Watermark Faculty Success

Watermark Faculty Success (WFS) is our online faculty activity reporting system that allows faculty members to collect and organize evidence of their professional achievements in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service to university and community. In addition, faculty evaluation reports, or milestones, are submitted and tracked only through the Workflow platform in WFS, so it is vital that faculty members with evaluation events and members of evaluation committees understand how to use the platform.

The Office of the Provost collaborates with APSCUF and the various review committees on the process for submitting and reviewing reports for promotion, tenure, probationary/temporary, sabbatical, and fifth-year reviews. If you have questions not answered here, please contact Mary Hennessey at 724.738.2171 or email at mary.hennessey@sru.edu

This FAQ document has quick-view answers to supplement the information below.

Weekly drop-in Zoom sessions about WFS are held on Tuesdays at 9am at https://sru.zoom.us/j/99239594599.

Accessing WFS on and off-Campus and troubleshooting

Because WFS is a web-based application, it can be accessed by faculty members both on and off-campus. To log into Watermark Faculty Success, go to the Microsoft Office webpage:

Launch your Internet browser using the most recent versions of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Keep in mind that using IE, Safari or other browsers sometimes make reports fail.
Navigate to https://www.office.com, which will open Microsoft Office 365.
Sign in using your SRU username and password.
Navigate to All Apps by clicking on the app checkerboard icon in the upper left. There is also a “search all of your apps” feature which may make the app easier to find.
Click on Watermark_Faculty_Success. There is no additional login required.
Click here for a guide to getting started with WFS.

Trouble accessing Watermark?

Sometimes when you try to access Watermark, you will get an error message. A common message is “This page cannot be displayed. We have logged this error and will investigate the issue.” The problem is usually related to residual cookies interfering with the single sign-in process. Try the fixes below.

Close extra tabs may have open. If you have multiple instances of Watermark open, close them. It is good practice to use the logout button rather than simply closing the webpage.
Use another browser. WFS works best with Chrome or Firefox and will be glitchy with Safari. If you are using Chrome and can’t log in, try switching to Firefox or vice versa.
Clear your cache which should break access to expired instances of WFS.
Try an incognito window in Chrome or a private browsing window in Firefox. You can search the browser you are using for instructions.

This document from Watermark has additional troubleshooting suggestions.

If you continue to have problems, contact Mary Hennessey in the Office of the Provost rather than WFS or SRU IATS. Contacting WFS or SRU IATS will delay a resolution since they will forward your email to me.

Managing Activities

WFS provides faculty members with a dedicated platform for storing their professional accomplishments. Users can populate the following information categories. You’ll also find areas where you can insert narrative statements and other commentary to help reviewers navigate and understand your submission.

General Information (e.g. Education, Professional Experiences, Licensures)
Teaching/Reassigned Workload and Fulfillment of Professional Responsibilities
Continuing Scholarly Growth and Professional Development
Service

Watermark has a series of articles about WFS at https://support.watermarkinsights.com/hc/en-us/articles/5193405933595. There is also a link to this page at the top of the Activities tab on the platform. The language is not specific to Slippery Rock but provides some terrific background about platform organization. There is also a help icon in the upper right that provides links to general platform information.

To manage your professional activities in the WFS platform:

In the dark green navigation bar, click on the "Activities" tab. You will see other utility tabs, most notably the Workflow one, but you don’t need those yet.
Under the main categories (e.g. General Information), click on the link for the screen where you want to add information.
Within each module, the first screen is the Summary Screen. You will see either fillable boxes (such as in the personal information area) or you will need to add a display line by clicking on the "Add New” button in the left middle.
Depending on the type of data field presented, enter in the details of your achievement.

Here is a list of the types of data fields you might encounter. Once you have entered all of the desired information, click the "Save" or "Save + Add Another" button in the top right corner. Click on the "Activities" link in the left navigation panel to return to the main page.

Dropdown: pre-populated list of items to choose from (e.g. date)
Textbox: open text areas where you can type custom content
Choose File: upload supporting documents. You should upload documents as PDFs rather than as Word documents. Doing so protects the document and makes it easier for reviewers to open and close it within the platform.
Web Address: add links to external content (e.g. YouTube video)

Running Custom and University Reports

Not only does WFS provide faculty members with an online platform repository for professional activities, it allows for the creation of university-wide reports and custom, faculty-developed reports. Examples of each are:

University-wide reports

Probationary performanee reviews
Tenure applications
Promotion portfolios
Sabbatical applications
Fifth year reviews

Custom faculty reports:

Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Abbreviated CVs for grants
Publications
Awards and Honors
Professional Profile (e.g. professional webpage)

The steps below will allow you to run either a university-wide or a custom report in WFS. It’s a good practice to run university-wide reports early so you can see what your material looks like in the report, which will help you plan for any changes.

On the top navigation bar, click on the "Reports" link
From the report list, select the report you would like to run
Select a date range for your report (i.e. Start Date and End Date). Only documents with dates within your range will appear in the report. For example, if you choose dates from 9/1/2021 to 9/1/2022, a document dated 8.1.2021 will not appear. This parameter can be the cause of missing items in a report.
The default file format for reports is PDF.
Click the "Run Report" button in the top right corner.
Navigate to where your Internet browser saves downloads.
Click on your report to view it.

Using Workflow to Submit Faculty Evaluations

Slippery Rock University uses the WFS Workflow tool to facilitate distribution, access, and review of WFS reports for milestone evaluations. Instructions for using Workflow can be found in the linked documents below:

Click here for Workflow instructions for faculty under review.

Click here for Department Chair instructions.

Advice for Creating Your Evaluation

Access WFS early and look around so you know what to expect well before your due date.
Use PDF format for documents. Your work will be more protected that it would be with a Word document, and it’s easier for the reviewers to open and close a PDF in the software.
Add evidence to the WFS Activities tab frequently (for example, once a month) so you are not starting from scratch when you have a due date approaching.
Understand SRU’s local policies and procedures for your milestone. The P&P align with the CBA and provide additional detail.
Arrange for classroom observations and student surveys—your department chairperson can help.
Narrative: Each milestone requires a narrative. Intentionally thinking about your narrative can help you frame your activities—what do you want to be able to say? What do you have to do to get there?
There are no space limits with WFS, so you can submit as much information as you choose. Be aware that reviewers want to read what is important and are often reviewing many reports. Approach your review critically and consider using the best evidence, not necessarily all evidence.
If you'd like support in developing content in your report, the following may be helpful:
- APSCUF Faculty Mentoring Committee
- Department Chairperson
- Faculty colleagues from around campus

Faculty workload report and additional resources

Below are additional resources designed to provide tips and tricks for using WFS. As we continue to use the platform and new efficiencies are identified, new resources will be added to this list.

Accessing Your Faculty Workload Report: The WFS Application Documents for Promotion, Tenure and Probationary Review screen asks you to upload your Record of Course Assignment. Note that you must be on campus or connected to the campus VPN to access Cognos.

Log in to the MySRU Portal
Choose the Cognos link (you must be on campus or using VPN to access Cognos)
Log in with your SRU credentials (SSO)
Click on the Team Reports link in the left column
Choose #2 Academic Reports
Choose #4 Faculty Reports
Select Current Academic Year Faculty Workload
Select the desired academic period(s)
Enter your Banner ID (AO number) in Instructor_ID
Click Finish at the bottom of the screen

This will generate and download an Excel spreadsheet with your workload. You can then create a PDF to add to WFS.

Adding yourself as a second author: When adding a publication or presentation to WFS, by default you will be set as the primary author/presenter. To change your role to second author, go to the Edit Publications page and click on “add row” under the first author block. The added row will be for a second author. Repeat for third or subsequent authors.

Using Microsoft Outlook to save emails in PDF format so emails can be added to your repository.

Open the email

Go to File > Save As.
Browse to the location where you would like to save the PDF.
Change the Save as type option to PDF (*.pdf).
Alternately, click on “print” and chose “save to PDF” as the destination.

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Watermark Faculty Success

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