Watermark Course Evaluations

Beginning with the Fall 2025 semester, student course evaluations will be administered through Watermark Course Evaluations and Surveys. Watermark streamlines the process of capturing student feedback across the institution. Through a central system with automated, information-rich reporting, faculty and administrators will have the data they need to make timely, actionable decisions to improve teaching and learning--all within ISU Canvas. 

Watermark integrates with ISU Canvas and the Banner system to automatically import students and auto-refresh enrollment ensuring that all students have the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback. Automatic notifications and embedded survey experiences in ISU Canvas, paired with fully responsive design, make it simple for students to complete their surveys using any device. 

Administrators and faculty will have one-click access to real-time results. Reports can be configured to analyze data by criteria such as course sections and student demographics, compare results, and track trends over time with longitudinal reporting. Through Watermark, standardized processes and survey instruments can be easily created to ensure that data collection is consistent across the institution while allowing departments and instructors to tailor inputs to their needs.

Data security and privacy are core to Watermark’s systems and processes. They ensure that the system is scalable, reliable, accessible, and performs as expected during peak times and throughout the year with an AWS cloud-hosted solution.

When the evaluations open for responses, students will receive an automated email from Watermark notifying them that there are evaluations ready to complete with direct links to evaluations for each course they are enrolled in. In addition, when students log into Canvas, they will receive a pop-up reminder with direct links to each of their evaluations. Once a student has completed their assigned evaluations, the pop-up will no longer appear. The system tracks respondents and non-respondents and reminder messages are automatically sent a few days before the close of the evaluation period reminding them of the importance of providing feedback.

Faculty will receive an automated email letting them know which of their courses will be evaluated so that they can encourage their students to provide feedback. Once the evaluation period has ended and final grades have been posted, faculty will be able to directly access results via a link in their course or the link provided in an automated email. 

Department chairs and evaluation coordinators will access the results for their department through the Watermark dashboard which utilizes Duo authentication to give users access.

View the Watermark Orientation and Overview slides and video to learn about the challenges and benefits, how it works, and an introduction to Reports. The video is linked at the end of the slides.

The TigerTracks article, Awarding Points to Students for Completing a Course Evaluation provides instructions on how to utilize the Canvas Gradebook to award points for completing course evaluations.

Training on how to access Watermark and obtain reports will be provided to department chairs, course evaluation coordinators and faculty on three dates:

Tuesday, January 6, 2026 @ 10am in the Bengal Success Center and via Zoom
Wednesday, January 7, 2026 @ noon via Zoom
Thursday, January 8, 2026 @ 2pm via Zoom

If you would like to attend one of these training sessions, please indicate your preference by completing the Watermark Training Registration 2026 form. Once you have registered, a calendar invitation will be sent with a Zoom link.

The Course Evaluation Coordinator Request Form needs to be submitted by the department chair (or their designee) with the contact information of the individuals selected to be the evaluation coordinators. This form needs to be re-submitted if a new coordinator is assigned to a department.

Once the request is processed, coordinators will be given administrator access to the Watermark system in order to process reports and results.

Departments are not required to use the Watermark system.

You may also choose to use Qualtrics to collect, store, and analyze your survey results. Note: The ITRC does not provide support for Qualtrics. For more information please review About Qualtrics or contact the helpdesk at 282-HELP or help@isu.edu.

Please direct questions to Laura Ahola-Young, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.