructive feedback.
  • Designate time in class for students to complete evaluations.
  • Add a blurb about course evaluations in the syllabus.
  • Let students know that their honest and constructive feedback is valued and tell them how their feedback with be used.
  • When evaluations open for the course, remind students that they are available.
  • Remind students that evaluations are completely anonymous and results are not available until after grades are turned in to the Registrar’s office.
  • It is best to complete the evaluations sooner in the evaluation period rather than later. Blackboard will be affected if the student has not taken some action regarding the evaluation towards the end of the period.
• There is a dedicated CES website that includes additional information.

For questions, contact Sandy Ranney at evaluations@ces.wichita.edu.

Watermark’s Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) tool is Wichita State’s new course evaluation tool. Find more information over the coming weeks in WSU Today about CES.

Today’s focus is on the student experience.

• Students will receive an email and notification on Blackboard when an evaluation is open.
• Students can access the evaluation through Blackboard and through links provided in an email sent during the CES collection window.
• When students login to the CES system, they will see a table containing evaluation information. This table will show which evaluations are completed with the date and time. It will also show upcoming evaluations with the dates they are set to open.
• Students will see regular pop-up notifications on Blackboard during the CES evaluation time window.
• There is a dedicated CES website that includes additional information.

For questions, contact Sandy Ranney at evaluations@ces.wichita.edu.

Watermark’s Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) tool is Wichita State’s new course evaluation tool. Find more information over the coming weeks in WSU Today about CES.

Today’s focus is on the basic timeline.

• The CES administrator programs the pre-determined dates for each process. The pre-determined schedule cannot be modified.
• The CES tasks are sent at midnight on the scheduled start date and ends at 11:59 p.m. on the scheduled end date.
• The “Manage Course” process for instructors: Instructors have 10 days from notification of the opt-out window to delete courses from CES.
• CES evaluations will be open for students for varying lengths of time, depending upon the length of the course term:
  • 1-week and 2-week courses: two days
  • 5-week to 16-week courses: 10 days
  • Summer 4-week to 11-week courses: seven days
• Current CES results will be available at the end of the semester. Results will continue to remain accessible afterwards.
  • The availability date will be the Friday after grades are due to Registrar.
• There is a dedicated CES website that includes additional information.

For questions, contact Sandy Ranney at evaluations@ces.wichita.edu.

Watermark’s Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) tool is Wichita State’s new course evaluation tool. Find more information over the coming weeks in WSU Today about CES.

Today’s focus is on the main course evaluation.

• The main course evaluation is a core set of questions that will be sent to all courses in which the instructor has not selected to “opt-out.”
• Instructors can find these questions in CES. While in “Manage Courses,” click on the semester’s project, and then click on “Preview” to view the questions. The questions will also be posted on the website sometime this semester.
• Some courses are not eligible for the main course evaluation. These are courses that are appointment-based, research, COOP, Intensive English and weekend-only courses.
• There is a dedicated CES website that includes additional information.

For questions, contact Sandy Ranney at evaluations@ces.wichita.edu.

Watermark’s Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) tool is Wichita State’s new course evaluation tool. Find more information over the coming weeks in WSU Today about CES.

Today’s focus is on how to use CES.

• While in Blackboard, instructors can access CES any time by choosing “Tools” from the main menu and selecting “CES Course Evaluations.” It can also be directly accessed via the links provided in emails sent to the instructor.
• The “Watermark Course Evaluation & Surveys” dashboard will appear.
• Widgets will appear on the dashboard. When a task is available for a course, it will display information. If not, it may state “No Project Found.”
• The “Manage Courses” widget will only appear when that option is open and available to instructors.
• There is a dedicated CES website that includes additional information.

For questions, contact Sandy Ranney at evaluations@ces.wichita.edu.

Watermark’s Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) tool is Wichita State’s new course evaluation tool. Find more information over the coming weeks in WSU Today about CES.

Today’s focus is on emails from CES.

• CES uses email communication to send out information regarding the evaluation process.
• Emails will come from WSU Evaluations, evaluations@ces.wichita.edu.
• Emails are sent according to a specific timeline. CES operates from the course’s part-of-term.  Meaning the course start and end dates will determine when emails are sent out.
• If instructors teach courses that are in different terms, they will receive duplicate emails. These emails provide information that pertains to that part-of-term.
• The emails will also inform instructors if they need to take any specific actions regarding their course(s) within CES.
• There is a dedicated CES website that includes additional information.

For questions, contact Sandy Ranney at evaluations@ces.wichita.edu.

Watermark’s Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) tool is Wichita State’s new course evaluation tool. Find more information over the coming weeks in WSU Today about CES.

Today’s focus is “What Is CES?”

• CES is a course evaluation platform from Watermark. The evaluation portion of the platform is called “Course Evaluations & Surveys” and at WSU, is referred to it as CES.
• CES has replaced SPTEs as the source for course evaluations.
• CES is easy to use and is integrated with Blackboard.
• CES results are electronic and will be available at the end of the semester.
• Using CES should increase response rates.
• There is a dedicated CES website that includes additional information.

For questions, contact Sandra Ranney, CES administrator, at evaluations@ces.wichita.edu.

Instructors who used Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) for the spring semester will have access to the results on Friday, May 19. There will be an email sent from “WSU Evaluations” with information on how to access the results.

Student Perception of Teaching Effectiveness (SPTE) results are tentatively set to be mailed to the departments on Thursday, May 25. Check with your department after this date regarding your SPTE results packet(s).

Additional information regarding both course evaluations can be found on their respective websites:

• Course Evaluations & Surveys
• Student Perception of Teaching Effectiveness