How West Virginia Northern Community College simplified assessment with Watermark Planning & Self-Study
A more user-friendly, collaborative approach to assessment with Watermark Planning & Self-Study
Wendy Doolin, Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and Lyndsie Guzek, Faculty Assessment Coordinator at West Virginia Northern Community College share how their institution transformed assessment planning with Watermark Planning & Self-Study. By replacing a complex, hard-to-use system with a more intuitive platform, their team increased faculty engagement, simplified reporting, and created a more collaborative and efficient approach to completing assessment cycles.
Before switching to Watermark Planning & Self-Study, we were using another platform for our assessments and reports. Unfortunately, the system was not user‑friendly, and its interface created a significant barrier for faculty and staff.Because employees used the previous system only once or twice a year, they often forgot how to use it, which required retraining. In contrast, because Watermark is so well laid out and intuitive, our employees have a much easier time navigating and completing their tasks.
Onboarding for this platform was thorough and set us up for success from day one. Our rep has been absolutely amazing, her expertise and support have played a major role in our success. We are looking forward to continuing to expand our use of Watermark solutions to assist with completion of our program reviews and accreditation assurance reports.
We appreciate how easy Watermark is to use. Our faculty and staff have been genuinely impressed with the platform and consistently share that it is much easier for them to complete their assessments and reports. We also appreciate the simplicity of the reports generated. The reports are clean, easy to read, and make it much simpler to interpret assessment results. As a result, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of completed assessment plans and reports compared with our previous assessment cycle.
One of our favorite features and the biggest benefit of Planning & Self-Study is the Review tool. While our previous system allowed feedback, Watermark makes this process much easier to send reminders, complete, and review. We especially appreciate the ability to create customized program reviews as well as the option to build a structured feedback flow. This allows different areas to easily review and provide targeted feedback on reports, making the entire process more collaborative and efficient.
Assessment is a central part of our institutional culture, and Watermark makes it remarkably easy to complete our assessment cycles. It allows us to generate meaningful, data‑rich reports and creates opportunities for collaboration and thoughtful feedback, all of which support our ongoing commitment to continuous improvement.
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