Author: Sandra Ranney

Watermark has introduced a new results home option in the “Results” drop-down menu in CES. It is easy to use, interactive and a centralized place for your reporting needs.

This new option gives instructors access to visual representations and information on each report, which will help them decide which report(s) they should run. There is also a “Project Spotlight” section where instructors can choose to view results for a specific semester’s project, course(s) and even by question on the “Main Course Evaluation.”

If CES course evaluations were administered to your fall 2024 courses, you can sign in to your Watermark CES dashboard through Blackboard or use the link in the email sent from WSU Evaluations to access your results and try out the new feature.

Additional information can be found on the CES website.

The Social Science Research Lab (SSRL) grades bubble sheet exams. Grading options include standard, weighted and up to three versions of an exam. Results include items the student missed, a raw score, a percent score and other statistics. Additionally, overall statistical information about the exam is available.

The students’ answers must be on a five-response scanner bubble form. The bubble sheets can be purchased at the Social Science Research Lab.

Simply bring your exams and a completed bubbled in answer key to the SSRL in 429 Lindquist Hall and fill out an Exam Grading Request. The staff will grade the exam and contact the instructor within four hours.

If you have used the services in the past, note that there have been some notable changes to the grading program. Feel free to ask office staff to show you the new reports.

If you have any questions, email Andrea Glessner, SSRL manager, at andrea.glessner@wichita.edu or Sandra Ranney, SSRL director, sandra.ranney@wichita.edu.

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.