Watermark Planning & Self Study

On this page:

• About Watermark Planning & Self Study
• Information for Deans & Chairs
• Organization and Program Management
• Curriculum Management

About Watermark Planning & Self Study

Watermark Planning & Self Study is a tool for Wright State faculty and staff to assess academic and co-curricular programs, manage strategic plans, and create and submit accreditation self-studies. Benefits include:

• Allows assessment data to be tracked and reported consistently from year-to-year
• Creates an assessment plan that is easier to manage and connects with Pilot and other institutional systems
• Roll-up annual assessment plans to quintennial program reviews and accreditation self-studies
• Access better insights and reports to sustain progress in strengthening curriculum

Information for Deans & Chairs 

Deans, Department Chairs or designees should assign a lead to courses (Organization Management > [Department Name] > Curriculum) and programs (In Progress > [Current Year] Annual Program Assessment) within their academic units. 

Leads will have access to manage the outcomes and assessment plan for the course and/or program for which they are assigned. They will be the only individuals able to directly enter data, analyze the measures and outcomes, and enter next actions into the assessment report. 

Organization & Program Management

Mission Statement: Each College, Department, and Program should have a mission statement. This will become important with the Program Review done every five years.

Learning & Success Outcomes service different purposes in assessment.  

Learning Outcomes are designed to be focused on student learning and should match the program or course learning outcomes in Curriculum. When changing outcomes, consider the following: 

• Edit the outcome if fixing grammatical typos or updating the title from a number to descriptive words. 
• Revise the outcome if making a change to the content of an outcome. 
• Archive the outcome if the outcome is no longer in use and is being replaced with a new outcome. 
  • Delete is available if no assessment data is tied to the outcome 

Success Outcomes are designed for programs that must track retention rates, certification exam rate passage, graduation or completion rates, or similar non-learning outcomes for accreditation purposes.  

Mapping Outcomes: Programs, departments, and colleges can map their outcomes up through the hierarchy to the general education (undergraduate) and institutional learning outcomes (in development) of the university.

Curriculum Management

Curriculum Mapping: Courses affiliated with your academic program can and should be mapped to the appropriate outcome. You can choose to identify where content related to that outcome is introduced in the curriculum, where is it reinforced, and where it is mastered. When an outcome is mastered, there should be a summative assessment measurement included, to help assessment if the outcome was met. You may have formative assessments throughout the curriculum if you wish to do so.