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Chair and Dean FAQ and Resources

When will the online student feedback surveys be available for students to complete?

Student feedback surveys will be open to students during the last two weeks (not including the final exam period) of each fall and spring semester. Academic Affairs will inform students/faculty of the student feedback period for winter and summer terms.  

How will students access the student feedback surveys for their courses?

When the student feedback survey is available for students to complete, they will receive an email from the Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys system that will contain a table with their courses and links to the student feedback survey for each of the courses.  They will also receive prompts when they log in to Canvas, and reminder emails will be sent during the open window. 

Which courses will participate in online student feedback process?

To protect the anonymity of the students, only courses with enrollments of 7 or more will participate in the online student feedback on teaching (MOA #98, II. D.). Some non-traditional courses (e.g. Student Teaching, Department 099 Seminars) do not require participation in the online Student Feedback on Teaching process. For non-traditional courses (such as those denominated Lecture/Studio, Clinical, Internship, Practicum, Field Based Course, Nursing Clinical, Professional Practice Practicum, and Advising Seminar) for which the majority of the questions may be irrelevant or not applicable, instructors are not required to, but have the option of, administering the student feedback survey (MOA #98, II. C.). Instructors should provide instructions on whether a non-traditional course should be evaluated.

What does it look like for students when they complete the feedback survey?

The following video produced by Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys shows the student survey view for a hypothetical course. Note:  to access the video, you’ll need to be logged into Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys before clicking on the link.

Video: Student Survey View

How can I learn more about using Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys?

Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys has an extensive list of articles and videos in the Help Center, which you can access from within Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys by clicking on the question mark in the upper right corner of the opening page of Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys and then clicking on the “Help Center” that appears.

You can also send an email to studentfeedback@tcnj.edu with your questions, comments, or suggestions.

How do I access Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys?

There are three ways you can access the results of student feedback. In all cases, you will login with your TCNJ username and password.

1.  TCNJ Today Website (tcnj.edu)

Click on Student Feedback in the banner at the top of the page (where you can also access Google Apps, Canvas, PAWS, etc.).

2.  Via Canvas (if you are an instructor of a course)

Log into Canvas.

Select the course for which you wish to view the results of student feedback.

Click on “Instructor Course Evaluations” on the left side menu; you will be taken directly to Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys without needing to login to Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys.

3. Email from Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys

When the results of student feedback are available for you to review, you will receive an email from the Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys system that will contain a link to log into Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys.

You can learn more by accessing this pdf tutorial.

How can I track the response rates for courses in my department or school?

The following article produced by Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys explains how to track the response rates for your courses. Note:  to access the video from the link below, you’ll need to be logged into Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys before clicking on the link.

Article: Response Rate Tracker

Note:  In Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys, a “Project” is the student feedback for a specific term (e.g., Fall Undergraduate, Spring Graduate, Summer 2).

How can I view the results of student feedback for courses in my department or school?

When the student feedback results are available for you to view, you will receive an email from the Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys system that will contain a login link to Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys.  You can also access Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys through Canvas or through TCNJ Today (see above) at any time so that you can review the results for courses evaluated via Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys.

The following video and article produced by Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys shows how to access the results of student feedback on courses in your department of school. Note:  to access the article and video, you’ll need to be logged into Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys before clicking on the link.

Video: Project Results

Article: Project Results – Course Sections

Note:  In Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys, a “Project” is the student feedback for a specific term (e.g., Fall Undergraduate, Spring Graduate, Summer 2).

What about cross-listed courses?

In Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys, one of the courses is denoted the “parent” course, and the other cross-listed courses are denoted “children” courses.  Results for all of the cross-listed course are displayed as the results for the parent course; results are not displayed for the individual children courses (they are combined with the results from the parent course to produce the parent course results). 
When the cross-listed courses are from different departments, chairs and deans for both departments are given access to view the results of the parent course.  When reviewing the results of cross-listed courses, you may need to look in your list of courses for the cross-listed course, rather than the one taught by your department, if the course taught by the other department is the parent course. 
If the combined enrollment of the cross-listed courses is at least 7, then students in each of the cross-listed courses will be able to complete the survey, even if the enrollment in their cross-listed course is less than 7.

What kind of reports can I create with Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys?

Using the Report Builder function in Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys, you can explore a wide variety of comparisons both within and across multiple semesters and courses, including:

  • reports that show the results for only selected questions on the survey.
  • longitudinal reports for selected projects (semesters), hierarchy levels (departments/programs/schools), instructors and/or courses.
  • comparisons across courses, departments and instructors.
  • Reports that only display select Questions from the survey(s).
  • Reports based on specific answers to specific questions (e.g., you can view the survey results for all students who answered yes to a particular question)

The following video and article produced by Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys show how to build reports.  Note:  to access this article from the link below, you’ll need to be logged into Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys before clicking on the link.

Video: Report Builder  (report)

Article: Report Builder 2.0 (please note: there is another article called “Report Builder”, you should disregard that article)

Note:  In Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys, a “Project” is the student feedback for a specific term (e.g., Fall Undergraduate, Summer 2).

How can faculty share student feedback on teaching with committee members?

As noted in MOA # 98, faculty are allowed access to share their course evaluation data with relevant reappointment and promotions committee members. 

The following article produced by Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys shows how faculty can share the results of student feedback on courses they’ve taught. Note:  to access this article from the link below, you’ll need to be logged into Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys before clicking on the link.

Article: Report Builder – Report Sharing

Note:  In Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys, a “Project” is the student feedback for a specific term (e.g., Fall Undergraduate, Summer 2).

Additional Resources

Best Practices

Memorandum of Agreement #98 (MOA-98)

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